At 8pm on Thursday, June 5, the Echo Park Film Center will screen the rare silent melodrama The Untameable, billed as "The Most Shocking Film of 1923!"
Long before The Three Faces of Eve, The Untameable tackled the then sensational issue of split personality disorder. Directed by Herbert Blaché and adapted by Hugh Hoffman from Gelett Burgess' novel, the film stars Gladys Walton (photo) in the dual role of Joy and her sadistic alter-ego Edna. Also in the cast: Malcolm McGregor, John St. Polis, and Etta Lee.
As per the press release, "the dual role of Joy/Edna was Gladys Walton's most challenging up to that time … Edna is a whip-toting brute who dresses in leopard skins and flogs the Oriental maid with whom she lives in a relationship with strong lesbian elements. Miss Walton portrays this bizarre sadist in a manner shocking to even the most brazen flapper of 1923 … The Untameable is an astonishing film, and it is safe to say (at the least) that you have never seen anything else like it!"
Collector Tom Barnes will be present at the screening, which will also feature comedy shorts "from the unjustly forgotten Al Christie studios."
The Echo Park Film Center is located at 1200 N. Alvarado Street (@ Sunset Blvd) in Los Angeles. Phone: 213-484-8846. E-mail: echoparkfilmcenter@hotmail.com.
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