Jackie Coogan in Oliver Twist
Frank Lloyd II: CAVALCADE, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
In your book, you discuss a number of early Frank Lloyd efforts, including many rarities from the 1910s. I'm assuming you got to watch many of those films. The questions are: Are there many extant Frank Lloyd silents? How do they compare with the work of other major silent filmmakers who tackled melodramas of one form or another, say, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, or Rex Ingram?
Some of Lloyd's Universal one- and two-reelers survive at various archives. They are not "masterpieces," but they are on a par with films from other secondary directors of the period. In other words, they are not comparable to those directed by D.W. Griffith, but are as good as those directed by Allan Dwan. One of the earliest Lloyd features to survive is Madame La Presidente, starring Anna Held. I think it is a very good film, but I suspect that is largely due to its star, who is quite bewitching with the most incredible of eyes.
Other Lloyd silent films that have survived and are available on video are A Tale of Two Cities, A Tale of Two Worlds and Oliver Twist. George Eastman House has preserved Lloyd's version of Madame X. UCLA has preserved The Sea Hawk, The Divine Lady and the part-talkie Weary River. The Library of Congress has preserved Children of Divorce.
Lloyd's films are very different to those of Griffith or DeMille. Watching The Sea Hawk, I am reminded of Rex Ingram in that Lloyd loves to create a tableau, which is often short of action, and then move on to another tableau — again beautifully staged but somehow lacking in vitality.
Frank Lloyd's This Woman Is Mine
During the talkie era, how would you compare Frank Lloyd to someone like William Wyler or John Ford, both of whom also directed a fair share of melodramas?
Let's be sensible here. Much as I like to promote Frank Lloyd, I do not believe his sound films are, on the whole, comparable to those of William Wyler or John Ford.
Apart from two minor efforts in the 1950s, in the mid-'40s Frank Lloyd stopped directing movies. Why?
Frank Lloyd gave up directing in the mid 1940s, because he wanted to retire with his longtime wife, Alma. They had been married 32 years. It was time to relax. The couple bought a new home in the Carmel Valley [in Northern California], and Lloyd planned to work as a rancher. Unfortunately, Alma died in 1952, and that is why Lloyd decided to return to films. He made the two productions at Republic, then remarried, and retired again — but this time for good.