Dancing Mothers
{{short description|1926 film by Herbert Brenon}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{infobox film
| name = Dancing Mothers
| image = Dancing Mothers lobby card 2.jpg
| caption = Lobby card
| director = Herbert Brenon
| producer = Adolph Zukor
Jesse Lasky
| writer = Forrest Halsey (scenario)
| based_on = {{based on|Dancing Mothers (play)|Edgar Selwyn
and Edmund Goulding}}
| starring = Alice Joyce
Conway Tearle
Clara Bow
| music =
| cinematography = J. Roy Hunt
| editing =
| studio = Paramount Pictures
| distributor = Paramount Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1926|3|1}}
| runtime = 65 minutes (8 reels)
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
}}
File:Dancing Mothers lobby card.jpg
Dancing Mothers is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon, and stars Alice Joyce, Conway Tearle, and making her debut appearance for a Paramount film, Clara Bow. The film was released to the general public on March 1, 1926 by Paramount Pictures.[https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/D/DancingMothers1926.html Progressive Silent Film List: Dancing Mothers] at silentera.com The film tells the story of a pretty mother, who was almost cheated out of life by a heartless husband and a thoughtless daughter.La Crosse Tribune and Leader, March 24, 1926
Plot
As described in a film magazine review,{{Citation |title=New Pictures: Dancing Mothers |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=23 |issue=13 |pages=70 |date=19 December 1925 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=Chicago, Illinois |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald23unse/page/1469/mode/1up |access-date=10 December 2022}} {{Source-attribution}} a wealthy woman, whose daughter is carrying on a flirtation with a notorious man, steps between them, but finds that she herself is fascinated by the man. There follows a period of stress for both the older woman and her daughter, which ends with the daughter altering her mode of living and the mother deciding to leave her philandering husband and daughter and travel to Europe to forget.
Cast
- Alice Joyce as Ethel "Buddy" Westcourt (played by Mary Young in play)
- Norman Trevor as Hugh Westcourt (played by Henry Stephenson in play)
- Clara Bow as Catherine "Kittens" Westcourt (played by Helen Hayes in play)
- Conway Tearle as Gerald "Jerry" Naughton (played by John Halliday in play)
- Eleanor Lawson as Irma (played also by Lawson in play; under the name Elsie Lawson)
- Dorothy Cumming as Mrs. Mazzarene
- Donald Keith as Kenneth Cobb
- Leila Hyams as Birdey Courtney
- Spencer Charters as Butter and Egg Man
Production
Dancing Mothers was adapted from a successful Broadway stage play by Edgar Selwyn and Edmund Goulding, and Paramount reportedly bought the rights for $45,000. On Broadway the principal parts had been played by Helen Hayes as the daughter, John Halliday as the father, and Mary Young as the mother. Shooting began at Paramount's Astoria Studio in November 1925, after actress Betty Bronson, the star of Peter Pan (1924), was cast for the role of Katherine "Kittens" Westcourt by the studio, but was rejected after director Herbert Brennon reported to studio executives that "when she tried to be sexy, she looked like a little girl who wanted to go to the bathroom." After production ended in December 1925, Brennon reported to Paramount's top officials that Clara was not only very talented as an actress, but that she took direction very well.
Reception
Reviews of the film tended to be positive:
- "A splendid picture containing mother appeal, flapper appeal and well balanced with comedy and a climax that's different, since 'they don't live happy ever after'".Bruce Fowler, movie theater manager, to The Reel Journal, March 20, 1926.
- "...it is an effective drama, well acted and Clara Bow is a real little modern."The Emporia Gazette, April 13, 1926.
- "It is a picture that strikes home to the adult mind and is a tremendous indictment to every age."Lowell Sun, March 27, 1926.
Preservation
The film survives in the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum film vault and in private film collections (all of them are 16mm prints).
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Dancing Mothers}}
- {{IMDb title|0016762}}
- [http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YNjCqtBUL.jpg Lobby poster]
{{Herbert Brenon}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dancing Mothers}}
Category:1920s English-language films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:American films based on plays
Category:American silent feature films
Category:Films directed by Herbert Brenon
Category:Paramount Pictures films