Prodigal Daughters
{{short description|1923 film by Sam Wood}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Prodigal Daughters
| image = Prodigal Daughters lobby card.jpg
| caption = Lobby card
| director = Sam Wood
| producer = Adolph Zukor
Jesse Lasky
| writer = Monte M. Katterjohn
| based_on = {{based on|Prodigal Daughters|Joseph Hocking}}
| starring = Gloria Swanson
| music =
| cinematography = Alfred Gilks
| editing =
| distributor = Paramount Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1923|04|15}}
| runtime = 60 minutes
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
}}
Prodigal Daughters is a 1923 American silent societal drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film stars Gloria Swanson and was directed by Sam Wood. It is based on a novel of the same name by Joseph Hocking.{{cite book|last1=Canham|first1=Kingsley|last2=Thomas|first2=Tony|title=The Hollywood Professionals: Henry King, Lewis Milestone, and Sam Wood|year=1974|publisher=Tantivy Press|isbn=0-498-01394-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/henryking00dent/page/176 176]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/henryking00dent/page/176}}[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/P/ProdigalDaughters1923.html Progressive Silent Film List: Prodigal Daughters] at silentera.com
Plot
As described in a film magazine review,{{cite journal |title=Tried and Proved Pictures: Prodigal Daughters |journal=Exhibitors Trade Review |volume=15 |issue=9 |page=36 |publisher=Exhibitors Review Publishing Corporation |date=19 January 1924 |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibit00newy/page/n565/mode/1up |accessdate=5 July 2022}} {{Source-attribution}} Swifty Forbes becomes a flapper when her father J.D. Forbes becomes rich during the War. She lives a life of unrestrained pleasure and is loved by Roger Corbin, an aviator, and Stanley Garside, a gambler. Her sister Marjory follows the same trail and, when their father protests, they leave home to lead their own lives in Greenwich Village. Forbes, the father, in despair leaves the business in the hands of the young Corbin. Swifty loses all her money in Garside's card room and plays the cards for the cancelation of her debt against her marriage to Garside. She loses and must marry Garside within sixty days. While in the cabin of a new locomotive produced at her father's works, the thing starts and kills Garside, who was in an automobile. She ends up rescued by Corbin, who goes after her in an airplane and the two marry.
Cast
{{Cast listing|
- Gloria Swanson as Elinor "Swifty" Forbes
- Ralph Graves as Roger Corbin
- Vera Reynolds as Marjory Forbes
- Theodore Roberts as J.D. Forbes
- Louise Dresser as Mrs. Forbes
- Charles Clary as Stanley Garside
- Robert Agnew as Lester Hodge
- Maude Wayne as Connie
- J. Jiquel Lanoe as Juda Botanya
- Eric Mayne as Dr. Marco Strong
- Antonio Corsi as Undetermined role
- Mervyn LeRoy as Newsboy (uncredited)
}}
Production
Some portions of this film were shot in Swanson's own palatial Hollywood mansion.{{cite book|last=Swanson|first=Gloria|title=Swanson On Swanson|year=1981|publisher=Pocket Books|isbn=0-671-43354-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_0671433547/page/190 190]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0671433547/page/190}} A young and then unknown Mervyn LeRoy appears unbilled as a newsboy. He later directed Swanson in her early talkie Tonight or Never.{{cite book|last=Sandburg|first=Carl |editor=Bernstein, Arnie |others=Ebert, Roger|title="The Movies Are": Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928|year=2000|publisher=Lake Claremont Press|isbn=1-893-12105-4|page=166}}
Preservation
With no prints of Prodigal Daughters located in any film archives,[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.8457/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Prodigal Daughters] it is a lost film.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Prodigal Daughters}}
- {{IMDb title|0014379}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20141027202858/https://silenthollywood.com/prodigaldaughters1923.html Lobby card and still] at silenthollywood.com
{{Sam Wood}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prodigal Daughters}}
Category:Silent American drama films
Category:American silent feature films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:Famous Players-Lasky films
Category:Films based on British novels
Category:Films directed by Sam Wood
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Lost American drama films
Category:1920s English-language films
Category:English-language drama films
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