Thursday, March 29, 2018

A Society Sensation (1918)

A Society Sensation has a rather familiar story: poor girl meets rich boy and wins his heart, everything goes a bit wrong but it all ends up happy ever afters. It is done well though, and this short comedy has so much charm.

It stars Carmel Myers and Rudolph Valentino as the couple though ZaSu Pitts often steals the show with her comedy turns and expressions (Myers also does very well on that score).

The original film was fifty minutes long but is now lost, a heavily edited twenty four minute version survives. It was edited in 1924 to put much more emphasis on Valentino who had become a huge star since the original release (which had Myers as the original main star). The pruning is a little crude at times and the film chops about a bit but the essence of a fine film remains.