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Poor Relations
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| Poor Relations | |
|---|---|
 Contemporary advertisement | |
| Directed by | King Vidor |
| Written by | King Vidor |
| Starring | Florence Vidor |
| Cinematography | Ira H. Morgan |
| Distributed by | Robertson-Cole |
Release date |
|
Running time | 50 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent with English intertitles |
Poor Relations is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor.[1] Produced by the Brentwood Corporation, the film starred Vidor’s wife Florence Vidor and featured comedienne ZaSu Pitts.[2]
The picture is the final of four Christian Science precept films that represent a brief phase in Vidor’s output championing the superiority of self-healing through moral strength and supplemented by the benefits of rural living.[3]
Plot
[edit]Country girl Dorothy Perkins succeeds as an architect in the city, but then is scorned by her old-money in-laws.[4]
Cast
[edit]- Florence Vidor as Dorothy Perkins
- Lillian Leighton as Ma Perkins
- William De Vaull as Pa Perkins (as William Du Vaull)
- Roscoe Karns as Henry
- ZaSu Pitts as Daisy Perkins
- Charles Meredith as Monty Rhodes
Reception
[edit]The reviews were "poor". Exhibitors Trade Review observed that "the slender, fragile story has just about all it can do to make its way through the new-mown hay atmosphere."[5]
Theme
[edit]Poor Relations provides an early example of Vidor’s “feminist” presentation of professional and independent women, emphasizing reciprocal exchanges between the sexes.[6]
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ "Progressive Silent Film List: Poor Relations". Silent Era. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
- ^ Baxter 1976 p. 9
- ^ (Gustafssson 2016: “The film “advocated views associated with Christian Science (not to be confused with Scientology, a then relatively new religious movement that came about towards the end of the 19th century and to which Vidor claimed allegiance.”
Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 26
Baxter 1976 p. 9 - ^ Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337
- ^ Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337: ETR 25 October 1919.
- ^ Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 15: Vidor a “natural feminist” in that his female protagonists “drive men crazy, or inspire them, and do what they want, without becoming superior beings.” and the “reciprocity [between men and women] constitute its mainspring.”
Baxter 1976 p. 14: Baxter identifies The Real Adventure and Woman, Wake Up, both 1922, as early feminist cinema by Vidor.
References
[edit]- Baxter, John. 1976. King Vidor. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number 75-23544.
- Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. King Vidor, American. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-05798-8
- Gustafsson, Fredrik. 2016. King Vidor, An American Romantic La furia umana. LFU/28 Winter 2016. http://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/61-archive/lfu-28/548-fredrik-gustafsson-king-vidor-an-american-romantic Retrieved 4 June 2020.