I saw a beautiful print of 'A Dream or Two Ago' at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, in October 2006; the print was restored in Holland in 2004, with Dutch intertitles. As is often the case in foreign prints of silent films, several of the characters were renamed: the lead role 'Millicent Hawthorne' is here named 'Mary' ... probably in honour of the actress playing the role.
Mary Miles Minter is one of those tragic figures (others being Roscoe Arbuckle, Wallace Reid, William Desmond Taylor and -- arguably -- Louise Brooks) whose career can never be merely regarded in its own right, as it's so thoroughly overshadowed by a scandal. Minter was the protegee and lover of Taylor at the time of his murder and the ensuing scandal; she was also a leading suspect in the crime, which remains unsolved. I believe that the explanation in the excellent book 'A Cast of Killers' is the nearest we'll ever get to the truth in the Taylor case. Following Taylor's murder, Minter's promising career ended quickly: she was washed-up in silents even before the arrival of talkies, and she spent the last decades of her life as a child-like recluse, a grotesque combination of Norma Desmond and Shirley Temple.
'A Dream or Two Ago' is an excellent showcase for Minter's unusual talents, as it exploits both the child-like nature of her screen persona and her nascent sex appeal. Officially, Minter was only 14 when this film was made; actually, she was a few years older. (Her mother had obtained a younger girl's birth certificate for her.) As the film begins, six-year-old Millicent (played by a winsome child actress) is the spoilt darling of wealthy parents, who -- in classic 'poor little rich girl' tradition -- give her everything she wants except their time. When some Dickensian criminals cause a distraction in the street to cover their getaway, little Millicent injures her head and is separated from her parents. The criminals take her to a grotesque old harridan (Gertrude Le Brandt, in an astonishing performance), who raises the girl to dance in gin joints. As often happens in real life when a child is lost or abducted, Millicent's parents become estranged; her guilt-stricken mother devotes herself to charity work.
The changeling child soon grows into a beauteous teen (Minter) who dances gracefully, and conveniently has no memory of her previous life. But then, one day...
If you have to guess whether this film ends happily, you don't belong on this website. On the way to its ending, 'A Dream or Two Ago' introduces some fairly far-fetched coincidences which add to the story's Dickensian atmosphere. But Minter's films (including this one) were a huge hit in their day, so this is obviously the sort of story her audiences wanted. She looks extremely beautiful here, showing no trace of sexual self-knowledge while she dances in a scanty white gown for hard-boiled criminals. The image on screen bears almost no resemblance to what we now know to be true about Minter herself.
Many of the great screen actresses owe their discovery and stardom to one particular director, but they usually managed to move on from that early relationship ... so that, for example, Dietrich without von Sternberg, or Garbo without Stiller is still an actress to be reckoned with. In Minter's case, it's truly regrettable that her career couldn't survive the loss of Taylor, the director who moulded her into stardom. 'A Dream or Two Ago', directed by James Kirkwood, is solid proof that Minter's talents weren't dependent on Taylor ... and it's a tantalising hint of the stardom she might have enjoyed at least a few years longer, until the end of the silent era. I'll rate this charming antique drama 8 out of 10.
