Enchantement

Fun-loving 18-year-old flapper Marion Davies (as Ethel Hoyt) is so enchanting, at least six Harvard seniors are in love with her at once. She thinks she's a modern day Cleopatra. Her mother compares Davies to the Queen of Sheba. The pretty teenager keeps company with three handsome young men, who are particularly devoted. They follow Ms. Davies around and appear willing to share. Inspired by Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew", Davies' wealthy father Tom Lewis (as William "Will" Hoyt) decides to show his egotistical daughter that all men don't fall in love with her. He hires actor Forrest Stanley (as Ernest "Ernie" Eddison) to romance Davies, then become disinterested. Problems arise when true love takes over...

"Enchantment" is a very well-produced silent. The available print looks great. Thanks to restoration producer Edward Lorusso for helping bring the film to light. Director Robert G. Vignola and Ira H. Morgan give it an appropriately boxed-in look. They frame the richly detailed sets well. The film outwears its welcome by the time everything stops for a longish performance of "The Sleeping Beauty", but it helps (artistically). Contributing nicely are title cards by Grace Waller and a new musical score, by Donald Sosin, which captures the film and era perfectly. Davies is appealing and performs amusingly as the young teenage flapper. The art/set direction by Joseph Urban is lovely and, of course, Marion is even lovelier.

******* Enchantment (10/30/21) Robert G. Vignola ~ Marion Davies, Forrest Stanley, Tom Lewis, Edith Shayne