Miss Lulu Bett

Lois Wilson stars in the title role of Miss Lulu Bett a rather mousy and shy young woman who lives with the Deacon family who basically treat her like a doormat. She just takes it and takes it, think Peggy Cass as Gooch in Auntie Mame or Shelley Winters as Alice Trippe in A Place In The Sun. She has no salary for her domestic work, she's simply given room and board with the Deacon Family run by the tyrannical Theodore Roberts as the father.

When Roberts black sheep brother Clarence Burton comes for a visit he's taken with her and she sees a chance for happiness and takes it. But he may or may not be slightly married and Wilson finds that out after she's run away.

Miss Lulu Bett is directed by William C. DeMille the older brother of Cecil who actually was at one time considered to be a leading Broadway playwright in the Victorian/Edwardian theater era. His kind of morality dramas were going out of style so he like his brother moved to Hollywood and the new motion picture industry. Unlike his brother Bill DeMille was given to more homespun and intimate style films with no gaudy spectacle or emphasis on sex dramas in flashback sequences in decadent times.

Theodore Roberts who was a member in good standing in Cecil B. DeMille's stock company steals the film as the arrogant pompous head of the Deacon family. At all costs preserve appearances for the family name. A far cry from his most famous part as Moses in the silent version of The Ten Commandments.

Miss Lulu Bett is an interesting study of family life on the cusp of Roaring Twenties America.

A year after women in the United States gained the right to vote through the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment, Hollywood finally portrayed their newfound confidence of independence in William deMille's November 1921 "Miss Lulu Bett."

Through decades of women's suffrage battles where women simply wanted the same rights as their male counterparts, the law giving women civil and political freedoms was passed in August 1920. "Miss Lulu Bett" serves as a microcosm of the suffrages battles. Most women were dependent on the male heads of the households. With the passing of the amendment millions of nominally disadvantaged females finally unshackled their metaphorical chains for freedom and independence with growing confidence.

DeMille's adapted Zona Gale's novel and her 1920 Pulitzer Prize play to reflect those changing times for women who sought newfound opportunities once denied them.

Lulu Betts, played by Lois Wilson, is the timid sister of the wife whose abusive husband uses her as a domestic servant to the household. Her outside job openings are non-existent in the small midwestern town she lives. When she discovers that the quickie marriage to a family friend is a polygamist, she returns to her sister's stifling home. A confrontation between her and her brother-in-law in a misunderstanding that quickly escalates to a life-changing decision, Lulu is bold enough to make a decision to take a path that normally wouldn't be open to her.

The older brother of Cecil B. DeMille, William was a successful film director in his own right. In the early 1900's, deMille, who changed his last name to the lower case "d" to fit into the theatre marques, was a Broadway playwright, including 'The Warrens of Virginia.' He followed his younger brother to Hollywood, directing his debut movie in 1914's 'The Only Son.' His specialty was adapting Broadway plays onto film.

William was a member in prominent Hollywood circles later in his life, co-hosting the first Academy Award ceremonies with Douglas Fairbanks in 1928 while being solo host to the awards the following year. He had also briefly served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Of all this films he directed, "Miss Lulu Bett" has been cited as his best movie and his most visible work for today's viewers.

Lois Wilson (as Lulu) is the spinsterish member of the Deacon family: "The family beast of burden, whose timid soul has failed to break the bonds of family servitude." Her brother-in-law is patriarchal Theodore Roberts (as Dwight Deacon); running the house with an iron fist, he is both a dentist and a Justice of the Peace. As the latter, he accidentally marries Ms. Wilson to his visiting brother Clarence Burton (as Ninian Deacon) while they are out for dinner. Schoolteacher Milton Sills (as Neil Cornish) is also interested in Wilson; though, curiously, nobody seems to notice this for the longest time. Ethel Wales tries, unsuccessfully, to look old enough to play the family grandmother...

Lois Wilson's fine acting ability is clearly evident; at different times, she is like both Lillian Gish and Bette Davis - see, for example the scene where she "lets her hair down" upon meeting Mr. Burton (Gish), and her confrontation, finally, with Mr. Roberts (Davis). The story is ambitious: "Lulu Bett" and the other members of the Deacon household are clearly being controlled by the "Master" Deacon; and, "Lulu" is practically a slave. Yet, the various characters are shells of something larger - and their shells are not filled with enough characterization, background, or motivation to make this movie really work.

Notable as directed by Cecil's brother William deMille.

***** Miss Lulu Bett (11/13/21) William C. de Mille ~ Lois Wilson, Theodore Roberts, Milton Sills

Lulu Bett and her mother live with Lulu's sister Ina and her husband Dwight Deacon, along with the Deacon's two daughters. Lulu cooks, cleans, and is treated like a doormat by the family. When Deacon's brother Ninian arrives in town, he takes an interest in Lulu. Dwight, Ina, Lulu and Ninian go out for a night on the town, during which Lulu and Ninian jokingly exchange wedding vows over dinner. But Dwight, being a Justice of the Peace, tells them that their civil ceremony is legal, and that they are indeed married. The couple decide to try out marriage, but Lulu soon discovers Ninian was married before, and his wife ran off. She returns home, and again is treated as a second-class citizen. Neil Cornish, the town's schoolteacher, begins to fall for her. Lulu talks her young niece out of eloping. In so doing, Lulu slowly begins to assert herself.

This is a simple but engaging film, with a charming performance by Wilson. In the early scenes, she appears plain, unattractive, and timid. You keep waiting for her to explode at all the ingrates around here. As the film progresses, she blossoms, and by the climax, it is a hoot watching her manhandle Theodore Roberts:

Speaking of Roberts, he chomps his ever-present cigar, which makes me think the only film in which he doesn't do this is "The Ten Commandments" ... unless I missed that scene on Mt. Sinai where Moses has a smoke. Sills isn't in the film very much, and the final scene with him and Wilson is extremely corny.

The film was based upon a novel of the same name, by Zona Gale. Gale adapted her novel into a play, earning her the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for drama, the first woman to receive such an award. The film follows the novel pretty faithfully, although in the book, Neil Cornish is a piano salesman and not a teacher. Also, the novel's ending is more true to life, and not the silly ending displayed in the film.

Wlliam deMille produced and directed Miss Lulu Bett, a film of extraordinary conviction and insight. It was then often the custom for unmarried women to lodge with family; thus we discover Miss Lulu in a boring Midwestern town, an exploited household drudge for her sister and her overbearing brother-in-law.

All I have to say about this film is that if you have the ability to see it with a soundtrack, or better yet a live organ, do that. Unfortunately for me, the copy I saw was without sound of any kind which made the viewing experience tedious. The rating would be higher, probably, except that it is hard to judge a film I thought was difficult to enjoy.