Ella Cinders

Colleen Moore stars as the title character. In many ways, Ella's life at the beginning of the movie is like Cinderella's. She's a hated step-daughter who's treated like a slave by her step-mother and step-sisters. However, there are fortunately many differences as well with the story. Instead of going to the ball and meeting Prince Charming, Ella is discovered by a nice guy (Lloyd Hughes) and he helps her to be discovered in a local talent contest. When she wins, she is sent by the town to Hollywood to get a chance to be an actress. But two things aren't as they appear to be....the contest is a fraud and the nice guy who helped her isn't the poor ice man he appears to be. See the picture and find out what's in store for this cute lady.

In so many ways, this story is like combining the tradition tale of Cinderella with a film like Marion Davies' "Show People"...about a young lady trying her best to make it in Hollywood. Ms. Moore is lovely in this comedic role and it's one of the better silents this forgotten actress made. Well worth seeing due to excellent writing, direction and acting.

By the way, if you do see the film, look for a cameo with Harry Langdon!

I watched this silent comedy with Colleen Moore and gorgeous Lloyd Hughes with my 6 year old daughter and we were rapt with attention all the way through. This film boasts a touching sweet romance, and many fine and unique comedy moments, such as Ella getting her picture taken for a beauty contest and having a fly land on her nose, and Lloyd's character using the missing shoe for measurements to buy her a pair of dress shoes when she goes off to Hollywood.

Unlike one commentator here however I didn't care for that organ score. I heard some copyrighted song musical phrases in there that were misplaced too, like a strain from Dr. Zhivago! Weird.

If you love Colleen Moore or want to learn more about her this is a film not to be missed. She was an excellent comedienne, even better than Mabel Normand.

Months ago I hunted down this film for Coleen Moore since I had never seen her in anything before and I wish to give every silent film star a chance. Imagine my surprise! Not only was Coleen a completely wonderful entertainer but Ella Cinders also turns out to be a little forgotten gem of silent cinema.

Although nothing earth shattering, that's fine because nobody wants to be overwhelmed with huge epics all the time. Occasionally everyone wants to escape into an easy, breezy, cute comedy they can just laugh at and enjoy. Ella Cinders accomplishes this.

Basically a simple Cinderella story, Moore stars as Ella, a girl who's sadly mistreated by her step-family (a mother and two sisters). The only light in her life seems to be her good guy friend Waite (played by gorgeous Lloyd Hughes). When a Hollywood contest comes to town, looking for a lovely new girl to turn into a star, Ella is determined to win. Everything takes off from there and quickly the story twists, turns, and does cartwheels into one of the funniest comedies of the silent era.

Coleen makes the movie a riot with her comedic talent. She really shines during the scene when she goes to have her picture taken and a fly keeps landing on her nose whenever the impatient camera man tries to snap the photo. Priceless. Harry Langdon has a short appearance as himself and is funny as always.

The Grapevine video for this movie doesn't have the best print and the organ score doesn't fit the flow of the film at all - but unfortunately it is the only choice we have.

Have you had a hard day? Boss nagging you? Homework building up? Pop in Ella Cinders and forget it all. Let it take you away.

If you thought all silent comedies were slapstick see this gentle character based comedy. Colleen Moore plays a much abused small town girl with a simply awful family. She wins a beauty contest - the prize a trip to Hollywood and a studio contract!

Colleen Moore is brilliant as Ella - funny, warm, beautiful, vivacious. The scene when she finds she has won the contest will move you to tears, and you'll roar with laughter when she practices eye movements for the camera. This is one of the great performances of the silent era. She can make the smallest thing funny, so it is interesting to see her work with Harry Langdon who could do the same. In one hilarious scene he plays himself.

What is remarkable about Moore is that she can be very funny but still maintain the realism of her characterisation - there is a sadness here that makes the comedy so much more potent. Wait till you see her smoke a cigar, and spin-out! I have never seen a moment like this played better.

Also very charming is Lloyd Hughes as her boyfriend. And the film's director Alfred E Green plays the director in the film!

This film, in a good print from Video Yesteryear which has a fine organ score from Rosa Rio, is a true classic - not to be missed.

ELLA CINDERS (First National, 1926), a John McCormick production, directed by Alfred E. Green, is a star vehicle for Colleen Moore, a popular silent screen flapper of the 1920s, in one of her more notable comedies of her career that has become forgotten through the passage of time. It's a Hollywood story taken from both comic strip character and Cinderella fairy tale, and reminiscent to Mabel Normand performance in THE EXTRA GIRL (1923). Similarities in theme makes it quite easy to confuse these two, especially when both characters are seen disrupting the studio when encountered by a lion. While THE EXTRA GIRL switches to melodrama from time to time, ELLA CINDERS is pure comedy that makes good use of Moore's comedic talents.

Opening title card: "The Cinders residence in Roseville - where the first bowl of wax bananas appeared on an American sideboard." Ella Cinders (Colleen Moore) works like a slave for her wicked stepmother (Vera Lewis) and equally wicked stepsisters known as the Pills, Lotta (Doris Baker) and Prissy (Emily Gerdes), waiting on them hand and foot. Her one and only friend is Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes), a young man employed for the Union Ice Company, who in reality happens to be George Waite, a football hero and graduate from the University of Illinois as well as being the son of a millionaire (revealed on screen through a close up shot of a newspaper clipping)who disapproves of Ella. During a meeting of the Pollyanna Club held at the Cinders household every second Thursday of the month, where members get to "cheat at cards," Ella overhears her stepmother's intention on having Lotta representing Roseville by entering her in a movie contest sponsored by the Gem Film Company, with the prize being a trip to Hollywood and a chance to appear in a motion picture. Seeing this an opportunity in breaking away from the Pills, Ella earns the extra money needed for entrance fees and studio portrait taken of herself through babysitting. As she is poses to have her picture taken (one point being a strong resemblance of Lillian Gish), the photographer (Harry Allen) snapshots the very moment Ella becomes cross-eyed (like Ben Turpin) as she blows away a fly resting on her nose. It so happens that this is the picture that makes it to the judges. At the ball, where the winner's name is to be announced, to everyone's surprise, Ella's picture is the winner. After a merry send-off from the community (with the exception of the Pills) at the train station where the mayor (Jed Prouty) makes a speech, Ella takes off for Hollywood. Upon her arrival, she taxis over to the studio to find the Gem Film Company shut down and told by a guard that the contest was a scam and the "sharpies" arrested. Now stranded in the land of make-believe, and refusing to go back home in fear of being a laughing stock, Ella makes the best of her situation by "haunting the studio gates," sneaking past the guards and being chased around the lot, disrupting scenes currently in production and driving one of the directors (Alfred E. Green) out of his mind. With much more to follow, it gets better than this. Stay tuned and see what further develops for this Hollywood Cinderella.

Amusing at times as it is familiar, ELLA CINDERS, if remembered at all, has all the ingredients for surefire material in the Betty Hutton or Lucille Ball tradition. Funniest scene comes early in the story where Ella studies the method of acting from "The Art of Motion Picture Book," going through the motions with her eyes. An excellent use of special effects done in split screen, her eyes move individually in all directions. This scene alone was certainly one that had audiences laughing out of their seats back in 1926. This is followed by another set in the California bound train where Ella falls asleep, with all passengers getting off and to be awaken later surrounded by Indians, actually actors dressed as Indians who had come on at an earlier stop, being lead to believe the train was attacked. She becomes ill after smoking a cigar offered to her by an "Indian chief." Another highlight is the unbilled guest appearance of comedian Harry Langdon whom Ella mistakes as a wanna-be actor avoiding capture from the studio guards. "There's after me, too," she tells Langdon as he holds on to the door during a movie rehearsal.

Of a handful of Colleen Moore features produced during the silent era, ELLA CINDERS is best known due to availability on video cassette from various distributors and sporadic television revivals some decades ago, notably on the weekly public television series "The Toy That Grew Up," from the 1960s, complete with composed organ score, the same one used for the Grapevine Video Company with the running time of 70 minutes. While prints of ELLA CINDERS is in need of restoration, average or not so good prints in circulation don't deprive silent movie lovers from enjoying the misadventures of Miss Ella Cinders. (***)