"The Red Lily" is unusual in that I had never even heard of it until 18 September 2016 when Turner Classic Movies brought it -- as it turns out, again, after 10 years -- to the screen as the Sunday night silent.
This is not bragging but I have been a silent movie fan since about 1972, when I first moved to Los Angeles and discovered the Silent Movie Theatre, then run by John Hampton and his wife.
Attending every week for several years, until Mr. Hampton became ill and the theater closed, I considered myself somewhat of a silent movie authority, a minor expert.
So I was surprised by "The Red Lily" and by Enid Bennett, whom I do not remember seeing before.
In her first scene I thought "Lillian Gish," though perhaps it was her make-up, especially the lips, and the hat.
But in fact Enid Bennett gave a performance worthy of La Gish, a magnificent performance, heart-tugging again and again.
Her innocence and her constant victimization brought me to sympathy and to anger in scene after scene.
Ramon Novarro proved once again that he was an excellent actor, and watching him battle himself was a lesson and a movie-going treat.
Other actors, including the inimitable Wallace Beery, were equally enthralling, perhaps especially Milla Davenport as "Madame Poussot."
One reviewer here questioned if it were really a man, because she had a mustache and very noticeable beard. I believe I have seen Ms. Davenport in other mustachioed roles, usually for comic purposes, but possibly it was another actress or other actresses.
Most likely, in my opinion, her hirsute adornment was added by the makeup department, but there are women afflicted with facial adornment, I think especially Mediterranean-descended women.
The Madame Poussot character added another layer, another dimension to the rather ugly and unpleasant Paris atmosphere that was necessary to this story.
Ugly? One can't get much uglier than the Paris sewer system, which has figured in many a movie. In fact, I wonder in just how many movies it has appeared, in addition to the many versions of "Les Miserables."
Ugly, depressing, downbeat -- "The Red Lily" can break your heart, as it did mine, right up to the apparently tacked-on ending.
That apparently tacked-on ending knocked down my rating to only 9, but the rest of "The Red Lily" is so moving, so beautifully produced, it is a must-see for film lovers and especially for silent film lovers.
I highly recommend "The Red Lily" and I'm grateful to TCM for presenting it.
