The Love Flower

"The Love Flower" is a real mixed bag from director D.W. Griffith. On one hand, the story itself has some holes and doesn't make a lot of sense at times. And, the intertitle cards are the worst written ones I've ever seen. Yet, in spite of all this, I could not hate the movie because the direction and cinematography were so good.

When the film began, I felt vaguely ill as I tried to read the horrid intertitle cards. Most of the worst were used to describe the daughter, a girl described this way on one card--'Girlish dreams sighed into the pink ear of a rose beneath the azure southern skies'. What does this even mean?! This was not the only time--no many more times the very prosaic writer made me ill!

The story begins in the Caribbean. Some guy had apparently written a bad check and ran off to the islands with his wife and daughter to evade the law. However, his wife was a total skank--and was fooling around on him. When he entered his home to find the wife and her lover, the lover tried to murder the husband and the husband killed the guy in self-defense. However, with his criminal record AND a wife who was going to lie about the attack, he and his loyal daughter take to the South Seas in search of a life of solitude. However, there is a crazed cop--one who vows to search EVERYWHERE to find the killer. And, there's also a nice man (Richard Barthelmess) who meets the daughter. What becomes of all this?

The plot had many problems. How could Barthelmess fall in love this quickly and sacrifice so much for a lady he didn't even know? Why was it okay for this lady to be a repeated attempted murderess in order to protect her father?! While the plot is hard to believe at times, the film did feature many amazingly good and difficult shots for 1920. Some underwater footage as well as the view from the rope bridge were incredible--as was the island footage. Overall, a very mixed bag--with lots to like and a bit to make you ill!

By the way, IMDb lists this film at 70 minutes but it ran 96.

Griffith was efficient when he filmed what turned out to be Clarine Seymour's final completed movie in April 1920's "The Idol Dancer," where the late actress served as the female lead. Using the backdrops of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Nassau, Bahamas, the director was fulfilling his movie contract with First National by tackling two tropical-based films, "The Idol Dancer" and "The Love Flower."

The later movie starred Griffith's up-and-coming favorite actress, Carol Dempster. Very few people could see the reasoning behind the director's favorability on what critics felt was the young actress' limited talent. A 15-year-older in 'Intolerance' as a harem girl, Dempster slowly emerged as Griffith's primary actress in his early 1920's films. "The Love Flower" was her second co-starring role as a step-daughter of a father who murdered his wife's lover. They both escape on a boat to South Pacific Island, where they're chased down by a persistent detective.

Some praised Dempster for her action sequences, but others complained she was a poor imitation of the Gish sisters as well as veteran Mae Marsh. Such criticism failed to dissuade Griffith from rejecting her and overall "The Love Flower." In fact, he enjoyed the film so much after seeing the reaction of the audience during its premier, he bought the motion picture for $400,000, a considerable amount, from First National for his United Artists' distribution.

While daddy's girl Carol Dempster (as Stella Bevan) frolics innocently in the woods, trouble is brewing - her loving father (George MacQuarrie as Bevan) and shrewish mother (Florence Short as Mrs. Bevan) are having marital problems. Informed by a faithful servant that his wife is entertaining a lover, Mr. MacQuarrie discovers the trysting twosome; then, during a struggle, he shoots the man dead. To escape from the police, MacQuarrie takes daughter Dempster, and flees to a South Sea island. There, they encounter handsome Richard Barthelmess (as Bruce Sanders), who makes Dempster's heart flutter. She doesn't know it, but Mr. Barthelmess is assisting police detective Anders Randolf (as Crane), who has arrived to arrest her father.

"The Love Flower" is a much better film, overall, than director D.W. Griffith's accompanying South Sea adventure "The Idol Dancer" (1920). G.W. Bitzer's photography is superb; he and Griffith paint some extraordinary, poetic images with the movie camera. The better production values are assisted by the absence of the ludicrous comic relief elements found in "The Idol Dancer". Unfortunately, "The Love Flower" fails to bloom; the melodramatic plot is interesting, but the love story between Dempster and Barthelmess does not work. Their pairing is more dull than passionate, although Barthelmess is a fine performer. Dempster is attractively athletic, and well-photographed; but, her emoting close-ups become sillier and sillier as the movie progresses. The older performers are much better, especially MacQuarrie.

***** The Love Flower (8/22/20) D.W. Griffith ~ Carol Dempster, Richard Barthelmess, George MacQuarrie

Love Flower, The (1920)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

D.W. Griffith film about a father (George MacQuarrie) who murders his wife's lover and then runs off to a South Sea island with their daughter (Carol Dempster). After a few years a detective shows up looking for him and the daughter decides it's her duty to keep her father with her. A fairly weak story and a stupid message really drags this film down but there are still quite a bit of good things working for the film. The cinematography by G.W. Bitzer is certainly the highlight, especially a couple scenes that take place under water. The three leads all do a decent job but poor Dempster is clearly playing a role meant for Lillian Gish. She can't pull off all the emotions but she does do a good job at playing a young girl.

This film has such a bad reputation that I pleasantly surprised when I watched it. No, it is not one of Griffith's great films, but I was entertained by it.

The film was shot as one of three that Griffith had contracted to make for First National. He rushed through them so none of the three represent Griffith at his best. However, that doesn't mean that they do not have their rewards.

I am not a fan of Carol Dempster. In fact I think she is generally an awful actress (although she did get better). Griffith was in love with her (she did not reciprocate) and saw her as an ideal of old fashioned Southern beauty. When he cast her that way she was wooden, ugly and boring to distraction. She was completely lacking in screen presence.

I never thought I would be writing these words but in this film I actually enjoyed watching her. In this case Griffith, for once, cast Carol in a role she could play (at least most of the time). She plays the rather athletic role, of a girl raised by her father is fairly primitive circumstances in the tropics. She climbs cliffs, dives off them into the sea. Swims underwater, and generally romps around looking wonderfully disheveled and doing nearly everything except swinging from a vine. She obviously enjoys it and she actually looks (am I really saying this) beautiful when she does it. She even has a presence on the screen. However, when she has a dramatic scene, she loses all her charm and confidence. Her presence dwindles to nothing and she becomes an ugly and boring actress. Fortunatly there are only a few of these moments.

Richard Barthelmess does his usual excellent job of acting. He has great presence regardless of if he is being athletic, cheerful or dramatic. He is clearly Carol's superior in acting. He even manages to make her look good in a few dicey scenes.

So, no, this is not a great film or even a significant film, but it can be fun and enjoyable. If you like Griffith and you have nothing better to do I might even recommend it.