Lady of the Night

Monta Bell and Norma Shearer had an actress-director collaboration as important as that of Von Sternberg and Dietrich. And deeper. For while Sternberg never tired of exploring the planes of Dietrich's face, Bell explored Shearer's soul -- and through her, explored the moral nature of American women in the pivotal decade of the 1920s. All three of their extant films are to be cherished, but this is their absolute masterpiece.

Before he is taken away in handcuffs, a father says farewell to his newborn baby girl. The unfortunate man is sentenced to 20 years in the penitentiary, by a judge who also has a newborn baby girl. The convict's baby grows up in poverty; the judge's daughter grows up wealthy. Eighteen years later, pretty débutante Norma Shearer (as Florence Banning) graduates from an exclusive finishing school. In a dual role, attractive delinquent Norma Shearer (as Molly Helmer) graduates from a girls' reform school. The central role Ms. Shearer plays in "Lady of the Night" is the latter one - "Molly" the lower class young woman...

"Molly" dates underworld pipsqueak George K. Arthur (as "Chunky" Dunn). She wears a feathered hat that looks like it would strike you blind if Shearer turned her head suddenly. She receives some unwanted attention from a sleazy man. A very handsome young inventor, Malcolm McGregor (as David "Dave" Page), intervenes and saves Shearer. She is smitten. He is interested as well, but Mr. McGregor later meets Shearer's "Florence" - and they begin to date. This makes "Molly" sad. She will have to either fight for Mr. McGregor or let him find happiness with "Florence" the more socially suitable mate...

In 2006, "Lady of the Night" was been beautifully restored for broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). This version runs 61 minutes, which suggests at least one reel's worth of running time is missing. Still, the film plays beautifully. It's possible that something implying prostitution was cut as the title "Lady of the Night" suggests this - but there is no explicit evidence in the feature. Jon Mirsalis' new musical score is marvelous, accompanying the visuals without being obvious. Shearer and director Monta Bell work wonderfully together. One of the most poetic scenes is Mr. Arthur's attempt to touch a ray of light, arriving via a hole in Shearer's window shade...

Watch for a very brief glimpse of Joan Crawford's profile in the scene where Shearer hugs Shearer. Soon to join Shearer as an MGM super-star, Ms. Crawford served as body double, due to the star playing two roles. There aren't a lot of scenes involving Shearer and Crawford. Due to the feature film's short running time, it's possible some missing footage involved the two actresses. It's also possible some unknown connection between "Molly" and "Florence" was intended; in the present version, there is no connection made and their resemblance is not noted. Nice to see Kellogg's frosted corn flakes, too. If you aren't sure about "silent" feature films, this is an appealing taste.

******** Lady of the Night (2/23/25) Monta Bell ~ Norma Shearer, Malcolm McGregor, George K. Arthur, Joan Crawford

Norma Shearer is terrific playing a dual role in this well-done silent film about two women - Molly, the daughter of a convict and Florence, the daughter of the judge who sentenced him. Molly of the heavily painted face, huge feather hat, and big beaded necklace, lives in a flat on the wrong side of the tracks and goes out with a little local named Chunky. But while out at the nearby dance hall she meets a handsome, crooked grinned lug named Dave Page, who she instantly falls in love with. Dave has invented, of all things, a device that can open any safe in the world - encouraged by Molly to "not go crooked", he sells the invention to the judge and a group of bank directors, and soon literally bumps into Florence - and into a love of his own! Poor, poor Molly.

Norma Shearer is so good in this, the characters of Molly and Florence completely seem like two different women, and excellent split screen photography is used here when they are both on screen at the same time. I thought there would be something in this about the fact that the two are lookalikes, perhaps switching places or something - never happens. The fact they look alike is just not part of the plot here. The lighting is done in an interesting way in this - Norma as Florence seems to be shot in more filtered, subtle lighting and she looks very lovely - Norma as Molly is severely lit to make her look more sharp and, boy oh boy, does the thick makeup she wears as this character look really harsh - she looks almost like a prostitute here. The print of this film looked gorgeous, full of sharp contrast, and brightly tinted in sepia/orange, pink, and blue shades. The piano score for this, done by Jon Mirsalis, is wonderful and matches the story well.

This is a pretty straightforward silent romantic melodrama, and it's unclear why Norma Shearer was cast in a dual role when the two characters are not related and there's nothing in the plot that requires them to look at all alike, but it's made interesting by the excellent performance Shearer turns in as Molly. Florence is a typical goody-good Shearer characterization but Molly is a much more fascinating character, not really a "bad" girl but a young woman who's living by her wits, close enough to the underworld to be involved with a shady character like "Chunky" Dunn but decent enough to steer the hero away from criminal temptations. Beautifully made up and costumed (those feathers in her hat seem to have a life of their own!), Shearer as Molly turns in a sensitive performance, alive to the pathos of the character: it's a real pity she didn't make more films playing roles like this instead of the impossibly good heroines (like Florence in this film) for which she became known. (Incidentally the print I saw on Turner Classic Movies ran only 64 minutes and did not contain a two-strip Technicolor sequence — a real pity since I like the look of two-strip and am always glad when I can see a well-preserved example of it.)

Norma Shearer began her career playing bit parts in 1920. Four years later she reached stardom in a series of hit films like "He Who Gets Slapped"(MGM,1924) and "The Snob"(MGM,1924) but it is this beautifully done film released in early 1925 that made her a top MGM star. She plays a good girl and a bad girl and is just marvelous in both roles. The film is not long on story but Monta Bell's excellent direction and Norma's superb acting make this silent film so much more. The forgotten George K. Arthur lends fine support but it is Norma at her silent era peak that makes this a must see. SHe is just great in the hooker role-a forerunner of the racy roles she would excel in during the early talkie period.