Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

kidboots J.M. Barrie's "The Admirable Crichton" opened on London's West End in 1902 and ran for a staggering 828 performances, the next year it came to Broadway. The play differed from the film in that (in the play) Lord Loam considered class division artificial and during tea parties, servants were expected to mingle with the guests as equals - only Crichton, the butler disapproves, feeling everyone should know their place.The Loam family are introduced as upper class twits with more money than sense. The house is run by the servants - in particular, Crichton (Thomas Meighan), the Loam's dignified butler, who is always at the ready to show people the right way of doing things (especially adoring scullery maid Tweeny (Lila Lee) and boot boy, Buttons (Wesley Barry)). The family beauty - Lady Mary (gorgeous Gloria Swanson) is completely spoilt and has servants to cater to her every whim, from seeing her bathwater is just the right temperature to making sure her toast is not too soft. There is a wonderful bathroom scene, with all the most modern conveniences, including luxurious rose water spraying from a fountain.The Loams go on a South Sea cruise but disaster strikes as their boat hits a rock and they have to make their way to an uninhabited island. True characters come to the fore, the family are lazy and expect their servants to obey their every whim. Crichton soon shows himself a true leader and everyone in the party turns to him for guidance. Two years pass and everyone is living together as equals and pulling their weight, there is no master or servant - all except Crichton, who is now the supreme leader. Mary and Tweeny now fight for the opportunity to serve him supper. Being a DeMille production, there is a spectacular Biblical scene (maybe his first) with Meighan as a bored, callous King, Bebe Daniels as a saucy slave girl and Gloria Swanson as a beggar maid, who goes to the lion's den rather than put aside her Christian principles.They are eventually rescued and Crichton and Lord Loam are the first to remember their "places" in the world. Lady Mary can't forget her love, they were just about to be married when the rescue boat is seen. Back in civilization, Lord Brockelhurst resumes his courting of Mary - all through the film he has shown himself to be pretty flirtatious with Mary's maid - you know when Mary accepts his proposal - her life will not be a happy one. Crichton hides his true feelings about Mary and when she is visited by an old friend who has defied her family, married her chauffeur and lived to regret it - he impulsively asks Tweeny to marry him. They will leave service and sail for America, where everyone is equal (the last scene is particularly sweet as Crichton walks to a farmhouse after finishing ploughing for the day, to find Tweeny waiting for him.)I do agree, I think the titles are profuse and flowery and excessive - they would do credit to a William S. Hart western!!! I also think Thomas Meighan was born for this role - he was manly and masterful. He was also excellent in "Why Change Your Wife?" - Cecil B. DeMille obviously liked him a lot as he popped up in quite a few of his movies. Although Barrie had considered ending his play with Crichton and Mary continuing their affair, even after Lady Mary is married, he decided on a more conventional ending as he thought "the stalls wouldn't like it"!!!Highly, Highly Recommended.

drednm Very solid Cecil B. DeMille production of JM Barrie's play, "The Admirable Crichton" with a few DeMille flourishes.Crichton (Thomas Meighan) is a very proper butler in a staid British home. Of course he has a distant crush on Lady Mary (Gloria Swanson), a very pampered and spoiled young lady. Tweeny the household maid (Lila Lee) has a crush on Crichton.The family, headed by a silly old man (Theodore Roberts) decides to take a sailing trip to the South Seas and gathers up a party of family and friends. Of course they run the yacht into a rock and are washed ashore on a deserted island. The rich are all nitwits and haven't a clue how to do anything for themselves. They assume Meighan and Lee will continue to wait on them. Wrong.Slowly it occurs to everyone that there is a new order on the island. The crafty and self-sufficient Meighan sets out to build a shelter, a fire, harvest food, etc. while the rich sit and watch. Their attempts to copy him are sadly disastrous. Eventually they "join" the former butler's group with Meighan as a sort of king.Among the items that have washed ashore after the wreck is a book of poems that talks about a Babylonian king. In a typical DeMille moment, Swanson daydreams about her life in a Babylonian court. The sequence that follows ranks among the most famous in silent film history as Meighan becomes the Babylonian king who sentences the reluctant maiden (Swanson) to the lions' den as his jealous courtesan (Bebe Daniels) gleefully watches. The scene is much shorter than I remembered as the fabulously gowned Swanson walks in among the lions. The famous scene of the bare-backed Swanson with the roaring lion atop her was very real (no double).And so the merry band of islanders, under King Crichton, goes on for a few years until, just before the marriage of Swanson and Meighan), they are "rescued" and returned to their former lives (and stations).Meighan and Swanson are terrific. Roberts is funny as the old man. The supporting cast includes Julia Faye (as a maid), Robert Cain (as Swanson's boring suitor), Edmund Burns (as the vicar), Raymond Hatton (as the silly ass Ernie), Mildred Reardon (as Lady Agatha), and Rhy Darby (as the pitiful Lady Duncraigie who marries her chauffeur).Logic aside, this is a stylish and solid film and features a ravishing 20-year-old Gloria Swanson in one of her first big hits for DeMille. Another famous scene is early in the film as Swanson prepares to taker her morning bath, a ritual that includes several maids, gallons of rose water, and another of DeMille's groundbreaking interior designs.A must see for fans of silent films.

bsmith5552 "Male and Female" is another of Producer/Director Cecil B. De Mille's comedy/dramas. This one is about role reversal and makes one think of "Gilligan's Island" the farcical TV series that was popular in the 60s.The Loam family is a group of spoiled upper crust British nobles which include Lord Loam (Theodore Roberts), his daughters Lady Jane Lasenby (Gloria Swanson) and Agatha Lasenby (Mildred Reardon) along with Agatha's husband or suitor (I'm not sure which) The Honorable Ernest Wolley (Raymond Hatton). They are served by the butler Crichton (Thomas Meighan) and maid Tweeney (lila Lee). Crichton is secretly in love with Lady Jane but despises her spoiled antics ("The toast is too soft, Crichton"). Tweeney is in love with Crichton and so it goes.Lady Jane becomes engaged to marry the stuffy Lord Brockelhurst (Robert Cain) much to the dismay of Crichton. The family plans a south seas cruise and brings along Crichton, Tweeney and a young minister named Treherne (Edmund Burns). The party is ship wrecked on a remote island. Being of the spoiled upper class, the family is unable to cope with living in the wilderness. Crichton steps up and gradually takes command of the situation.The family at first rejects the idea of taking orders from their servant, but soon hunger and the need for shelter prevail. The family members gradually pitch in and learn to live off the land. Crichton seems to enjoy the role reversal where Lady Jane and Agatha are now forced to serve him. Two years pass.After Crichton rescues Lady Jane from a leopard, we are transported in Crichton and Lady Jane's imagination to ancient Babylon where Crichton is the King and Lady Jane a Christian. The King has a favorite (Bebe Daniels) who languishes at his feet in a web like head dress. When the Christian refuses to be a slave to the king, she walks into the lion's den and is eaten.Cut back to the present where Crichton and Lady Jane plan to be marries by Treherne. Just as the ceremony is being performed, Tweeney spots a passing ship and the party is rescued. They return to England where..............................................................Its hard to imagine that no hanky panky went on during the party's two year odyssey but that's what we're supposed to believe. The flashback sequence though lavishly staged is really unnecessary.The performances are generally good. Gloria Swanson was born to play the spoiled rich girl and looks lovely doing so. Lila Lee is equally beautiful as the love lorn Tweeney. Theodore Roberts and Raymond Hatton are mere cartoon characters. But it is Thomas Meighan who stands out. Being head and shoulders taller than the diminutive Ms. Swanson, he exudes leadership, authority and male virility as Crichton.It's not a bad movie but I challenge you not to think of "Gilligan's Island" when watching it.

Cineanalyst With "The Cheat" and "The Whispering Chorus", Cecil B. DeMille demonstrated talent and a willingness to experiment. For me, watching "Male and Female" was like witnessing the death of an artist, because with this film, he never looked back. I don't mean to say he never made a worthwhile film again, but those films, for the most part, are fundamentally based on the same principles: sex sells and so does exotica. He used biblical stories later because it's an obvious way to have sex and exotica without it seeming so trashy."Male and Female" looks lovely, of course, but that's as shallow as the rich family in the film. I doubt anyone at this time knew more about how tinting glosses a picture than DeMille and his crew. His earlier film, "Carmen" (1915), is another exercise in that. He and his then usual cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff were also masters of lighting. "Male and Female" contains such beautiful shots as a silhouette of Crichton carrying Lady Mary to shore. Unfortunately, there's not much beyond it.This film seems to be social commentary, but there's so many holes in it that it seems DeMille barely gave it any thought. Crichton is as superficial as his masters are; he loves the helpless, spoiled fool Lady Mary rather than the devoted maid, who loves him. Gloria Swanson is beautiful, after all. The ironic twist is that Crichton has his former masters become his servants. What's the moral here, if any? Is it that class distinctions are largely arbitrary? I didn't need a movie to tell me that. The many intertitles try to find a moral--repeatedly--until we might think we did learn something.Plot holes are frequent, as well. Where are the yachtsmen in sailor outfits after the shipwreck? And, the drinking place of the leopards must be a dangerous spot--because they sit there and he tells her a story! This is merely a silly romance. This film isn't making a statement, or commenting on reality (or showing it); the purpose of this film is to get all the sizzle it can out of a relationship between a dominating male and submissive female (of course one that's stubborn at first), to have an exotic Babylonian fantasy sequence, and to have a bath scene. It's usually about money, but that's all these moves attain.By the time of the Babylonian fantasy, all the social commentary is lost. I don't care much for films of social commentary; it's the disingenuousness of "Male and Female" that I find condescending. The film left me wondering whether the characters understand the difference between reality and illusion: the real character of a person and the illusion of right to social status. Crichton and Lady Mary imply that they believe the Babylonian fantasy to actually be a past life. What's clear is that DeMille would make a career out of blurring such distinctions in the cheapest of ways.