Free to Love explained

Free to Love
Director:Frank O'Connor
Producer:B. P. Schulberg
Screenplay:Adele Buffington
Starring:Clara Bow
Donald Keith
Studio:B.P. Schulberg Productions
Distributor:Preferred Pictures
Runtime:60 minutes
Country:United States
Language:Silent (English intertitles)

Free to Love is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Frank O'Connor. The film stars Clara Bow and Donald Keith.[1] [2]

Plot

After threatening him with a gun but relenting, Marie Anthony, who was recently released from a reformatory, is adopted by Judge Orr and becomes the fiancée of the young minister James Crawford, who intends to assist former convicts. Gang leader Jack Garner, who threatens to disclose what he knows of her past, succeeds in temporarily separating the lovers. Tony, a hunchback that Marie has befriended, warns her that Crawford's father is a confederate of criminals. Trying to shield the latter, Marie is arrested and accused of murder when Tony kills Garner, but is released when Tony later confesses. The senior Crawford commits suicide. Marie and her lover are reunited.

Preservation

As well as being available on DVD, a copy of Free to Love is held at UCLA Film and Television Archive.[3]

Analysis

In a 2008 essay, Russel Johnson analysed the film "to illuminate the history of eugenics in the United States".[4] The title of the film was said to figure among those that "are themselves an explanation of Clara Bow's persona and career"[5] as was the scene where the character she plays "descended a gigantic staircase, leading six tuxedoed men by a leash."[6]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=9241 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Free to Love
  2. http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/F/FreeToLove1925.html Progressive Silent Film List: Free to Love
  3. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.3148/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Free to Love
  4. Johnson . Russell L. . 2008 . CLARA BOW IN "FREE TO LOVE" (1925): FEATURE FILMS AND EUGENICS IN THE 1920s . Australasian Journal of American Studies . 27 . 1 . 1–15 . 41054097 . 1838-9554.
  5. Book: Basinger, Jeanine . Silent Stars . 2012-10-17 . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group . 978-0-307-82918-4 . en.
  6. Book: Rayner, Richard . A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder in L.A. . 2010-01-07 . Little, Brown Book Group . 978-1-84901-351-2 . en.