The Red Mill (1927)

Marion Davies may not have the highest comedic talent in this film, but she does have a certain girl-next-door appeal, and 'Red Mill' was reasonably entertaining. She plays a Dutch servant who is used cruelly by her boss, a tavern owner played by George Siegmann with appropriate snarl and meanness. In one scene, he's dragging her near-frozen body along the ice back to work; in another, he's literally whipping her. She keeps a little ray of sunshine in a pet mouse who lives in a large hole in one of her clogs, and then soon sees and falls for a young man played by Owen Moore. It's not so straightforward, however, in that her identity is confused with another woman (Louise Fazenda), who has her own troubles, being betrothed to an old man but wanting another (Karl Dane). It gets a bit silly and some of the intertitles are oddly worded, but there are some nice scenes at the end in the "haunted" old mill, especially as the chase moves outside to the windmill blades themselves. There is also a brief scene of riches in the imagination of the young lovers which then returns to the present, a touching reminder of what the important thing is in life – true love.

The title 'The Red Mill' is familiar to most film scholars as the film Fatty Arbuckle directed under the pseudonym "William Goodrich" after several years blacklisted by Hollywood following a widely reported sex scandal in 1921. But it proves to be a delightful film in its own right, full of vintage sight gags in which Arbuckle's hand is evident, and further confirming Marion Davies' talent for comedy.Set in an amiable Hollywood caricature of Holland, as a skivvy in a tavern called 'The Red Mill' Ms Davies is made to look comically plain in freckles, pigtails and a Dutch bonnet which we never see her without; even when she decides to glam herself up by applying a mudpack to her face - with hilariously surreal results. Handsomely produced, played as farce and supported by an excellent cast of comic supporting actors (including a mouse called Ignatz), it veers off course towards the end with a sequence set in a haunted windmill that really belongs in a different film. But the film was a big hit in its day and deserves to be better known on its own merits and not merely as a footnote to the Arbuckle scandal.

Great silent movie shown in a beautifully restored version on TCM.Plot summary: Dutch servant girl falls for an Irish Prince during his vacation in Holland - circumstances prevent their coming together.Later, the Irish Price is back in Holland to be married off to the local rich Burgomaster's daughter. The Burgomaster's daughter, however, is in love with a peasant. The servant girl helps the Burgomaster's daughter dress as a peasant to woo the peasant - meanwhile she dresses as the Burgomaster's daughter.The Prince mistakes the servant girl for the Burgomaster's daughter, falls in love - and madcap hilarity ensues.Will the rich guy get his Maid in Old Amsterdam??? Will the rich Burgomaster's daughter get her peasant??? The story plays out in too many mistaken identity plot devices to count - but the story is fun, clever, charming and actually pretty funny. Recommended viewing.

The good news is that even the title cards have a wit and humor that is carried over beautifully onto film under Fatty Arbuckle's direction for THE RED MILL, based loosely on a Victor Herbert operetta.Quaint is a good word to describe the costumes and settings of the Dutch tale, which opens with a charming ice skating sequence that is played for laughs and largely succeeds because of the clever acting of MARION DAVIES and OWEN MOORE. The tale that follows is a case of mistaken identity, with Moore confusing Davies with the burgonmaster's daughter LOUISE FAZENDA, who is engaged in a comical relationship with someone else.Davies has never been better at establishing herself as a comedienne from the start, given lots of bits of business (on and off the ice), including the stay in a haunted mill that occupies that last fifteen minutes of the story and is a good mixture of laughter and fright.Technically, the film looks great with TCM's restoration and a bouncy score that accompanies rather than distracts (as some of the new scores do). Very worthwhile Marion Davies vehicle shows that she did indeed have promise as more than Hearst's favorite protégé.Trivia note: The sets and costumes cry out for early Technicolor but only the night scenes are shaded a blue tint.