Fool's Paradise

1921 Romance 90 minutes Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

About Fool's Paradise

Arthur Phelps, wounded in the World War, falls for the French dancer Rosa Duchene while he is in a hospital in France. Back in an oil town on the Mexican border he meets cantina dancer Poll Patchouli, who loves him. A trick cigar Poll gave him explodes at the stage door and blinds him. When Poll imitates Rosa in the cantina, he thinks she is Rosa and marries her. An eye surgeon restores his sight. He leaves to find Rosa in Siam, sees what she is, and comes back in time to take Poll away from the cantina owner, John Roderiguez. They marry again.

Cast & crew

More about Fool's Paradise

Cecil B. DeMille directed and produced it. Sada Cowan and Beulah Marie Dix adapted Leonard Merrick's story "Laurels and the Lady," from his 1908 book The Man Who Understood Women. Alvin Wyckoff and Karl Struss photographed it. Anne Bauchens edited it. Paramount released a general version on December 9, 1921. An 11,000-foot version opened at the Criterion Theatre in New York on December 19, 1921. The general release is nine reels, 8,681 feet.

Themes

  • A trick cigar that blinds
  • A woman impersonating a rival
  • Sight restored
  • A return from Siam
  • Poll Patchouli
  • Rosa Duchene
  • blindness
  • cantina
  • Siam
  • Mexican border
  • DeMille

Making

DeMille shot the border-town story and the Siam episode for Famous Players-Lasky, then opened a longer cut at the Criterion a week after the general release.

Look

Alvin Wyckoff and Karl Struss photographed the cantina, the blinding, and the Siam sequence.

Music

Silent.

Preservation

The film survives complete. 35mm prints are at the George Eastman Museum and the Library of Congress. UCLA holds 35mm and 16mm copies.

Notes

  • Dorothy Dalton plays Poll Patchouli. Conrad Nagel plays Arthur Phelps. Mildred Harris plays Rosa Duchene. Theodore Kosloff plays John Roderiguez.
  • John Davidson plays Prince Talaat-Ni in the Siam episode. Julia Faye plays his chief wife, Samaran.
  • Baby Peggy appears, uncredited, as a child.
  • The picture survives complete.

Scenes

  • The trick cigar explodes at the stage door and Arthur goes blind while Rosa dances.
  • Poll imitates Rosa's voice so the blind Arthur will marry her.

Influenced by

  • Laurels and the Lady by Leonard Merrick (1908)

More from Cecil B. DeMille

View all →