Souls for Sale
About Souls for Sale
Remember Steddon, called Mem, leaves her new husband Owen Scudder on the wedding-night train in the desert. Owen marries women, insures them, and kills them. A film company is shooting nearby. Actor Tom Holby finds her, and she stays on as an extra. In Hollywood, Leva Lemaire gets her a test for director Frank Claymore. She fails it, then improves under his coaching. Owen tracks her, tries to shoot Claymore, and is let go. When star Robina Teele is hurt by a falling light, Mem replaces her on a circus set. A storm sets the tent on fire. Claymore keeps the cameras turning. Owen, working as an extra, drives a wind machine at Claymore, then dies saving Mem, and tells her they were never legally married. She chooses Claymore.
Cast & crew
More about Souls for Sale
Rupert Hughes wrote, directed, and produced it from his own novel. John J. Mescall photographed it. Goldwyn released it in the United States on March 27, 1923. Eleanor Boardman, in her first lead, plays Mem. She had won Goldwyn's New Faces of 1922 contest. Lew Cody plays Owen. Richard Dix plays Claymore. Frank Mayo plays Tom Holby.
Themes
Making
Hughes shot desert location work and then the studio circus tent, and cut in visits to Chaplin's and Stroheim's sets.
Reviews
Roger Ebert called Souls for Sale "a prime example of the mid-range entertainment Hollywood was producing so skillfully at the time."
Look
John J. Mescall photographed the desert company and the circus-tent fire, which Claymore orders filmed while it burns.
Music
Marcus Sjöwall wrote a new score for the 2005 restoration.
Preservation
Incomplete prints were reassembled for a 2005 restoration by MGM and Turner Classic Movies. The picture is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Mae Busch plays Robina Teele. Barbara La Marr plays Leva Lemaire. William Haines plays Pinkey.
- Charlie Chaplin appears directing a setup from A Woman of Paris. Erich von Stroheim is shown filming a scene from Greed. King Vidor, Fred Niblo, and Marshall Neilan also pass through.
- Surviving prints are incomplete. MGM and Turner Classic Movies restored one in 2005, with a score by Marcus Sjöwall. It premiered on TCM on January 24, 2006, and Warner Archive issued a DVD in June 2009.
- It entered the U.S. public domain in 2019. A copy is on the Internet Archive as SoulsForSale1923.
- Roger Ebert called it a prime example of the mid-range entertainment Hollywood was making at the time.
Scenes
- Mem steps off the train in the desert and is found by a film company.
- Owen dies in the tent fire after saving her, and says the marriage was not legal.
Influenced by
- Rupert Hughes's novel Souls for Sale
Also available
- Internet Archive (SoulsForSale1923)
- Warner Archive Collection DVD (June 2009)