Stolen Moments

1920 RomanceDrama 6 reels (1920 original, lost); 35 minutes (1922 reissue) Directed by James Vincent

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About Stolen Moments

In a Florida park, Brazilian novelist José Dalmarez gives young Vera Blaine a photograph with a poem on the back. She answers with an inscribed book and takes his invitation to Brazil as a proposal. He wants a companion, not a wife, and sails alone, where he courts Inez Salles until her brother Alvarez fights him. Vera marries her guardian, lawyer Hugh Conway. José comes back, hints that Hugh should see the old letters, and she goes to his house to reclaim them. In the struggle she strikes him with a dagger and runs, sure she has killed him. Alvarez, who had come from Brazil after letters of his own sister's, delivers the blow that actually kills Dalmarez and confesses.

Cast & crew

More about Stolen Moments

James Vincent directed. H. Thomson Rich wrote the story and Richard Hall the scenario. Walter Niebuhr presented it for American Cinema Corporation. Pioneer Film Corporation distributed it on a states-rights basis in December 1920. The company rushed the shoot so Rudolph Valentino could reach Hollywood for The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Themes

Making

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse opened on 6 March 1921. Stolen Moments had to be finished first so Valentino could report for it.

Music

Silent, with English intertitles. Jon Mirsalis later scored copies of the short reissue.

Preservation

The six-reel 1920 release is lost. The three-reel 1922 reissue, about 35 minutes, survives in private collections and as 16mm reduction prints. Nitrate fragments are also reported in the Dixie Canyon collection.

Notes

  • Marguerite Namara, an opera singer, was the star the six-reel version was built around. Valentino plays José, the last villain role of his career.
  • Aileen Pringle, billed as Aileen Savage, plays Inez Salles. Albert L. Barrett is Hugh Conway.
  • Select Pictures cut the film to three reels in November 1922 and reissued it to cash in on Valentino.
  • Copyright was registered 14 October 1920 (LP15703). The U.S. rights are in the public domain.
  • The shorter version had its U.S. television premiere on Turner Classic Movies on 22 May 2006.

Scenes

  • Vera offers her mother's wedding ring and Dalmarez tells her he never meant marriage.
  • Alvarez tells the police he found Dalmarez getting up and struck the fatal blow himself.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-stolen-moments)