The Love Flower
About The Love Flower
Thomas Bevan, just out of prison for a crime he did not commit, finds his new wife resentful of his daughter Stella. The wife takes a lover. In the fight that follows, a man is killed. Bevan and Stella escape by motorboat to a South Sea island, holding off Secret Service agent Matthew Crane long enough to get away. On a trading trip Stella meets Bruce Sanders and suspects he is tied to the law. Sanders later brings Crane to the island. Stella strands them by wrecking the boat. When another ship washes in, Sanders destroys it to show he is with her. Crane's men arrive. In the struggle Crane thinks Bevan has drowned. Stella and Sanders leave, then come back for him.
Cast & crew
More about The Love Flower
Griffith wrote, produced, and directed it from Ralph Stock's story Black Beach. He shot it in December 1919 alongside The Idol Dancer, in Fort Lauderdale and Nassau, under a First National contract. After an April 2, 1920 preview for the American Newspaper Publishers Association in New York, he bought the picture back for $400,000. United Artists released the reedited film. Published cost figures differ: $91,000 and $300,000.
Themes
Background
A 1920 Griffith feature made while he was a partner in the new United Artists company and still finishing work promised to First National.
Making
Extra underwater footage of Dempster, and shots of her and MacQuarrie against a black background, were made in Florida after the main trip. Griffith then recut the picture for United Artists.
Look
G. W. Bitzer and Paul H. Allen shot the Florida and Nassau exteriors, including the motorboat escape and the underwater passages.
Preservation
A print running 104 minutes survives.
Notes
- Richard Barthelmess plays Bruce Sanders. Carol Dempster plays Stella Bevan. George MacQuarrie plays Thomas Bevan. Anders Randolf plays Matthew Crane.
- Florence Short plays Mrs. Bevan. Adolph Lestina plays the old servant. Crauford Kent plays her visitor.
- G. W. Bitzer and Paul H. Allen photographed it. James Smith edited.
- New York saw it on August 22, 1920. The general United States release was September 5, 1920. Seven reels. A circulating copy runs 1 hour 44 minutes.
- In a 1921 interview Dempster said she did the high dive and the underwater scenes herself, with no double.
Scenes
- Bevan and Stella get away in the motorboat after holding Crane back.
- Sanders wrecks the ship that washes ashore so Stella will believe he is not Crane's man.
- Dempster's dive and the underwater scenes, which she said she performed herself.
Influenced by
- Black Beach, a story by Ralph Stock
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheLoveFlower1920_201603)
- Wikimedia Commons
