The Lure of the Gown
About The Lure of the Gown
Isabelle, in a new gown, draws the men, including Enrico, who drops his sweetheart Veronica, an Italian street singer in plain clothes. He leaves her crying at a park gate. A wealthy couple stops, hears that a dress did it, and gives Veronica a gown of her own. At the Italian Benevolent Association ball she is the one people watch. Enrico begs her to take him back and swears it is not the dress. She does not believe him. She turns to a poorer Italian who has kept after her anyway.
Cast & crew
More about The Lure of the Gown
D. W. Griffith directed and wrote the short. G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed it. Biograph released it on 15 March 1909. It runs 6 minutes. Moving Picture World printed the story. Marion Leonard plays Isabelle. Harry Solter plays Enrico. Florence Lawrence plays Veronica.
Themes
Making
Griffith uses one dress change: Veronica enters the ball in the gown the stranger gave her, and Enrico's apology fails.
Look
G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed the park gate and the Benevolent Association ball.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The Moving Picture World text opens with the proverb "Fine feathers make fine birds.
- The gift gown comes from the wife in the passing couple, not from Enrico.
- The ball is the Italian Benevolent Association.
- Linda Arvidson, Edwin August, John R. Cumpson, Adele DeGarde, and Anita Hendrie are also on the cast list.
- Veronica's last choice is the man who wanted her before the gown.
Scenes
- Veronica cries at the park entrance after Enrico leaves her for Isabelle's gown.
- At the ball she tells Enrico it is the dress he wants, and she walks off with the other man.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-lure-of-the-gown)
