Vive la France!
About Vive la France!
Genevieve Bouchette, a film actress, hears that German troops have killed her parents in Deschon, France. Jean Picard, an actor from the same studio, volunteers for the French army and is sent with a message to a unit cut off from the rest. He reaches Deschon wounded and faints from the blood. He comes back with his memory gone. Nothing Genevieve tries brings it back until he sees the cross of shame on her chest. Dorothy Dalton plays Genevieve. Edmund Lowe plays Jean. Roy William Neill directed.
Cast & crew
More about Vive la France!
C. Gardner Sullivan and H. H. Van Loan wrote it. Thomas H. Ince produced. John S. Stumar and George Barnes photographed it. Famous Players–Lasky and Paramount released it on 15 September 1918. Wikipedia times it in five reels and says a print survives. Fred Starr plays Captain Heinrich May. Tom Guise plays Colonel Bouchier. Bert Woodruff plays Pierre Le Gai. The company is Ince’s, not Fox.
Themes
Background
The story is set in the French war, with a message run into a town already hit by German troops.
Making
Ince produced a war drama in which the memory comes back from a mark on the actress’s body, not from a letter or a face.
Look
John S. Stumar and George Barnes shot Dalton and Lowe.
Preservation
Wikipedia calls the film extant.
Notes
- The cross of shame is what returns Jean’s memory.
- He and Genevieve had worked at the same studio before he enlisted.
- Bert Sprotte plays a German sergeant.
- A listing times the five reels at 50 minutes. Wikipedia does not print a minute count.
Scenes
- Genevieve learns her parents were killed in Deschon.
- Jean faints there after delivering the message.
- The cross on her chest brings his memory back.
