What Happened To Rosa
About What Happened To Rosa
Mayme Ladd (Mabel Normand), a clerk at Friedman's department store, is told by Madame Yvette O'Donnell (Eugenie Besserer) that she is the reincarnation of a Spanish noblewoman, Rosa Alvaro, and will meet a dark young man. On the streetcar she tries a Spanish accent and rides free. At home she finds her mother's old vaudeville Spanish costume and puts it on. Her coworker Gwen (Doris Pawn) flees when Mayme announces she is Rosa. The next day Mayme falls for a customer at the hosiery counter, Dr. Maynard Drew (Hugh Thompson).
Cast & crew
More about What Happened To Rosa
Victor Schertzinger directed. Samuel Goldwyn produced. George Webber photographed it. Goldwyn released it in December 1920, and some territories got it in 1921. It runs 54 minutes, about 4,148 feet, in five reels. The working title was Rosa Alvaro. The character name follows Pearl Lenore Curran's story and the intertitles, not the spellings Alviro or Alvira. Tully Marshall plays Percy Peacock. Adolphe Menjou is an uncredited reporter friend of the doctor. The Internet Archive identifier is WhatHappenedToRosa5.
Themes
Making
Goldwyn built the comedy on one costume: the Spanish dance dress Mayme finds in her mother's trunk.
Look
George Webber photographed the store counter and the apartment transformation.
Preservation
A print survives and is on the Internet Archive as WhatHappenedToRosa5.
Notes
- AFI subject headings for the film include a yacht and a presumed drowning. Those scenes are not in the short store plot.
- Buster Trow plays Jim.
- Curran's story and the titles use Rosa Alvaro.
- Normand plays both Mayme and the Rosa she invents.
- The picture is silent, with English intertitles.
Scenes
- Madame O'Donnell tells Mayme she was Rosa Alvaro.
- Mayme puts on her mother's Spanish costume and fans Gwen out of the room.
- She meets Dr. Drew over the hosiery counter.
Influenced by
- a story by Pearl Lenore Curran
Also available
- Internet Archive (WhatHappenedToRosa5)
