Wine of Youth
About Wine of Youth
Mary is courted by two men and is afraid to marry because her parents quarrel. She and her friends try a mock honeymoon in the woods, with drinking and cigarettes, to see what a man is like day to day. She comes back and accepts Lynn, the quieter of the two suitors.
Cast & crew
More about Wine of Youth
King Vidor directed. Carey Wilson wrote the script from Rachel Crothers's 1923 play Mary the Third. Louis B. Mayer and Vidor produced. John J. Mescall photographed it. MGM released it on September 15, 1924. Vidor later called it an exploitation piece and said the restrictions took the point out of the trial-marriage idea. ZaSu Pitts's scenes were cut.
Themes
Background
MGM made it in 1924, after Flaming Youth had shown that a flapper picture would sell.
Making
Vidor said the censors and the studio rules left little of the trial marriage Crothers had put on stage.
Look
John J. Mescall photographed the parlor scenes and the outing in the woods.
Preservation
A print is at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester. The 70th Berlin International Film Festival screened it in February 2020.
Notes
- Eleanor Boardman plays Mary. Ben Lyon plays Lynn. Niles Welch, James W. Morrison, and Johnnie Walker are among the other men.
- William Haines, Creighton Hale, Pauline Garon, and William Collier Jr. are in the young crowd.
- Jean Arthur is an uncredited automobile reveler. ZaSu Pitts was filmed as Lucy and then cut.
- The opening contrasts a Victorian parlor courtship with the flappers' outing.
- MGM put it out soon after the April 1924 merger, following the box-office run of Flaming Youth (1923).
- The George Eastman Museum preserves a print. The Berlinale showed it in February 2020 in a King Vidor retrospective.
Scenes
- Victorian girls in a parlor tell their beaux the love is unlike any other.
- Mary and her friends drink and smoke on a pretend honeymoon in the forest.
- She accepts Lynn.
Influenced by
- Mary the Third (1923 play)
- Flaming Youth (1923)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Wine of Youth 1924.webm)
Quotes
There's never been so great a love as ours.
