''Poor Relations'' is a 1919 American
silent drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...
directed by
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...
.
Produced by the Brentwood Corporation, the film starred Vidor’s wife
Florence Vidor
Florence Vidor (née Cobb, later Arto; July 23, 1895 – November 3, 1977) was an American silent film actress.
Early life
Vidor was born in Houston on July 23, 1895, to John and Ida Cobb. Her parents had married in Houston on March 3, 1894, bu ...
and featured comedienne
Zasu Pitts
Zasu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's epic 1924 silent film ''Greed'', and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the ...
.
The picture is the final of four
Christian Science
Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known ...
precept films that represent a brief phase in Vidor’s output championing the superiority of self-healing through moral strength and supplemented by the benefits of rural living.
Plot
Country girl Dorothy Perkins succeeds as an architect in the city, but then is scorned by her old-money in-laws.
Cast
*
Florence Vidor
Florence Vidor (née Cobb, later Arto; July 23, 1895 – November 3, 1977) was an American silent film actress.
Early life
Vidor was born in Houston on July 23, 1895, to John and Ida Cobb. Her parents had married in Houston on March 3, 1894, bu ...
as Dorothy Perkins
*
Lillian Leighton
Lillianne Brown Leighton (May 17, 1874 – March 19, 1956), known professionally as Lillian Leighton, was an American silent film actress. Leighton started her career in Chicago.
Leighton was born in Auroraville, Wisconsin, on May 17, 187 ...
as Ma Perkins
*
William De Vaull
William De Vaull (December 12, 1870 – June 4, 1945) - also credited as William P. DeVaull - was an American film actor. He appeared in more than thirty films from 1915 to 1927.
Filmography
References
External links
*
1870 births
...
as Pa Perkins (as William Du Vaull)
*
Roscoe Karns
Roscoe, also spelled Rosco or Roscow, may refer to:
People
* Roscoe (name)
Places United States
* Roscoe, California (disambiguation)
* Roscoe Township (disambiguation)
* Roscoe, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Roscoe, Illinois, a villag ...
as Henry
*
ZaSu Pitts
Zasu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's epic 1924 silent film ''Greed'', and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the ...
as Daisy Perkins
*
Charles Meredith as Monty Rhodes
Reception
The reviews were "poor".
Exhibitor’s Trade Review observed that “the slender, fragile story has just about all it can do to make its way through the new-mown hay atmosphere.”
Theme
Poor Relations provides an early example of Vidor’s “feminist” presentation of professional and independent women, emphasizing reciprocal exchanges between the sexes.
[Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 15: Vidor a “natural feminist” in that his female protagonists “drive men crazy, or inspire them, and do what they want, without becoming superior beings.” and the “reciprocity etween men and womenconstitute its mainspring.”]
Baxter 1976 p. 14: Baxter identifies The Real Adventure and Woman, Wake Up, both 1922, as early feminist cinema by Vidor.
Footnotes
References
*Baxter, John. 1976. ''King Vidor''. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number 75-23544.
*
Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. ''King Vidor, American.'' University of California Press, Berkeley.
*
Gustafsson, Fredrik. 2016. ''King Vidor, An American Romantic'' La furia umana. LFU/28 Winter 2016. http://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/61-archive/lfu-28/548-fredrik-gustafsson-king-vidor-an-american-romantic Retrieved 4 June 2020.
External links
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{{King Vidor
1919 films
Silent American drama films
Films directed by King Vidor
American silent feature films
1919 drama films
American black-and-white films
Film Booking Offices of America films
1910s American films