A Kiss for Cinderella. 1925. Directed by Herbert Brenon.

(1/2/00)

This is an almost magically lovely and poignant film. It's really about a woman whose life is so difficult that she retreats into fantasy. This is a pretty sophisticated subject and I would think it would be difficult to make it work in a film built around a fairy tale. But work it does. Perhps if it had been done in a more sophisticated fashion it wouldn't have been so simply tender.

I didn't care so much for Betty Bronson in the first part of the film. I just didn't find her attractive and it seemed like she was still doing Peter Pan. But as soon as she changed to go to the ball I fell completely under her spell.

I really liked how the character of the policeman goes through a change as he gets to know the heroine. He is prosaic and down to earth at the beginning--he never even heard of the story of Cinderella. He is totally insensitive to this woman. Once he discovers that she takes care of orphans with the few pennies she can earn his heart melts and he becomes a different person. One of the most beautiful lines in the whole film is when he says, "I wish I was a prince."

Esther Ralston is radiant as the fairy godmother.

The dream sequence is the highlight of the film and an absolute joy. Every time I see this film the prince reminds me of Louis Nye as Sonny Drysdale. I love that sequence. The presence of the orphans in their nightgowns adds so much. I was worried that I might be impatient with it because the rest of the film is so moving, but I didn't. It is hysterically funny even while the poignancy remains.

The ending does have a fairy-tale quality to it. "Cinderella" is taken to a house by the sea to recuperate. But whose house is it? Who is paying her medical bills? There is no answer as far as I can tell. But let it be. The film touches horror, but doesn't plunge into it. It is a beautiful fantasy.