First National
Stills from The Nth Commandment.
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Look Your Best was released February 18, again a Goldwyn picture, followed a little less than a month later by The Nth Commandment by Famous Players Laskey-Paramount. The Nth Commandment had been a Cosmopolitan Production, as had Through the Dark (Cosmopolitan Corporation). Both roles she had gotten in part due to her new friendship with Marion Davies, who was the mistress of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had created Cosmopolitan to give Marion an opportunity to star in films. By February she had also confirmed her engagement to McCormick.
In May, Colleen signed a contract for three films with Associated First National Pictures. She had been a highly regarded actress with a track record of popular films, an up-and-comer. It doubtless did not hurt that she had John McCormick campaigning for her. Not only was she is fiancée, but he saw a special quality in her. "Realizing the important relation of good players to the successful screening of good stories," the Los Angeles Times reported on May 3rd, "it is announced that this company will groom its most promising young players by means of leading roles and featured parts until stardom is justified.
Poster from Look Your Best, from the Margaret Herrick Library collection. |
“Miss Moore's first appearance is scheduled for the title role of The Huntress, which is to be directed by Lyn Reynolds.... Her second appearance under her new contract will be in Flaming Youth, which will be directed by Jack Dillon.”
At least one news report suggests that Colleen had already bobbed her hair for her role in The Huntress so as to wear her wig more easily. Short hair had been in fashion since shortly after Colleen arrived in Hollywood, and in viewing her early films it is easy to see that the long hair and sausage curls she wore when she first arrived in Hollywood were quickly shed. It was only when she went to Goldwyn that she grew it long again, willing to alter her appearance as necessary to secure work. Bobbing her hair, especially given the vogue for short hair in the early 1920s, would not have been too radical a departure for Colleen. She had already taken to wearing her hair in a faux bobbed style, short in front and on the sides and rolled up in back, One story reported her mother definitely would not let her bob her hair, and the question was asked many tomes of her in print. He opinion on the whole flapper movement tended to shift, depending on the image she was trying to project, but tended to hover in the area of thinking there was nothing wrong with them, but she was not necessarily a flapper herself.
Still from Broken Hearts of Boradway. |
At that point in her career, colleen’s roles had been sliding more towards modern ones, though she was still the go-to girl for a good old-fashioned heroine in distress, a duality that did not help her career. It could have been perceived as sitting on the fence. Eventually, she would have to plant her feet firmly on the modern side of the fence if she wanted to advance, or else risk her career fading away like many of the heroines she had played. If it had necessary to get a role—for instance, Patricia Frentiss in Flaming Youth—she would have gladly chopped her hair off for the part
Flaming Youth had been a sensation as a book. People talked about it around the water cooler and over back fences. Patricia Frentiss, the character she would play, was a controversial character. A young girl, she was worldly beyond her years in the way most young women seemed to be in those days. The fame Colleen sought had eluded her to that point, so taking the role was a gamble that could potentially pay off handsomely. At a minimum, it would attract a lot of attention, though not all of it might turn out favorable. The character would be racier and more sharply drawn then any of the other characters she had played on film.
Whichever came first--the bobbed hair or the film role, her first genuine “flapper” on film—the new short hair style marked a change for Colleen's image, one that she needed. The film Slippy McGee was released in June with Broken Hearts of Broadway fast on its heels. Filming on The Huntress was close to finished. It had been a difficult location shoot under hard conditions. The production of Flaming Youth was due to begin production quickly after Colleen’s work on The Huntress. All that, and in addition Colleen had a wedding date fast approaching. It was a very hectic period for Colleen, and soon things would only become more of a whirlwind.
