Flaming Youth
The Kansas State Board of Review, which was created in 1913 and replaced the Moving Picture Censorship Committee, reviewed Flaming Youth and ordered the modifications noted below in materials from the Kansas State Historical Association. Flaming Youth is considered a lost film. If the materials outlined as modified are any indication, the film was just as racy for its time as the newspapers claimed. Date of Review: 1923-11-02
Company Name: ASSOCIATED FIRST NATIONAL
Starring: COLLEEN MOORE
Notes: None
Contains Smoking? Not Stated
Eliminations: REEL 1 ELIMINATE ALL BUT ONE SCENE OF WOMAN ON SETTEE IN ARMS OF MAN, ALSO ACTION OF MAN WITH WET TROUSER LEG. REEL 2 - ELIMINATE ALL BUT ONE SCENE OF COUPLES KISSING. ELIMINATE TITLE "BBY MUST GO BACK TO HER CRADLE." ALSO ACTION OF DRUNKEN MEN; AND GIRLS. REEL 3 - REDUCE ALL DRUNKEN SCNES AT PARTY-ELIMINATE CLOSEUP. REEL 4 - ELIMINATE ALL ACTIONS OF PAT WITH SHOULDER INVITING KISS. REDUCE SCENE OF MONTY AND PAT IN CONSERVATORY. REEL 5 - RECUDE SCENES OF PAT AND CARY SITTING ON BENCH. ELIMINATE TITLE. "THAT'S JUST A WHITE KISS --" CLOSEUP OF PAT'S FACE. THERE ARE RED KISSES AND WHITE KISSES." REEL 6 - ELIMINATE TITLE "ANYWAY WE LIKE" ELIMINATE CARY KISSING PAT'S SHOULDER. REEL 7 - REDUCE SCENES OF PAT ON SOFA. ELIMINATE; CLOSEUP OF FACES OF PAT AND STENAK. REEL 8 - SCENES OF PAT AND STENCK AT TABLE. ELIMINATE TITLE "NO LAWS--NO RULE, ETC." REEL 9 - ELIMINATE CLOSEUP OF STENAK'S FACE.
Box Number: 35-06-06-08 |
The Washington Post, in its review of Flaming Youth on January 3rd, referred to the film's subject as the "'dangerous excesses' of our young people" revealed in "frank fashion, but the climax of the picture is such that the lingering memory is that a fine tribute has been paid the judgment and innate good sense of American youth…
"During the development of the story there are revealed a succession of scenes depicting such revelry as... giddy dancing, 'petting parties,' an almost total disregard of the conventions--but this aspect serves only as a background for the major lover story of 'Pat' Frentiss, daughter of a pleasure-loving mother and Cary Scott, cosmopolite.
"In the principal role Colleen Moore offers a portrayal, which by its versatility, verve and convincing naturalness, stamps her as one of the most brilliant of the screen's younger stars."
The new year got its start with a squib in the January 5th, Exhibitors Herald of Chicago noting The Swamp Angel Colleen's next First National film, will be issued under the name Painted People, and while the film was being rushed into release to ride the success of Flaming Youth, Colleen's last Goldwyn film Through the Dark was released first.
Though Colleen was generally liked by the public, there were those who found the sudden clamor around her and her films to be little more than hype. The January 20th New York Tribune published the following mini-debate in it letters to Harriette Underhill:
“My Dear Miss Underhill:
“Here I am breaking into an epistle to tell you how you have surprised me by an entirely different view from mine, while I have maintained an ecstatic silence during the long time I have been reading your stuff and nodding approvingly and admiringly over it.
“It’s about Colleen Moore. In reviewing Through the Dark, you said that 'Colleen Moore is the daughter, which is equivalent to saying that the part is beautifully played.' I had made up my mind never to waste my time watching Miss Moore’s vapid wanderings through a film again, but I’m going to see this picture as soon as possible and search for the beauty of her acting. Where was it hiding in Flaming Youth? I asked a boy of the party, a Harvard student, if he thought she acted in the role of the modern girl, and answered 'Thank goodness, no!'”
“Will you tell us sometime what makes the beauty of Colleen Moore’s acting? I put my faith in your estimates of the screen people. Sincerely,
--Margaret Toomey."
The response was: “Elinor Glyn once said that no one could succeed on the screen unless she had ‘it.’ It seems to me that Colleen Moore has ‘it’ and I think she is a great little actress. As Heywood Broun said, however, ‘nobody knows what good acting is anyway, and those who do are wrong.’”
In March, a story circulated that First National would be moving it's productions to New York and that Colleen would be becoming a New Yorker; while Hollywood was the center of film production, the money for the studios was still mostly back east. The Astoria Studios had been opened by Adolph Zuckor in 1920, sign that the dominance of Hollywood was not complete. Portions of many of Colleen's own films had been made outside of California, so the story was not entirely unthinkable (and it would persist until September). Colleen remained a Californian.
Colleen's next film would reunite the individuals responsible for the success of Flaming Youth according to the January 30th Seattle Times: Colleen Moore, John Francis Dillon (who directed Flaming Youth) and Harry O. Hoyt (who wrote the adaptation of Flaming Youth). "The story appeared originally in Ainsle’s Magazine as The Mouth of the Dragon, a short story written by Jesse Henderson. 'What kind of girl do I have to be to be the kind of girl the fellows want me to be?' is the epigrammatical outline of the story." Not everyone could come back onboard for the reunion: it was stated Milton Sills was to appear in the film, but it noted that he was at work on the title role in Frank Lloyd’s Sea Hawk. Instead, Sydney Chaplin (Charlie's brother) was brought in. It was produced by Earl Hudson (John's best man) and the writers turned out to be Joseph Poland as scenarist and Marion Fairfax as editorial director (Mrs. Tully Marshall, according to the April 2nd Los Angeles News, "author-playwright-scenarist-film editor, who has been engaged by First National to cut and edit Colleen Moore’s latest effort for the screen, The Perfect Flapper.”)
