Poor Relations

Poor Relations
Poor Relations
	Contemporary advertisement
Directed by	King Vidor
Written by	King Vidor
Starring	Florence Vidor
Cinematography	Ira H. Morgan
Distributed by	Robertson-Cole
Release date	November 1, 1919;
Running time	50 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent with English intertitles

Poor Relations is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor.^[1] Produced by the Brentwood Corporation, the film starred Vidor’s wife Florence Vidor and featured comedienne ZaSu Pitts.^[2]

The picture is the final of four Christian Science 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.^[3]

Plot

Country girl Dorothy Perkins succeeds as an architect in the city, but then is scorned by her old-money in-laws.^[4]

Cast

Florence Vidor as Dorothy Perkins
Lillian Leighton as Ma Perkins
William De Vaull as Pa Perkins (as William Du Vaull)
Roscoe Karns as Henry
ZaSu Pitts as Daisy Perkins
Charles Meredith as Monty Rhodes

Reception

The reviews were "poor". Exhibitors 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."^[5]

Theme

Poor Relations provides an early example of Vidor’s “feminist” presentation of professional and independent women, emphasizing reciprocal exchanges between the sexes.^[6]

Footnotes

^ "Progressive Silent Film List: Poor Relations". Silent Era. Retrieved November 5, 2010.
^ Baxter 1976 p. 9
^ (Gustafssson 2016: “The film “advocated views associated with Christian Science (not to be confused with Scientology, a then relatively new religious movement that came about towards the end of the 19th century and to which Vidor claimed allegiance.”
Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 26
Baxter 1976 p. 9
^ Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337
^ Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337: ETR 25 October 1919.
^ 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 [between men and women] constitute its mainspring.”
Baxter 1976 p. 14: Baxter identifies The Real Adventure and Woman, Wake Up, both 1922, as early feminist cinema by Vidor.

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. ISBN 0-520-05798-8
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

Poor Relations at IMDb

[silentera-1] "Progressive Silent Film List: Poor Relations". Silent Era. Retrieved November 5, 2010.

[2] Baxter 1976 p. 9

[3] (Gustafssson 2016: “The film “advocated views associated with Christian Science (not to be confused with Scientology, a then relatively new religious movement that came about towards the end of the 19th century and to which Vidor claimed allegiance.”
Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 26
Baxter 1976 p. 9

[4] Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337

[5] Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337: ETR 25 October 1919.

[6] 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 [between men and women] constitute its mainspring.”
Baxter 1976 p. 14: Baxter identifies The Real Adventure and Woman, Wake Up, both 1922, as early feminist cinema by Vidor.

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