The Blonde Saint

The Blonde Saint
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Directed by	Svend Gade
Written by	Marion Fairfax (scenario)
Based on	The Isle of Life by Stephen French Whitman
Produced by	Sam E. Rork
Starring	Lewis Stone Doris Kenyon Gilbert Roland
Cinematography	Tony Gaudio
Distributed by	First National Pictures
Release date	November 20, 1926 (1926-11-20)
Running time	70 minutes 7 reels (6,800 feet)
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Blonde Saint is a 1926 American silent romantic adventure film directed by Svend Gade. It was produced by Sam E. Rork and released through First National Pictures. Lewis Stone and Doris Kenyon star and young newcomer Gilbert Roland is featured.^[1]

The plot of the film bears a striking resemblance to the plot of the Warner Brothers talkie, One Way Passage (1932), although this silent film appears to have been more exotic.

Plot

As described in a film magazine review,^[2] playboy Sebastian Maure has taken an interest in the prim and proper Ghirlaine "Anne" Bellamy, but she resists him as he has such a reputation, believed in nothing, and lived but to satisfy his own desires. Her better self tells her to go with the more virtuous Vincent Pamfort, and she finally tells Maure that she is going to leave to go to England to be with Pamfort. Maure gets her to go on a ship going to Palermo, and when near Sicily he grabs Anne and jumps overboard. They swim to a small island with a fishing village. They find that the village is suffering from a cholera plague. Maure devotes himself to the care of the poor. Anne, prompted by his self sacrefice, does her share of nursing and begins to wonder whether she is glad that Maure has promised to give her up. In answer to a letter from Maure, Pamfort arrives at the island, but now Anne elects to stay with Maure.

Cast

• Lewis Stone as Sebastian Maure
• Doris Kenyon as Ghirlaine Bellamy
• Ann Rork as Fannia
• Gilbert Roland as Annibale
• Cesare Gravina as Ilario
• Malcolm Denny as Vincent Pamfort
• Albert Conti as Andreas
• Vadim Uraneff as Nino
• Lillian Langdon
• Leo White as Tito

Production

Producer Rork's 19-year-old daughter, Ann Rork, has a major role in the film as she has in her father's later produced The Notorious Lady (1927). Lewis Stone also returned in The Notorious Lady.^[3][4]

This was the final film of screenwriter Marion Fairfax. She and producer Rork had formed a partnership to make films in 1925, but, following the completion The Blonde Saint and a severe illness, she left film making and then wrote only for periodicals.^[5]

Preservation

An abridged and or incomplete version of survives in the British Film Institute National Film and Television Archive, London.^[6]

References

1. Progressive Silent Film List: The Blond Saint at silentera.com
2. "The Blonde Saint". The Film Daily. 38 (49). New York City: Wid's Films and Film Folks, Inc.: 12 November 28, 1926. Retrieved December 24, 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 by The American Film Institute, c.1971
4. The Blonde Saint at Arne Andersen's Lost Film Files: First National Pictures 1926
5. Phillips, Sarah (2018). "Silent Screenwriter, Producer and Director: Marion Fairfax". In Welch, Rosanne (ed.). When Women Wrote Hollywood: Essays on Female Screenwriters in the Early Film Industry. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-1-4766-3277-3.
6. The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: The Blonde Saint

External links

• The Blonde Saint at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Synopsis at AllMovie