You Little Devil!

Milestone film & video chose Tuesday, July 11th as their release date for the much anticipated Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino film Beyond the Rocks (1922). This was two short days before the trip to San Francisco and I’ve only just managed to have a look at the video this weekend. Milestone does an excellent job with the special features, which often amount to nothing more than padding in these dvd presentations. Thanks to Haghefilm Conservation and the Filmmuseum Netherlands they include fascinating programs exploring the discovery and restoration of this and other films. There is even a 1955 wire recording of Miss Swanson prattling on about Hollywood, offered as running commentary with Beyond the Rocks. What was a complete surprise in this video presentation was the second feature,

included with the bonus material, The Delicious Little Devil (1919). For anyone who has only seen Mae Murray in Erich von Stroheim’s The Merry Widow (1925), this film will be a revelation. Yes, Rudy is in this film also, it was included in the Valentino program shown on TCM this spring, but he is off-screen much of the time and The Delicious Little Devil is without a doubt Murray’s picture.
Mae Murray got her start dancing with Vernon Castle on Broadway and soon was a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Despite her diminutive size, she was an energetic powerhouse on stage. Her film career, featuring Murray’s skills in dance and light comedy began in 1916. The Delicious Little Devil was her twentieth film.

The Delicious Little Devil (1919)

Mary McGuire (Murray) is a sweet but precocious girl with working class roots. When she’s fired from her job as a hat check girl, Mary answers an ad for a cabaret dancer at "The Peach Tree Inn" claiming to be "Gloria De Moin", a well known but missing dancer of dubious reputation. A key requirement for the job is the shady past Mary lacks. The audition and subsequent performance are utterly delightful. Murray’s portrayal of the good girl playing bad in an unfamiliar and seedy nightclub world is adorable. This is one case when a stagy, over-the-top performance, the opposite of someone understated like Mary Pickford, is not only called for but perfectly suited to the part. Murray’s character performing "The Peacock Walk" to the adulation of the darkened club begins with preparations by Mary, a little girl play-acting the part, and ends in a vampy, sexy and hilarious success!

Valentino plays the love interest, a rich kid whose father tries to discourage him from getting involved with a "cabaret dancer".
Milestone’s release includes fantastic looking new inter-titles (a far cry from the hideous titles used for Beyond the Rocks), and a great musical score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Now that a new print exists, wouldn’t it be fantastic if this film was shown locally on a big screen?