Sunday, February 15, 2015

Silent Sundays: The Love Flower (1920)

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“In what measure shall Love forgive these deeds done for its sake?”

            The Love Flower begins with a girl named Margaret and her father Thomas Bevan living on an island in the tropics. He is a trader who has been swindled and taken advantage of by another trader named Crane. His new wife Clara is bored to tears on the island. Because of her boredom she takes up with another man while Thomas is out. The servants know that the man comes around the house and one of them tells Thomas as he is walking to the house. He does not want to believe what the servant has told him. Thomas only believes what he has been told when he sees the other man’s hat on a chair. Thomas goes into the other room where he sees his wife and the other man kissing. The two men start to fight. The other man takes out a gun. It accidentally goes off in the scuffle and the other man is killed. Thomas takes Margaret and tries to runaway unseen on a small motorized fishing boat. The boat needs gas so Thomas goes to buy some. They see Crane by the boat. Thomas sneaks up behind the trader and holds a gun to him so he cannot run and tells the police. Crane promises Thomas he will be found and brought to justice.
Image result for the love flower 1920
            A search goes out to every port in the world for Thomas and Margaret. No one is able to find them for years. They have been hold up on a small island with only one native. Margaret has not seen a white man except for her father in all those years. That is until a young wealthy man named Jerry appears on the island. He has been sailing the seas on his own exploring. Jerry and Margaret run into each other. It is love at first sight for both of them. She likes him but is suspicious of any stranger for the sake of her father. She tells him to leave. Jerry leaves but he gets into a fight with some natives over them stealing his coat. Margaret comes to his aid. In her hand Margaret had the hyacinth flower which to the natives is considered a Love Flower. Jerry picks up the flowers she had dropped. She runs away from him yet she cherishes the flower he handed to her. He also cherishes the flower as it reminds him of Margaret and places it between the pages of a book.
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            Crane manages to track Thomas and Margaret down to somewhere in the area. He is told that a native has found them on an island. Jerry returns to port. Not knowing that Jerry has seen Margaret, Crane has the young man take him to the island. Crane finds Thomas. Jerry comes up to their camp. Margaret automatically thinks Jerry is a spy and does not want anything to do with him. She goes to his boat without him knowing and sinks it. In the morning when they go to leave Jerry cannot find his boat. He sends out distress signals which the police see and send out a police boat to the island.
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            Jerry loves Margaret and he is upset that she does not believe him. He tries showing her the flower but that does not work. He finds his boat in low tide. Margaret tells him that she sank it because she did not want him taking her father away. Jerry then takes his boat and sinks it again to prove he loves her.
            Other things happen, my ADHD got in the way, Thomas is a free man, and, big surprise, Margaret and Jerry get married.

            I do not know what I was expecting with The Love Flower. I try to avoid D.W. Griffith films because they can be so dragged out and the stories boring but I figured The Love Flower only runs an hour and thirty-six minutes how bad can it be. The film was not absolutely terrible but it was not that great. Griffith direction is stunning as it usually is. The biggest issue I had with this film is the story. It was very boring and a bit slow. I am not going to say to not watch The Love Flower; it is worth seeing at least once. 
Image result for the love flower 1920

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