The Desert Flower (film)

The Desert Flower
The Desert Flower
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Irving Cummings
Screenplay by	June Mathis
Based on	The Desert Flower; by Don Mullally
Starring	Colleen Moore; Lloyd Hughes; Kate Price; Gino Corrado; Fred Warren; Frank Brownlee
Cinematography	Ted McCord
Edited by	George McGuire
Production; company	First National Pictures
Distributed by	First National Pictures
Release date	June 21, 1925;
Running time	70 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent; English intertitles

The Desert Flower is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Irving Cummings and written by June Mathis. It is based on the 1924 play The Desert Flower by Don Mullally. The film stars Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Kate Price, Gino Corrado, Fred Warren, and Frank Brownlee. The film was released on June 21, 1925, by First National Pictures.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Plot

As described in a film magazine review,^[4] Maggie Fortune, left motherless in her box car home in the West, meets the dissipated Rance Conway, son of a wealthy New Yorker who has turned him out. She is taught to read as she attempts to reform him. Her stepfather Mike Dyer admires her, but after a struggle with him she runs away with her little sister to Bull Frog, a new mining town. With the first money she earns in the dance hall there, she sends the baby to a nursing home in San Francisco, and proceeds to make a man out of Rance, whom she now deeply loves. She taunts Rance in a new attempt to make a man out of him, and grub stakes him. He returns, having conquered his desire for drink. He has found a gold mine for which $10,000 has been offered, just as Dyer has located Maggie. Dyer has almost overpowered Maggie when a gunshot is fired and he apparently drops dead. Maggie, Rance, and José Lee each claim that they fired the shot. Dyer however is only wounded. Rance takes Maggie on a honeymoon to his home in New York.

Cast

Colleen Moore as Maggie Fortune
Lloyd Hughes as Rance Conway
Kate Price as Mrs. McQuade
Gino Corrado as José Lee
Fred Warren as Dizzy
Frank Brownlee as Mike Dyer
Isabelle Keith as Inga Hulverson
Anna Mae Walthall as Flozella
William Bailey as Jack Royal
Monte Collins as Mr. McQuade
Ena Gregory as Fay Knight

Production

During production, Colleen Moore fell and injured her vertebra, thus resulting in her being placed in a cast for six weeks and delaying production.^[5] This was the third of five films, in three years, with Moore and Hughes starring in the lead roles. They also appeared together in The Huntress (1923), Sally (1925), Irene (1926), and Ella Cinders (1926).^[6]

Images

Colleen Moore, left and Llyod Hughes, right
Colleen Moore in an ad for the film
Colleen Moore and the film crew
Colleen Moore recovering from her injured vertebra
Colleen Moore with her body cast after recovering

References

^ "The Desert Flower (1925) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
^ Hans J. Wollstein. "The Desert Flower (1925) - Irving Cummings". AllMovie. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
^ "The Desert Flower". Catalog.afi.com. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
^ "New Pictures: The Desert Flower", Exhibitors Herald, 21 (13): 51, June 20, 1925, retrieved April 10, 2022 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "Colleen Moore Wins Prize". Photoplay Magazine. April 1925. p. 125. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
^ "All Visual Works with both Colleen Moore and Lloyd Hughes". IMDb. Retrieved November 18, 2020.