Male And Female (Full Frame)

Last Minute Sales & Specials

Evincing Cecil B. DeMille's unequaled flair for glamorized decadence and wry social comment, "Male And Female" is a tongue-in-cheek morality play that playfully examines the codes of conduct of class-conscious Britain when the film was made in 1919. In the role that made her a star, Gloria Swanson stars as Lady Mary Lasenby, complacent in her status and happy when being pampered by handmaids in her luxurious boudoir and bath. Less certain that merit and social rank are equivalent is the admirable Crichton (Thomas Meighan), a selfless butler who serves Mary and her spoiled clan. When the vacationing swells and their hired help are shipwrecked on the shores of a desert island, the follies of class are displaced by matters of survival: Mary and Crichton are mutually attracted and the resourceful servant is soon king. To this already bubbly mix, DeMille adds a lavish Babylonian flashback for no discernible reason except to show a gorgeously plumed and gowned Swanson descending into a den of lions. This sequence pushes an already outrageous film into a stratosphere of visual excess, assuring its place among the glittering landmarks of silent film history.

Music composed and performed by Sydney Jill Lehman. NTSC.