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Poor Relations
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Wikipedia article
'Poor Relations' is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor. Produced by the Brentwood Corporation, the film starred Vidors wife Florence Vidor and featured comedienne Zasu Pitts.Baxter 1976 p. 9
The picture is the final of four Christian Science precept films that represent a brief phase in Vidors output championing the superiority of self-healing through moral strength and supplemented by the benefits of rural living.(Gustafssson 2016: The film advocated views associated with Christian Science (not to be confused with Scientology, a then relatively new religious movement that came about towards the end of the 19th century and to which Vidor claimed allegiance.
Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 26
Baxter 1976 p. 9
Plot
Country girl Dorothy Perkins succeeds as an architect in the city, but then is scorned by her old-money in-laws.Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337
Cast
* Florence Vidor as Dorothy Perkins
* Lillian Leighton as Ma Perkins
* William De Vaull as Pa Perkins (as William Du Vaull)
* Roscoe Karns as Henry
* ZaSu Pitts as Daisy Perkins
* Charles Meredith as Monty Rhodes
Reception
The reviews were "poor". Exhibitors Trade Review observed that the slender, fragile story has just about all it can do to make its way through the new-mown hay atmosphere. Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 337: ETR 25 Octorber 1919.
Theme
Poor Relations provides an early example of Vidors feminist presentation of professional and independent women, emphasizing reciprocal exchanges between the sexes.Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 15: Vidor a natural feminist in that his female protagonists drive men crazy, or inspire them, and do what they want, without becoming superior beings. and the reciprocity [between men and women] constitute its mainspring.
Baxter 1976 p. 14: Baxter identifies The Real Adventure and Woman, Wake Up, both 1922, as early feminist cinema by Vidor.
Footnotes
References
*Baxter, John. 1976. 'King Vidor'. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number 75-23544.
*Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. 'King Vidor, American.' University of California Press, Berkeley.
*Gustafsson, Fredrik. 2016. K'ing Vidor, An American Romantic' La furia umana. LFU/28 Winter 2016. http://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/61-archive/lfu-28/548-fredrik-gustafsson-king-vidor-an-american-romantic Retrieved 4 June 2020.
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