Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

MartinHafer This is a film with a very strange plot. There are so many bizarre plot elements that I think the overall picture comes off as very, very difficult to believe and is one of the worst films I've seen that stars Clara Bow. Now the film sure LOOKS nice...but the plot?! Weird.The film begins with a gang of thieves breaking into a rich professor's house. However, things don't go smoothly. One of the robbers wants to kill Professor Marcel--but the other stops him. Just then, the cops arrive. Marie (Clara Bow--who is the lookout) escapes, the would-be killer is killed and Armand (the good thief) is protected by the Professor--who tells the police that he's his house guest. You can understand this--after all, this lovely thief did save Marcel. However, this scene and the subsequent scenes might be interpreted to have a gay subtext when seen today--especially when the Professor invites Armand to live with him and treats him in a very familiar manner.In the meantime, Marie sneaks into a party at Professor Marcel's house and sees Armand--with another woman. She assumes that he no longer loves her and she is angry--determined to destroy Marcel for taking Armand away from her. So, she later pretends to be a rich lady and meets Marcel--and makes him fall in love with her. Just after the marriage, Marie's mother reveals to Marcel the truth--and that she'd stolen Marie from a rich family when she was a baby(???!!!). And, without knowing the truth, Marie then tells Marcel that she married him just to get revenge on him for breaking up the relationship between her and Armand(??!!). JUST THEN (again), Armand shows up--and the old gang does as well and shoots Marie!!!! Then, she miraculously survives AND the Professor leaves--allowing Armand to have Marie for himself!!!! This has to be the most contrived plot I've ever seen in a silent film--and I've seen about a thousand of them. So many silly surprises and twists thrown into a film barely over an hour long--it made me laugh with all these story elements. While the film looks nice and is entertaining, it also is fundamentally stupid. Not one of Bow's shining moments and the sort of fluff she'd no longer be doing once she really hit it big with films like "Wings" and "It"...at least until her star faded at the advent of sound.

JohnHowardReid It's hard to believe, but on the evidence of this delight of a movie, undoubtedly true, that Louis J. "Reefer Madness" Gasnier was once a highly competent director. Even in the condensed 62-minute version currently available (with at least two obvious cuts, one of them right before the fade-out), directorial ability shines through every scene, particularly those with the three principals. As usual, Clara Bow rivets attention right from her very first entrance to her final clinch, skilfully managing the remarkable transition from energetic hoyden to graceful débutante with charisma, style and panache; while Lou Tellegen (whom I have been waiting to see for 52 years and have finally caught up with) subtly conveys the charm, presence and instant audience identification that illuminated his stage roles opposite the great Sarah Bernhardt; and, as expected, Lillian Leighton is a comic riot when her awesomely pugnacious La Frouchard transforms herself into a pillar of Parisian society.The other players, including personable hero, Donald Keith (who disappears for a long stretch), have little to do, although "Monsieur Frouchard" provides some splendid bits of comedy inaction in the domestic fight scene when La Leighton lets loose.Of course, you can't really take the convoluted plot (or even the characters) too seriously, but who cares? It's all great entertainment.Beautifully photographed and most attractively costumed and set, this big-budget movie is presented on an excellent (10 out of ten) Kino DVD with "Down to the Sea in Ships".

FerdinandVonGalitzien In spite that Dame Clara Bow has "It", she haven't an astounding career with a lot of masterpieces or even remarkable films ( for this German Count only two or three films of her deserves such Teutonic silent glory ). Her film career consisted of, on the contrary, a lot of inoffensive, trifle and insignificant films starring the Amerikan actress…until fame knocked at her silent and Paramount door."Parisian Love" it is a perfect example of what this German aristocrat is talking about, that is to say, an unimportant film directed by Herr Louis J. Gasnier ( an anodyne film director who goes well with the spirit of those Dame Bow films ). It seems that nobody pays attention to our star in spite of the fact that she does exert herself with excessive intention, overacting many times. She suffers many vexations such as dancing the Apache gang dance at night in Paris (a hybrid between tango, flamenco and personal attack ), changing her criminal life for an honest one as a servant or a convent bred fraulein, being ignored by her former fiancée, Armand ( Herr Donald Keith ) and his mentor Marcel ( Herr Lou Tellegen ) in which there's a kind of subtle and silent homosexual relationship. It's probably due to the fact that the chemistry between Dame Bow und Herr Keith it is defunct. The only standout in this simplistic Dame Bow film is the Paris underground art designer.And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must to bow and scrape his fat German heiresses.Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

tedg Spoilers herein.Usually when I comment on a film, it is in the context of ideas. I root myself in the notion that ideas can have power, including emotional effect. Further, I suppose that many of these ideas come from thinking filmmakers.That sets me apart from others that look for dramatic engagement and credit actors with great influence.But my reaction to this film is different than both. In this case, I am reminded that some things in life take on their own identity and do what is necessary to promulgate. Things like musical tunes can be thought of as living, selfish entities that adapt so that they stick in your mind and induce you to hum or play them so that they can similarly stick in someone else's mind.Ideas like equality and justice and god are in this class which is generally called `memes.'Powerful films are full of memes, many of which aren't known at the time. Some of these we notice after the fact. Here, we have a few phases in the language of eyes. This was a new language in 1920, just when movies were inheriting the soul of our culture, that place where we collectively develop our imaginations. And Clara Bow was the first great artist of sculpting emotions with her eyes.And once those eye-phrases are captured, they do what they need to to survive and promulgate. Their expression in this film is secure, as it is now on DVD and thoroughly distributed throughout the planet. Not even a dinosaur-sized asteroid could kill that now. But the more effective promulgation is that now some of Clara's phrases have entered the music of everyday sexual dialog.See this as one of the better vehicles for various opportunities she has to play her eyes, probably better than most of the others easily available. Otherwise the film is a waste, except for recalling a time when it made movie sense to portray a man of culture as a French scientist. That's a meme that is dead.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.