Male & Female ( Male and Female )

Male & Female (DVD) (*)

~~$22.99~~ $16.97

Original Title: Male and Female
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Silent ( Mono )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
115 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Biographies
Filmographies
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White
Remastered

Movie filmed in 1919 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Cecil B. DeMille

Written By:
J.M. Barrie
Jeanie Macpherson

Actors:
Thomas Meighan ..... Crichton, the butler
Theodore Roberts ..... Lord Loam
Raymond Hatton ..... Honorable Ernest 'Ernie' Wolley
Robert Cain ..... Lord Brockelhurst
Gloria Swanson ..... Lady Mary Lasenby
Lila Lee ..... Tweeny, the scullery maid
Bebe Daniels ..... The king's favorite
Julia Faye ..... Susan - maid #2
Rhy Darby ..... Lady Eileen Duncraigie
Mildred Reardon ..... Lady Agatha 'Aggie' Lasenby
Mayme Kelso ..... Lady Brockelhurst
Edmund Burns ..... Treherne
Henry Woodward ..... McGuire - Lady Eileen's chauffeur
Sydney Deane ..... Thomas
Wesley Barry ..... Buttons - the boy

Synopsis:

Lord Brockelhurst, his unwilling betrothed Lady Mary, his butler Crichton and scullery maid Tweeny are on Lord Loam's yacht which is wrecked leaving them all to cope on a desert island. Class distinctions fall apart for the time being.

Don't let that title fool you: Male and Female is really James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, as interpreted by Cecil B. DeMille. Thomas Meighan plays Crichton, the very proper butler in the British household of Lord Loam (Theodore Roberts). When masters and servants go on a yachting excursion, the vessel is destroyed in a storm, marooning everyone on a desert island. The helpless aristocrats must turn to the resourceful Crichton for survival. Before long, Crichton is ruling the roost, while his masters are cheerfully performing the most menial of tasks. Haughty Lady Mary (Gloria Swanson) foregoes her class-conscious upbringing and falls in love with Crichton. Once the castaways are rescued and brought back to England, however, the original class distinctions are restored. Lady Mary goes ahead with a marriage to stuffy Lord Brockelhurst as scheduled, but it is obvious that she will be unhappy in this "socially correct" union. Meawhile, Crichton finds happiness with scullery maid Tweeny (Lila Lee), who has loved him all along. Feeling that the Barrie play didn't have sufficient "punch" to go over with 1919 filmgoers, DeMille interpolated a dream sequence in which Gloria Swanson imagines herself a Babylonian princess; this gave the actress the opportunity to share a scene with a live and none-too-docile lion. One would think that critics of the era would haul DeMille over the coals for taking so many liberties with The Admirable Crichton, but such was not the case. One reviewer of Male and Female even congratulated DeMille for making Barrie "filmable"!

Lady Mary Lasenby is a spoiled maiden who always gets her way until shipwrecked with her butler, then learns which qualities are really admirable in a person.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 19 April, 2016.