Biograph bought the film rights in 1908, and it may have been adapted by D.W. The book was so popular, Paul Kester adapted it to the stage in 1901, where it enjoyed a six month Broadway run with Julia Marlowe as Mary. Major decked the story out with court intrigue and a daredevil escape from France's lecherous new king (in truth, Francis I attended Mary and Brandon's wedding), inspiring a craze for historical romance. Although his counselors urged Henry to have Brandon executed, he let the pair off with a fine. Although his successor, Francis I, wanted to arrange a second marriage for her, Mary married her true love in secret, which greatly angered her brother when the marriage came to light. Thirty years younger than her husband, she was widowed within a few months without producing an heir. It was inspired by the life of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary, who fell in love with Charles Brandon, a knight beneath her station, but was forced to marry Louis XII of France. Far from being buried within the succession of sets and set pieces, Davies effortlessly dominates the action as Henry VIII's rebellious sister Mary, suggesting the great career she might have had without Hearst's interference.Ĭharles Major's novel When Knighthood Was in Flower, written under the pen name Edwin Caskoden, first appeared in 1898 and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for three years. This 1922 production is a good case in point. More recently, restorations of the lavish historical romances in which Hearst insisted on starring her, have revealed that even those much-derided epics have their good points. The rediscovery of classic comedies like Show People (1928) revealed her to be one of the silent screen's best comediennes. Originally seen entirely in light of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) - in which the title character's second wife, a hopeless amateur he promotes to operatic stardom, was partly based on Davies and her relationship with publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst - she was dismissed as a joke, a chorus girl who rode her relationship with a wealthy man to stardom in a series of costly flops. Marion Davies' career has been enjoying a steady reevaluation in the past few decades, thanks largely to advances in film restoration.
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