The Family Honor

The Family Honor is a 1920 American silent silent comedy-romance film directed by King Vidor and starring Florence Vidor.[1][2][3] A copy of the film is in a French archive.[3][4]

For the 1917 film, see The Family Honor (1917 film).

The Family Honor
Advert for film
Directed byKing Vidor
Produced byKing Vidor
Written byJohn Booth Harrower
William Parker
StarringFlorence Vidor
CinematographyIra H. Morgan
Distributed byFirst National Exhibitors' Circuit
Release date
  • March 15, 1920 (1920-03-15)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Plot

As described in a film publication,[5] the proud, Southern, and old Tucker family is now broke and places its hopes on a college youth, Dal (Karns), who has a taste for gambling, his sister Beverly (Vidor), full of hope and trust, and young Ben, a disciple of right thinking. Beverly has put her brother through college only to find out that he has become a first class scamp. To maintain the honor of her name, Beverley's fiance tries to anticipate a raid on a vicious dive in the town that is frequented by Dal. The raid takes place and Dal escapes, only to be later caught and indicted for murder. The evidence is going against Dal until his little brother Ben comes into the courtroom and, with the spirit of truth, testifies such that Dal is freed.

Cast
Ben Alexander (l.), Florence Vidor (r.)

Production

In 1919 Vidor formed an independent production company in collaboration with the New York-based First National exhibitors. The New York conglomerate controlled numerous theaters, and in a bid to break into movie production, advanced Vidor the funds to build a small 15-acre studio that Vidor christened “Vidor Village”. The financial risks in making independent films were high at a time when Hollywood was witnessing the consolidation of “an increasingly rigid studio system" where production and exhibition were subordinated to market considerations and increasingly judged on profitability.[6]

Vidor opted to make a formula comedy-romance then in vogue starring his spouse Florence Vidor, but preserving the Christian Science precepts that had informed his work with the Brentwood Corporation. [7]

Footnotes
  1. Baxter, 1976: a “comedy-romance”
  2. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911-20 by The American Film Institute, c.1988
  3. Progressive Silent Film List: The Family Honor at silentera.com
  4. "The Family Honor". American Silent Feature Film Survival Database. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  5. "The Family Honor: Conventional Photoplay Smacks of the Theatre". Motion Picture News. New York City: Motion Picture News, Inc. 21 (20): 4065. May 8, 1920. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  6. Baxter 1976 p. 11: A Hollywood film “community increasingly dominated by the big combines...”
  7. Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 25, p. 30: See Vidor’s The Turn in the Road
gollark: I WILL overwrite the thing.
gollark: Do so, probably maybe.
gollark: See, that WOULD have been somewhat better.
gollark: No, I mean you could have the voting for this include that.
gollark: You could run that TOO though.

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. ISBN 0-520-05798-8
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