The Mating Call (1928)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

James Cruze

Writers:

Rex Beach (novel)
Walter Woods (adaptation)

Release Date:

21 July 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A WWI vet takes on the KKK when he loses his wife to a womanizing Klansman. |

Plot Keywords:

WWI | Poker Game | False Accusation | Ellis Island New York | Suicide

Cast

Thomas Meighan	...	Leslie Hatten
Evelyn Brent	...	Rose Henderson
Renée Adorée	...	Catharine
Alan Roscoe	...	Lon Henderson
Gardner James	...	Marvin Swallow
Helen Foster	...	Jessie Peebles
Luke Cosgrave	...	Judge Peebles
Cyril Chadwick	...	Anderson

Runtime:

72 min (2004 alternate version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Company:

The Caddo Company

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Although the story takes place immediately after World War I (1918-1919), all of Evelyn Brent's and Helen Foster's clothes are strictly in the 1928 short skirt mode, completely out of place in the time frame of the story.

Soundtrack:

The Mating Song

Sex, lies, and the Order

THE MATING CALL was shown on TCM on Dec. 15, 2004, marking its apparent first screening since 1928. The silent film is something of a morality play, complete with a returning soldier who has lost his wife (to an adulterer); a morals police force, the Order, in dark cloth hoods (except for the leader, who wears satin); one woman drenched by a bucket of water and another caught skinny-dipping; and some provocative eyebrow acting. Evelyn Brent radiates sex as Rose, while Thomas Meighan seems mostly confused as the farmer who needs a replacement woman -- and goes to Ellis Island to get one! THE MATING CALL, directed by James Cruze (I COVER THE WATERFRONT), ably entertains while carrying a rather more serious theme on hypocrisy.