Stardust (1922)

User Rating:

(awaiting 5 votes)

Director:

Hobart Henley

Writers:

Fannie Hurst (novel)
Anthony Paul Kelly (adaptation)

Release Date:

5 February 1922 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Society | Melodrama | Iowan | New York | Composer

Cast

Hope Hampton	...	Lily Becker
Edna Ross	...	Young Lily Becker
Tom Maguire	...	Henry Becker (as Thomas Maguire)
Mary Foy	...	Mrs. Becker
Charles Mussett	...	Jethro Penny
Vivia Ogden	...	Mrs. Penny
Ashley Buck	...	Young Albert Penny
Noel Tearle	...	Albert Penny
George Humbert	...	Antonio Marvelli
Gladys Wilson	...	Daisy Cameron
Charles Wellesley	...	Bruce Visigoth
James Rennie	...	Thomas Clemons

Also Known As:

Star Dust (USA) (copyright title)

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Hobart Henley Productions Inc.

Very dusty, not so starry

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I viewed a damaged print of 'Stardust' that had the last two reels missing. This film is based on a novel by Fanny Hurst. I've read several of her novels but I've not read the one this movie is based on, so I don't know how the movie ends nor how faithful it is to the original novel. Hurst's novels were hugely popular in the 1920s and '30s; several of them were filmed, and a few were filmed more than once. Today, she's almost entirely forgotten.

The rest of this review refers solely to this film, not the source novel. Lily Becker (played by Hope Hampton; very pretty but not much of an actress) is born in Paradise, Iowa (her first mistake) and raised there (her second mistake) by her prudish mother and her spineless father. Mrs Becker pressures Lily into marrying local yokel Albert Penny, who is basically a decent man but extremely dull with it. The only other man hereabouts is named Jethro, so I guess Lily is better off marrying Albert.

She soon gets tired of that dull Penny, and she scurries off to New York City, where she discovers that she's pregnant. The film (at least, the parts I saw) never establishes that Albert is the father, but there seems to be no other obvious candidate. Too proud to go home in disgrace, Lily stays in New York and ekes out a living for herself until she has the baby.

SPOILERS AHEAD. No sooner does Lily have her baby than the infant dies. Round about this time, she also runs out of money. With her last handful of change, she goes to a nearby chemist's shop and tries to buy carbolic acid. (I found this scene very poignant and dramatic, though I didn't much care for the rest of the film.) The druggist senses that Lily is planning to kill herself, so he fills the order ... but gives her tap water instead. Lily dramatically swallows the 'poison', but of course it doesn't kill her.

Time for a reel change, and then she meets Thomas Clemons, a handsome young composer. This is very nearly the point where the print that I was Steenbecking became too deteriorated to view properly, and the later reels were missing. I assume that all ends happily for Lily and Thomas, although she never did divorce Albert ... so she can't marry Thomas unless Albert dies, and I don't much care. Since I screened this film under very poor viewing circumstances, I shan't give it a rating ... but I suspect that 'Stardust' was pretty pale stuff even when it was originally released.