Flames of Passion

Flames of Passion
An American lobby card using the American title A Woman's Secret
Directed by	Graham Cutts
Written by	Herbert Wilcox M. V. Wilcox
Produced by	Herbert Wilcox
Starring	Mae Marsh C. Aubrey Smith
Cinematography	René Guissart
Production company	Graham-Wilcox Productions
Distributed by	Astra Film
Release date	November 1922
Running time	9 reels
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	Silent film English intertitles

Flames of Passion (1922) was a British silent film drama directed by Graham Cutts, starred Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith.

The film was made by the newly formed Graham-Wilcox Productions company, a joint venture between Cutts and producer Herbert Wilcox. The entrepreneurial Wilcox tempted American star Marsh to England with a high salary offer, believing this would improve the film's marketability in the U.S.^[1] She was paid £1,000 a week.^[2]

The gamble paid off as it became the first post-war British film to be sold to the U.S. The final reel of the film was filmed in the bi-pack color process Prizma Color.^[3]

Plot

The wife of a wealthy barrister seduces her chauffeur, with whom she falls in love. She gives birth to a baby, apparently without her husband knowing anything about her pregnancy.

The child is killed by the chauffeur during a car accident—he was visibly drunk when driving. The result is a showpiece trial at the Old Bailey, presumably of the chauffeur on a charge of infanticide, in which the woman at first tries to protect her lover, but is forced finally under cross-examination to make a dramatic public confession that the dead infant was hers. By the end of the film, she returns to her husband.

Cast

Mae Marsh as Dorothy Hawke
C. Aubrey Smith as Richard Hawke, K.C.
Hilda Bayley as Kate Watson
Herbert Langley as Arthur Watson
Allan Aynesworth as Forbes
Eva Moore as Aunt
George K. Arthur as Friend
Henry Vibart as Lord Chief Justice

Reception

Flames of Passion proved controversial with critics, many of whom found the subject matter lurid, sensationalist and distasteful. Cinemagoers had no such qualms, and turned the film into a big box-office hit, Wilcox's first commercial success.^[3]

This was the first British film to be sold for distribution in the United States following World War I where it was shown under the title A Woman's Secret.^[4]

Preservation status

A print with Dutch titles exists at the British Film Institute.

References

^ Herbert Wilcox BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 21 September 2010
^ "Anna Neagle's Herbert Takes On A New Star". Truth. No. 2756. Brisbane. 18 January 1953. p. 22. Retrieved 17 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ ^a ^b Graham Cutts BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 21 September 2010
^ Waldman, Harry (1994). Beyond Hollywood's Grasp: American Filmmakers Abroad, 1914-1945. Scarecrow Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-8108-2841-3.