Prodigal Daughters

1923 film by Sam Wood

April 15, 1923 (1923-04-15)

Running time

60 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Prodigal Daughters is a 1923 American silent societal drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film stars Gloria Swanson and was directed by Sam Wood. It is based on a novel of the same name by Joseph Hocking.^[1]^[2]

Plot

As described in a film magazine review,^[3] Swifty Forbes becomes a flapper when her father J.D. Forbes becomes rich during the War. She lives a life of unrestrained pleasure and is loved by Roger Corbin, an aviator, and Stanley Garside, a gambler. Her sister Marjory follows the same trail and, when their father protests, they leave home to lead their own lives in Greenwich Village. Forbes, the father, in despair leaves the business in the hands of the young Corbin. Swifty loses all her money in Garside's card room and plays the cards for the cancelation of her debt against her marriage to Garside. She loses and must marry Garside within sixty days. While in the cabin of a new locomotive produced at her father's works, the thing starts and kills Garside, who was in an automobile. She ends up rescued by Corbin, who goes after her in an airplane and the two marry.

Cast

Gloria Swanson as Elinor "Swifty" Forbes
Ralph Graves as Roger Corbin
Vera Reynolds as Marjory Forbes
Theodore Roberts as J.D. Forbes
Louise Dresser as Mrs. Forbes
Charles Clary as Stanley Garside
Robert Agnew as Lester Hodge
Maude Wayne as Connie
J. Jiquel Lanoe as Juda Botanya
Eric Mayne as Dr. Marco Strong
Antonio Corsi as Undetermined role
Mervyn LeRoy as Newsboy (uncredited)

Production

Some portions of this film were shot in Swanson's own palatial Hollywood mansion.^[4] A young and then unknown Mervyn LeRoy appears unbilled as a newsboy. He later directed Swanson in her early talkie Tonight or Never.^[5]

Preservation

With no prints of Prodigal Daughters located in any film archives,^[6] it is a lost film.

References

^ Canham, Kingsley; Thomas, Tony (1974). The Hollywood Professionals: Henry King, Lewis Milestone, and Sam Wood. Tantivy Press. p. 176. ISBN 0-498-01394-4.
^ Progressive Silent Film List: Prodigal Daughters at silentera.com
^ "Tried and Proved Pictures: Prodigal Daughters". Exhibitors Trade Review. 15 (9). New York: Exhibitors Review Publishing Corporation: 36. January 19, 1924. Retrieved July 5, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Swanson, Gloria (1981). Swanson On Swanson. Pocket Books. p. 190. ISBN 0-671-43354-7.
^ Sandburg, Carl (2000). Bernstein, Arnie (ed.). "The Movies Are": Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928. Ebert, Roger. Lake Claremont Press. p. 166. ISBN 1-893-12105-4.
^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Prodigal Daughters