In the book "Classics of the Silent Screen" Joe Franklin mentions Thomas Meighan as a preface to what made a star in the 19teens and early 20s - he felt Meighan lacked charisma but the evidence was there - he was a top star from 1919 all through the 1920s. I know if I had been going to the movies back then he would have been top on my list of favourites. His rugged good looks, his calm and dignified bearing, at his best in Cecil B. DeMille's "Male and Female" and "Why Change Your Wife", as Conrad Warrener, the wealthy retired army officer who wants to recapture his past in
"Conrad in Quest of His Youth" it may be his most fully realised role (in the films I have seen). Directed by William C de Mille, Cecil's brother, who was a miniaturist, zeroing in with sensitivity on the foibles of small town life ("Miss Lulu Bett"), it was considered one of the better films of 1920.
War weary and conscious that his life has slipped by, Conrad returns to a changed world where only his faithful man-servant Dobson (Charles Ogle) awaits his return with gladness. Wondering why he was spared in war while so many younger men were killed, he longs for the time when life was joyful and his old home "Sweetbay" gave him many happy memories. He takes up Dobson's idea of rounding up a few of his childhood friends to see if they all can't recapture some of the magic of childhood - Ted, a dissolute office worker, sneakily reading "Lulu" when no-one is about, Nina, an over worked mother and Gina, who "married well" - all are hoping that youth's sparkle will be rekindled.
Supper isn't a howling success - Conrad has ordered supper of porridge and milk in the same bowls and at the same table they sat at when they were children. Ted is the only one who gets a kick out of it and it's because he has added a kick from his flask!! After a horrible night with hard beds, leaking roofs etc, as Ted says "it might be a bore being an adult but it's murderous being a child", they are all keen to return to the city and leave Conrad to his own childhood - even though he has been up since dawn hunting for worms for the day's fishing expedition!!
Left to himself he now remembers another childhood friend, blonde ringleted Mary Page whom he tracks down with the usual results -she is an overweight matron and her four "jewels" are ill mannered brats. But unlike his other friends she is very keen to rekindle the past and their friendship - suddenly Conrad understands how his friends feel!! He then journeys to Italy with his remembrance of an older woman (Kathlyn Williams) who gave him sympathy and understanding when he was a young man (A. Edward Sutherland who was better known as a director and husband of Louise Brooks). He tracks her down and at first she has no memory of him but she does give him some advice - to stop living in the past and find happiness in the present!!
Suddenly things start to happen to Conrad without his control!! While waiting for a train connection he comes across a theatrical troupe that has been left stranded in the town by an unscrupulous manager - he takes a special fatherly interest in one of the young actresses but she is not an actress!! Like Conrad, she has been visiting an old chum trying to rekindle the time she was just plain old Rosalind Heath and not the later, lady Darlington - get the picture!!!
Apart from Thomas Meighan and Kathlyn Williams there were no names in the cast but I found it a lovely, quaint story of a bygone time where everybody seemed so right for their roles.
"Conrad in Quest of His Youth" it may be his most fully realised role (in the films I have seen). Directed by William C de Mille, Cecil's brother, who was a miniaturist, zeroing in with sensitivity on the foibles of small town life ("Miss Lulu Bett"), it was considered one of the better films of 1920.
War weary and conscious that his life has slipped by, Conrad returns to a changed world where only his faithful man-servant Dobson (Charles Ogle) awaits his return with gladness. Wondering why he was spared in war while so many younger men were killed, he longs for the time when life was joyful and his old home "Sweetbay" gave him many happy memories. He takes up Dobson's idea of rounding up a few of his childhood friends to see if they all can't recapture some of the magic of childhood - Ted, a dissolute office worker, sneakily reading "Lulu" when no-one is about, Nina, an over worked mother and Gina, who "married well" - all are hoping that youth's sparkle will be rekindled.
Supper isn't a howling success - Conrad has ordered supper of porridge and milk in the same bowls and at the same table they sat at when they were children. Ted is the only one who gets a kick out of it and it's because he has added a kick from his flask!! After a horrible night with hard beds, leaking roofs etc, as Ted says "it might be a bore being an adult but it's murderous being a child", they are all keen to return to the city and leave Conrad to his own childhood - even though he has been up since dawn hunting for worms for the day's fishing expedition!!
Left to himself he now remembers another childhood friend, blonde ringleted Mary Page whom he tracks down with the usual results -she is an overweight matron and her four "jewels" are ill mannered brats. But unlike his other friends she is very keen to rekindle the past and their friendship - suddenly Conrad understands how his friends feel!! He then journeys to Italy with his remembrance of an older woman (Kathlyn Williams) who gave him sympathy and understanding when he was a young man (A. Edward Sutherland who was better known as a director and husband of Louise Brooks). He tracks her down and at first she has no memory of him but she does give him some advice - to stop living in the past and find happiness in the present!!
Suddenly things start to happen to Conrad without his control!! While waiting for a train connection he comes across a theatrical troupe that has been left stranded in the town by an unscrupulous manager - he takes a special fatherly interest in one of the young actresses but she is not an actress!! Like Conrad, she has been visiting an old chum trying to rekindle the time she was just plain old Rosalind Heath and not the later, lady Darlington - get the picture!!!
Apart from Thomas Meighan and Kathlyn Williams there were no names in the cast but I found it a lovely, quaint story of a bygone time where everybody seemed so right for their roles.