The Primrose Path

This film is a legitimate rarity, almost never seen at film fairs and certainly never on television. So here we blow off the dust on this 1925 silent gem, giving you a once-in-a-lifetime chance to enjoy it.

The Primrose Path starred Clara Bow, the Brooklyn Bonfire, whose bobbed hair, cupids bow lips and trademarked wink came to symbolise the free-spirited jazz era of the '20s. Clara was the original and greatest Jazz Baby, her gigantic popularity - 33,727 fan letters in one month -inspired imitations from a host of other silent stars, notably Joan Crawford and Alice White. The 'It' girl scorched a mark bigger than anyone else onto the film scene of the late '20s, but her inadequate speaking voice, her mentally unstable mother, and various rumours indicating that she could be just a bit too liberal meant an end her career when sound arrived.

This film, while not of her classics or a giant success, is fairly representative of the pictures she was turning out in this period - this is one of sixteen films that she made in eighteen months. The plot involves spoilt rich boy Wallace MacDonald getting involved in gambling and murder with Clara as his loyal dancing friend, but the fascination is in Clara herself rather than the throwaway story. It has its moments: when Clara sees the male of her choice, she narrows her eyes, puckers her brow, and sets of into action with a determined exclamation of "Hot Socks!".

Review by Martin Hunt
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94