Director
Alfred E. Green
Cast
Colleen Moore - Ella Cinders
Lloyd Hughes - Waite Lifter
Vera Lewis - Ma Cinders
Emily Gerdes - Prissy Pill
Doris Baker - Lotta Pill
The American syndicated comic strip "Ella Cinders," introduced June 1, 1925, is the creation of American screenwriter Bill Conselman and cartoonist Charles Plumb.
If anyone hasn't noticed, it's a play on the name "Cinderella." In this case, it's Cinderella for the early 20th Century.
In the strip, Ella Cinders is a young, attractive, and modest girl with big innocent eyes and black shoulder length hair cut in a bob. Ella doesn't initially flaunt her beauty, which progresses through the years of the comic's history.
She lives with her step family made up of Myrtle "Ma" Cinders, and her step sisters, Prissie and Lotta Pill.
Prissie is bitter and cold while Lotta is a rotund gal, and still just as mean. Ella is reduced to all the housework around the house at the unsympathetic demands of her step-family.
In the strip, her boyfriend, Waite Lifter, and her brother, Blackie, take her side as emotional support for the poor treatment she gets at home.
Ella eventually wins a beauty contest, which results in a job at a movie theater. This plays as the "fairy godmother" part of the Cinderella story. It's the opportunity to leave the dire situation she's initially in.
Ella and Blackie move to Hollywood where she works hard to make a successful life for herself.
The comic strip ran until 1961.
And that's the basic premise for the 1926 movie "Ella Cinders" based on the strip.
In the film, Ella Cinders (Colleen Moore) lives with her step ma (Vera Lewis), Prissy (Emily Gerdes) and Lotta (Doris Baker) in the town of Roseville.
Her one friend is the ice man, Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes) who questions how she can stand living with her horrible step family.
The Ciders hear of a contest being put on by the Gem Film Company in which a winner will receive an all-expense paid trip to Hollywood to appear in a film.
Ma Cinders, of course, wants to enter Prissy and Lotta. Ella wants to enter the contest as well at the encouragement of Waite.
To enter, she must send the company head shots of herself which will cost a grand total of $3 to take.
As this is 1926, and money actually had value back then. Three dollars was like...I don't know...a bajillion dollars for people in those days, or something close to that.
Anyways, she babysits the neighbors kids for three nights to raise the necessary cash.
Everything goes according to plan. When Ella goes to have her headshots taken, she's bothered by a persistent fly which causes her headshots come out cross eyed and ridiculous.
Nevertheless, the photographer submits the pictures to the contest.
The day of the contest judging arrives, which includes a big gala party.
Ma and her two daughters attend, but Ella is told she can't go.
Waite finds Ella crying on the front porch and encourages her to go to the party anyways.
As she has nothing to wear, he tells her to grab something out of her sister's closet.
So, she does.
At first, everything goes well at the party, and her step family doesn't spot her.
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| Colleen Moore as "Ella Cinders." |
She's also embarrassed at the cross-eyed pictures.
Ella leaves the party in tears, not noticing one of her shoes falls off in the middle of the ordeal.
And, wouldn't you know, Waite finds her shoe.
Ella packs up her stuff and heads straight to the unemployment office.
Unexpectedly, she encounters her ma there who promises to punish Ella severely.
At home, the contest judges arrive to let Ella know she won, much to her ma's chagrin.
Despite the bad headshots, the judges like her unusual pictures as they want someone who can make audiences laugh.
So, Ella heads off to Hollywood.
Almost as soon as she steps off the train in Hollywood, Ella finds out the entire contest was a fraud.
With this major setback, Ella is faced with two options. She can either go home with her tail between her legs. Or, she can stay in Hollywood and turn this loss into a gain.
"Ella Cinders" is the first Colleen Moore film I've seen, and it made me a fan. Moore fits the role of Ella Cinders impressively well. The film makes sure to exhibit Moore's charm and talent to the fullest.
She has a lot of character behind her sincere and doleful eyes.
Moore is almost like a female Charlie Chaplin who describes his Tramp character as "childlike, bumbling but generally good-hearted...who endeavors to behave with the manners and dignity of a gentleman (or lady, in Moore's case) despite his actual social status."
In "Ella Cinders," Moore's character, like the comic strip, is kind-hearted and undefiant despite the unjust treatment she receives on a daily basis. Yet, she doesn't reconsider leaving her cruel family when the opportunity presents itself. Ella welcomes the freedom with open arms, and doesn't let the opportunity go to waste.
But Moore can convey emotion impressively well without words - sadness, infatuation, silliness, disappointment, helplessness, determination.
I have to add here that silent films in general impress me more than most modern films. Actors need pure talent to convey emotions to the audience without speaking. I'm convinced many silent film actors can out act a lot of todays actors any day. They still manage to inspire modern actors and filmmakers, which is certainly no surprise.
In one scene, Cinders crams over a book on how to be a talented success in Hollywood on the night before she leaves.
She reads over a page about how an actor should work their eyes to capture different emotions. One of the instructions says crossing one's eyes will capture attention. The shot changes to a comedic routine with Moore performing some sort of eyeball aerobics with each eye moving in a different direction. I was left dumbfounded. I couldn't tell if this is a split screen effect, or if Moore actually pulls off these eyeball maneuvers herself. Either way, it deserves to be as iconic as Chaplin's dance of the dinner rolls from "The Gold Rush."
My favorite part of the movie takes place when Ella falls asleep on a train car she has all to herself. While she's asleep, a group of Native American Indians come aboard, dressed in their customary attire and headdresses.
An Indian family sits with Ella and begin smoking cigars.
As the smoke wakes her up, she's surprised to find the entire car, that was vacant moments ago, filled with Native Americans in all their regalia.
The father of the family sitting next to her gives her a glaring look, and then offers her a cigar.
Not to be rude, she accepts and starts smoking it. It's clear cigar smoking isn't an activity she's ever indulged in. But the sick look on her face as she puffs away so as not to be rude is hilarious. Each time he looks over at her, she perks up and keeps puffing like she knows what she's doing.
Based on what little I know about the comic strip, the movie adaption really captures the style and humor of the source.
Some of the classic tropes in Cinderella are changed to something more fitting for the 20th Century.
When an embarrassed Ella runs out of the contest judging, she leaves her shoe behind.
Waite finds it, and chuckles to himself as if to tell the audience, "you think you know where this is going."
Also, the "fairy godmother" character is replaced by the opportunity to go to Hollywood, as well as Ella own will power.
The movie's director, Alfred E. Green makes a cameo as the movie director in this movie.
Green later went on to direct some well know movies such as "The Jackie Robinson Story" (1950) and "The Eddie Cantor Story" (1953).
The other, more notable cameo, is that of silent film star Harry Langdon.
According to imdb.com, Moore recalled famed director Frank Capra directing her scene with Langdon. Capra sat in the directors chair for some noteworthy pictures like "It Happened One Night" (1934), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) and "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).
When Ella arrives in Hollywood, the film shifts from satirical to drama, and ends up a bit underwhelming by the end. Regardless, I still found this movie adaptation of a by-gone comic strip entertaining, memorable, funny, and worthy of continual attention despite its age. It's definitely a movie I had a fun time watching.
It's a great satirical take on the rags-to-riches premise of Cinderella.
"Ella Cinders" is the earliest film I have found so far that's based on a comic. And I'm really glad I took time to watch it. I hope this movie, and Colleen Moore, continues to obtain the attention and recognition it deserves.
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