So Big is a 1924 American silent film based on Edna Ferber's 1924 novel of the same name which won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1925. It was produced by independent producer Earl Hudson the film and distributed through Associated First National. Unseen for decades, it is considered to be a lost film. Only a trailer survives at the Library of Congress.[1][2][3]
| So Big | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Charles Brabin |
| Written by | Adelaide Heilbron (scenario) Earl Hudson (adaptation) |
| Based on | So Big 1924 novel by Edna Ferber |
| Produced by | Earl Hudson |
| Starring | Colleen Moore |
| Cinematography | Ted D. McCord |
| Edited by | Arthur Tavares Marion Fairfax (edit. director) |
| Distributed by | Associated First National |
Release date |
|
Running time | 9 reels |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
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Plot
editAs described in a review in a film magazine,[4] after returning from a tour of Europe with her father and finishing a course at a fashionable finishing school in the year 1888, Selina Peake (Moore) is shocked to find that her father is a gambler and has been killed during an accident in a gambling den. Left penniless, she gets a job as a school teacher in the Dutch colony at High Prairie. She marries Pervus DeJong (Bowers), a dull-witted and poor farmer, and soon finds that her life is one of drudgery, lightened only by her love of her son Dirk, whom she calls "So Big." When Pervus dies, Selina in old clothes, reduced to poverty, peddles vegetables. The father of a former school friend advances her a little money and, by stinting and hard work, after 18 years she has made the farm pay. Dirk (Lyon) has been educated as an architect and wins a competition. Dirk is loved by Dallas (Haver), an artist, but owes much of his success to Mrs. Paula Storm (Theby), a discontented wife who persuades him to elope with her. Selina learns of this, and begs the pair to give up the wild idea. Husband William Storm (Herbert) threatens to name Dirk as a correspondent in a divorce suit. After Selina pleads with him, he agrees to drop the matter. Thoroughly repentant, Dirk goes with Selina to see Dallas.
Cast
edit- Colleen Moore as Selina Peake[5]
- Joseph De Grasse as Simeon Peake
- John Bowers as Pervus DeJong
- Ben Lyon as Dirk DeJong
- Wallace Beery as Klaus Poole
- Gladys Brockwell as Maartje Poole
- Jean Hersholt as Aug Hempel
- Charlotte Merriam as Julie Hempel
- Dot Farley as Widow Paarleburg
- Ford Sterling as Jacob Hoogenduck
- Frankie Darro as Dirk DeJong (as a child)
- Henry Hebert as William Storm (credited as Henry Herbert)
- Dorothy Brock as Dirk DeJong (as an infant)
- Rosemary Theby as Paula Storm
- Phyllis Haver as Dallas O'Meara
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Progressive Silent Film List: So Big at silentera.com
- ^ So Big; allmovie.com
- ^ So Big at TheGreatStars.com; Lost Films Wanted (Wayback Machine). Retrieved July 21, 2018
- ^ Sewell, Charles S. (January 17, 1925). "So Big; Colleen Moore Gives Remarkably Fine Portrayal of Old Lady in Touching Story of Mother Love". The Moving Picture World. 72 (3). New York City: Chalmers Publishing Co.: 267–268. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
- ^ The Shadow Stage (review), Photoplay (March 1925), p. 45
External links
edit
- So Big at IMDb
- So Big at the TCM Movie Database
- So Big at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Posters for the 1924 version of So Big poster #1, poster #2 (new link)
- Stills at silentfilmstillarchive.com
- lantern slide
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