Eve's Leaves

Eve's Leaves is a 1926 American silent romantic comedy film starring Leatrice Joy and William Boyd. The film was produced and distributed by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Paul Sloane[1][2] It is based upon the 1925 play of the same name by Harry Chapman Ford.[2][3]

Eve's Leaves
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Directed byPaul Sloane
Written byElmer Harris (story)
Jack Jevne (adaptation)
John W. Krafft (intertitles)
Based onEve's Leaves
by Harry Chapman Ford
Produced byCecil B. DeMille
StarringLeatrice Joy
William Boyd
CinematographyArthur C. Miller
Production
company
DeMille Pictures Corporation
Distributed byProducers Distributing Corporation
Release date
  • June 13, 1926 (1926-06-13)
Running time
7 reels (6,754 feet)
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Plot

Captain Corbin (Edeson), who operates the tramp cargo ship Garden of Eden, has raised his daughter Eve (Joy) as a boy. After learning about men after reading some romance novels belonging to the cook Cookie (Harris), she goes ashore in a Chinese port to find her true love and spies American Bob Britton (Boyd), whom she then has kidnapped to augment the ship's crew. Pirate Chang Fang (Long) and his pirates capture the ship seeking passage to his stronghold. With Cookie's help, Eve remakes herself using an outfit made from a curtain and some beads, which draws the interest of both Chang and Bob. In the end, Eve saves the day and she and Bob are married on board by a missionary (Hoyt).[4]

Cast

Production

Leatrice Joy had impulsively cut her hair short in 1926, and DeMille, whom Joy had followed when he set up Producers Distributing Corporation, was publicly angry as it prevented her from portraying traditional feminine roles.[5] The studio developed projects with roles suitable for her “Leatrice Joy bob”,[5] and Eve's Leaves was the second of five films before she regrew her hair. In both Eve's Leaves and The Clinging Vine (1926), Joy's character is mistaken as being male in at least one scene.[6] In 1928, a professional dispute would end the Joy / Demille partnership and she signed with MGM.

Intertitles featuring quotes from stereotype Chinese characters are in a racist fictional Asian dialect that today would be considered offensive.[4]

Preservation

A 16mm print of Eve's Leaves is preserved film at the UCLA Film and Television Archive[2][7] and the film has been released on DVD.[2]

References
  1. .The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 published by The American Film Institute, c.1971
  2. Progressive Silent Film List: Eve's Leaves at silentera.com
  3. Eve's Leaves opening at Wallack's Theatre on March 26, 1925; at the Internet Broadway Database IBDB.com
  4. Review at moviessilently.com
  5. Johanna, Schmertz (2013), "The Leatrice Joy Bob: The Clinging Vine and Gender's Cutting Edge", in Dall’Asta, Monica; Duckett, Victoria; Tralli, Lucia (eds.), Researching Women in Silent Cinema: New Findings and Perspectives, University of Bologna, pp. 402–13, ISBN 978-8-8980-1010-3, ISSN 2283-6462
  6. Horak, Laura (2016). Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pp. 134–37. ISBN 978-0-8135-7484-4.
  7. The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Eve's Leaves
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