Flaming Love

Flaming Love, also known as Frivolous Sal, is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Victor Schertzinger for First National Pictures.[1][2] The film involves a female saloon owner in the Old West, her weak-willed new actor husband, and his young son from a previous relationship.[1]

Flaming Love
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Directed byVictor Schertzinger
Written byLois Zellner
Story byJ.K. McDonald
StarringEugene O'Brien
Mae Busch
Ben Alexander
CinematographyChester A. Lyons
George Richter
Edited byBeth Matz
Robert R. Snody
Production
company
J.K. McDonald Productions
Distributed byFirst National Pictures
Release date
  • January 4, 1925 (1925-01-04) (USA)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

Plot

As described in a review in a film magazine,[3] when Roland Keene's wife dies, he goes West with a theatrical troupe, leaving his young son Benny (Alexander) in New York. In Placer Valley he meets Sal Flood (Busch), owner of a saloon she inherited from her father. Benny arrives in Placer Valley just in time to witness his father marrying Sal. Roland takes over running the saloon and is being milched by Osner (Lewis), a professional gambler, when Steve McGregor (Santschi), a friend of Sal, intervenes. After a bloody fight, Steve whips the gambler. Sal then takes over the saloon. To meet his gambling debts, Roland is compelled by Osner to open the saloon's safe, which has Steve's gold. When the safe is opened, Benny through a window sees Osner taking the metal. The building is blasted by Osner, and Benny is injured by debris from the building. Benny shields his father when the Sheriff investigates, and Roland sets out to get Osner and return the gold. Osner flees to a tram car, and Roland jumps on it as it begins to travel down from one mountain and then up the next slope. In mid-air he succeeds in spilling Osner to freefall from the tram car to some tree tops far below, but then Roland loses his own grip to luckily land safely on a sandy bank.

Cast

Production

The film was partially shot in Mount Rainier National Park in northwest Washington.[4] Schertzinger and his crew of 38 arrived at the park in mid-August and stayed through early September, lodging at the Paradise Inn.[4] The story was based on experiences that writer-producer J.K. McDonald had working in the logging and mining camps in the Pacific Northwest.[5]

Reviews noted the amount of drinking that takes place during the film, which is set in a time prior to Prohibition's ban on alcoholic drinks in 1920.[3]

Preservation

With no prints of Flaming Love / Frivolous Sal located in any film archives,[6] it is a lost film.

References
  1. Spain, Mildred (January 19, 1925). "Flaming Love a Prairie Blaze of Thrilling Action". The New York Daily News. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  2. Progressive Silent Film List: Frivolous Sal at silentera.com
  3. Waller, Tom (January 17, 1925). "Frivolous Sal; Western Melodrama with a Wonderful Background and Abundance of Thrills Has Good Cast". The Moving Picture World. New York City: Chalmers Publishing Co. 72 (3): 269–270. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  4. "McDonald at Mount Ranier". The Los Angeles Times. September 5, 1924. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  5. Jungmeyer, Jack (October 26, 1924). "McDonald Has Become One of First National Independent Producers". The Battle Creek Inquirer. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  6. Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: as Frivolous Sal
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