Themes: Servants and Employers, Class Differences, Stranded
Main Cast: Thomas Meighan, Gloria Swanson, Lila Lee, Bebe Daniels, Theodore Roberts
Release Year: 1919
Country: US
Run Time: 9rl minutes
Plot
Don't let that title fool you: Male and Female is really James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, as interpreted by Cecil B. DeMille. Thomas Meighan plays Crichton, the very proper butler in the British household of Lord Loam (Theodore Roberts). When masters and servants go on a yachting excursion, the vessel is destroyed in a storm, marooning everyone on a desert island. The helpless aristocrats must turn to the resourceful Crichton for survival. Before long, Crichton is ruling the roost, while his masters are cheerfully performing the most menial of tasks. Haughty Lady Mary (Gloria Swanson) foregoes her class-conscious upbringing and falls in love with Crichton. Once the castaways are rescued and brought back to England, however, the original class distinctions are restored. Lady Mary goes ahead with a marriage to stuffy Lord Brockelhurst as scheduled, but it is obvious that she will be unhappy in this "socially correct" union. Meawhile, Crichton finds happiness with scullery maid Tweeny (Lila Lee), who has loved him all along. Feeling that the Barrie play didn't have sufficient "punch" to go over with 1919 filmgoers, DeMille interpolated a dream sequence in which Gloria Swanson imagines herself a Babylonian princess; this gave the actress the opportunity to share a scene with a live and none-too-docile lion. One would think that critics of the era would haul DeMille over the coals for taking so many liberties with The Admirable Crichton, but such was not the case. One reviewer of Male and Female even congratulated DeMille for making Barrie "filmable"! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The star of this adaptation of James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton isn't Gloria Swanson, nor is it Thomas Meighan. And it certainly isn't James M. Barrie. Male and Female's one and only star is its director, Cecil B. DeMille. His personality dominates every frame, and the film is a good illustration of both DeMille's virtues and his faults (at least during this particular era of his career). While film historians always mention the pointless but picturesque Babylon dream sequence, the whole picture, really, is pure DeMille fantasy, from the elaborate bath scene near the beginning to the Robinson Crusoe-like island home created by Crichton, the butler (Meighan). DeMille tells his (not Barrie's) tale of how nature levels the classes in a florid and witty style that is quite amusing. Critics of the day noted, however, that the film was cold at its center, and they were right. DeMille doesn't seem to extend much sympathy to his lead characters, and often the actors' performances suffer. Swanson, in particular, seems hard to grasp -- she's more of a "type" than a real human being. Perhaps that's because she was only 20 when she made this film, and had only just achieved stardom. Meighan, an older, more experienced actor, gives some warmth to his role, and as the scullery maid, Lila Lee does well -- though her role is so long-suffering and one-dimensional that she didn't need do very much. DeMille's specialty wasn't making actors look good; it was glorifying his own personal vision. That he does here, with humor and a more than a bit of pomposity. But Male and Female is so fascinating in its overblown uniqueness that its faults can be forgiven. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Raymond Hatton - Honorable Ernest Walley; Wesley Barry - "Buttons"; Clarence Burton - Captain of Yacht; Robert Cain - Lord Brockelhurst; Edna Mae Cooper - Fisher; Rhy Darby - Lady Eileen Dun Craigie; Sydney Deane - Thomas; Julia Faye - Susan; Mayme Kelso - Lady Brockelhurst; Lillian Leighton - Mrs. Perkins; Guy Oliver - Pilot of Lord Loam's Yacht; Mildred Reardon - Agatha Lasenby; Kamuela Searle; Henry Woodward - McGuire; Edmund Burns - Treheme; Lawson Butt
The film centers on the relationship between Lady Mary Loam (played by Gloria Swanson), a British aristocrat, and her butler, Crichton. Crichton fancies a romance with Mary, but she disdains him because of his lower social class. When the two and some others are shipwrecked on a desert island, they are left to fend for themselves in a state of nature. The aristocrats' abilities to survive are far worse than those of Crichton, and a role reversal ensues, with the butler becoming a king among the stranded group. Crichton and Mary are about to wed on the island when the group is rescued. Upon returning to Britain, Crichton chooses not to marry Mary; instead, he asks a maid, Tweeny (who had fancied Crichton throughout the film), to marry him, and the two move to the United States.
