Betty Compson: Underrated?

[westegg]

After looking at THE WHITE SHADOW online I was mighty impressed with Compson, though I've long been aware of her in early talkies. Online I also checked WOMAN TO WOMAN, a 1929 remake of her 1923 silent film that is now lost. By the way, how often do lost films get remade with the original star anyway? I've done some YouTube research on Compson, and even in rather tawdry exploitation films of the '40s she's always a reliable presence. She'd have been immortalized forever if she nabbed the role of Belle Watling in GONE WITH THE WIND , for which sh was considered. Still, she has some remarkable performances out there, such as THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK. Though she left acting by the 1950s, I wish she was interviewed late in life, or wrote a book (she died in 1974). What a wealth of early movie memories she could have told us.

Anyone else been rediscovering Compson lately?

[entredeuxguerres]

Long a favorite of mine--esp. in On With the Show, & picture in which she played violin player (as she was also in real life).

[westegg]

Yes, another impressive accomplishment. Her life story was something else too--very modest beginnings, and then fame and fortune. Losing that fortune, but recovering and keeping her health and sanity to the end of her days. A smart sounding survivor; I wish she was on record about her career. She had a remarkably versatile, expressive face; looking at a gallery of photos she seems like several different actresses.

[Richard M Roberts]

Heck yeah Betty Compson is way cool, drop dead gorgeous in the teens and twenties, still darn fine-looking in the thirties and forties, and a wonderful actress to boot, she continues to surprise the more and more of her films come to light. She could handle comedy and drama with equal flair, and she gives really good, realistic performances in whatever she does, silent or sound.

Several of the Los Angeles Historians knew her or interviewed her in later years, both Sam Gill and Miles Krueger made her acquaintance, and apparently she was not that interested in talking about the past. She owned a company that made ashtrays of all things at that point, and was doing just fine financially.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[drednm]

Here's a piece I wrote about Compson a few years ago:

http://voices.yahoo.com/betty-compson-10434627.html" target="_blank

I like her early talkies like Midnight Mystery, Street Girl, Three Who Loved, The Great Gabbo. And still waiting to see her Oscar-nominated performance in The Barker.

[westegg]

Several of the Los Angeles Historians knew her or interviewed her in later years, both Sam Gill and Miles Krueger made her acquaintance, and apparently she was not that interested in talking about the past. She owned a company that made ashtrays of all things at that point, and was doing just fine financially.

Glad to know someone took the trouble, even though she wasn't that interested--which I find curious, given her colorful filmography. I'm pleased to know she didn't end up a sorry, shadowy figure. The more I see her silent films in particular I'm struck by how well suited she was for purely visual storytelling. Watching her in White Shadow was a revelation in this regard.

Pointless speculation now, but she would've made one hell of a Norma Desmond. Lucky break for Gloria Swanson, believe me.

[westegg]

Here's a piece I wrote about Compson a few years ago:

http://voices.yahoo.com/betty-compson-10434627.html

Excellent!

[sepiatone]

Underrated and ignored to an extent just like Gertrude Astor and Anna Q. Nilsson. I absolutely love Betty, better as a silent goddess than a sound actor but I'm glad she stuck it out for several years in sound pictures so that we can compare her silent work to her sound era work.. All three of her films with Lon Chaney are unfortunately lost, "The Miracle Man"(1919), "For Those We Love"(1921) and "The Big City"(1928). Lon even wanted Betty to return with him for the sound version of THE UNHOLY THREE but for whatever reason it didn't happen and Lila Lee(another underrated) took on the role. It's interesting to note that Lon asked for Betty rather than Mae Busch from the 1925 silent to play Rosy. I got my disc of WEARY RIVER(1929), a hybrid silent-talkie, and thank the lucky stars as well as WB Archive, Library of Congress and UCLA, this film survived whereas her previous film before it SCARLET SEAS(1928) is lost(remember we listened to some surviving soundtrack). Both films star Betty and Richard Barthelmess and they seemed to make a good team or have a good chemistry working together. In WR Frank Lloyd films some nice drawing room scenes with Betty sensuously laying on her back and in Garboesque fashion panting in close-up to the camera when Rich sings her a song. Wow!

Betty deserves a McFarland offering as well as the other ladies I mentioned Gertrude Astor, Anna Q. Nilsson, Lila Lee.

Ebay has some pics of Compson after she left films, taken in the 40s.

[westegg]

Not to sound silly, but I wonder what Betty Compson manufactured ashtrays would go for nowadays?

[silentfilm]

Paths to Paradose is very much a Compson / Raymond Griffith team picture -- she even gets top billing! It definitely shows off her comic abilities.

[Richard M Roberts]

Not to sound silly, but I wonder what Betty Compson manufactured ashtrays would go for nowadays?

I don't think they were artistic masterpieces crafted by her own widdle hands.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[westegg]

[

I don't think they were artistic masterpieces crafted by her own widdle hands.


RICHARD M ROBERTS[/quote]

Drat. As the song goes, "Let Me Have My Dreams!"

[JFK]

Betty's Ashtrays? Over-rated.
Martha's Jewelry ? Under-rated.

http://www.inherited-values.com/2010/12 ... -fashions/
http://www.decotini.com/martha_sleeper.html
http://denisebrain.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... eates.html

[Gagman 66]

Wow! Those are some colorful ashtrays! I thought the surviving footage of THE WHITE SHADOW was great. I wonder if we will ever get to see films like KICK IN or THE ENEMY SEX? Compson was certainly underrated. Her survival rate is definitely much better than some Stars is. Corinne Griffith for example.

[Rob]

I called her up in 1973, hoping to make an appointment to meet her next time I was in LA. At the time I was only 18 and probably had not seen a single one of her films, but she was still agreeable - if not particularly enthusiastic - about the idea. I remember she said, "And PLEASE do not bring your camera!"

Unfortunately she passed away before I had the chance, so I never saw her.

Rob

[westegg]

I called her up in 1973, hoping to make an appointment to meet her next time I was in LA. At the time I was only 18 and probably had not seen a single one of her films, but she was still agreeable - if not particularly enthusiastic - about the idea. I remember she said, "And PLEASE do not bring your camera!"

Unfortunately she passed away before I had the chance, so I never saw her.

Rob

Wow--now that is a fascinating bit of information! I always wondered what she looked like by the 1970s, but I'm sure she was being overly defensive! I first knew of her by way of ON WITH THE SHOW, but that was such a limited introduction given her other performances.

When I think of all the interviews of silent stars that began around the 1960s (did Kevin Brownlow try and contact her?), she is conspicuously absent, and given her filmography it's an astonishing gap.

[greta de groat]

She was so prolific that she now, like Bessie Love and Marie Prevost, seems practically ubiquitous. Smart lady, excellent actress, versatile, reliable, and definitely underrated by historians. I'm happy whenever i see her turn up in a cast, and even if the film isn't good, she's fine. She was a real pro and i have a lot of respect for her.

greta

[Richard M Roberts]

http://www.inherited-values.com/2010/12 ... -fashions/
http://www.decotini.com/martha_sleeper.html
http://denisebrain.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... eates.html

That's MARTHA SLEEPER, not BETTY COMPSON!!!!!!


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[westegg]

One wonders if Compson bought any.



That's another thought--what if anything happened to any memorabilia Compson left behind? She left no survivors. Or did she figure her Hollywood years were better left swept off?

[missdupont]

THE ENEMY SEX does survive, it played during the Niles Essanay Silent Film Festival a few years ago. It was entertaining as I remember, if a little bit of a potboiler. One of the great things about it was that it was shot literally just down the street at bungalows only a block or two from the studio, as a scene around some bungalows showed a Selma Ave. street sign.

[sepiatone]

Wow! Those are some colorful ashtrays! I thought the surviving footage of THE WHITE SHADOW was great. I wonder if we will ever get to see films like KICK IN or THE ENEMY SEX? Compson was certainly underrated. Her survival rate is definitely much better than some Stars is. Corinne Griffith for example.

I'd like to see her in THE BELLE OF BROADWAY(1926) in full historical regalia. The film was produced by Harry Cohn early in Columbia Pictures history

[Gagman 66]

THE ENEMY SEX does survive, it played during the Niles Essanay Silent Film Festival a few years ago. It was entertaining as I remember, if a little bit of a potboiler. One of the great things about it was that it was shot literally just down the street at bungalows only a block or two from the studio, as a scene around some bungalows showed a Selma Ave. street sign.

Thanks for the comments. This one is especially interesting because it got great reviews at the time, and it was directed by future husband James Cruze as well.

[greta de groat]

THE ENEMY SEX does survive, it played during the Niles Essanay Silent Film Festival a few years ago. It was entertaining as I remember, if a little bit of a potboiler. One of the great things about it was that it was shot literally just down the street at bungalows only a block or two from the studio, as a scene around some bungalows showed a Selma Ave. street sign.

Thanks for the comments. This one is especially interesting because it got great reviews at the time, and it was directed by future husband James Cruze as well.

Unfortunately, i thought this was one of her weaker films--all of the characters were unsympathetic and their motivations made no sense. Nobody in THE WHITE SHADOW made sense either. But she did as well as could be done with these films. Hope THE BARKER makes it to video or wider screenings one of these days, everybody is terrific in it.

greta

[westegg]

Rumors, rumors...read somewhere online that Compson was said to have written an autobiography, presumably unpublished? Can't find much evidence. Not long ago on TCM I saw her square off with Leo Gorcey in a Bowery Boys comedy. All I can say is that she was a good sport.

[drednm]

Compson also had a bit part in Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I'd like to think he remembered her from those silent films in UK.

[westegg]

I believe he did.

On another note, it's curious that Compson didn't dabble in TV appearances. But at least she seemed financially secure to forgo acting by then, if in fact she ever really wanted to anymore. I'm just impressed at the depth of acting she was naturally capable of, and yet neither Hollywood much cared anymore or she didn't.

[westegg]

Today we bid goodbye to THE WHITE SHADOW online. How many viewed it?