Gloria Swanson pretends to be a Russian countess. Image: Zeus DVDs
One of our favourite actresses is Gloria Swanson, one of the biggest stars in 1920s Hollywood.
She was a wisp of a gal at 4’11” and 110 lbs, but her talent and charisma fill the screen. Even today, her performances feel fresh and timeless.
We recently saw her in Manhandled (1922) a comedy-drama about a gum-smacking sales clerk who runs the discount counter in the basement of Thorndyke’s department store. She immediately captures our sympathy because (A) she works retail, and (B) when she leaves work, exhausted, a car splashes her with mud.
There is a boyfriend, an aspiring inventor, who’s developing a gizmo for automobile engines. It’ll make him rich, once he gets it to Detroit car manufacturers. But now he must focus, so he puts the relationship with Gloria on ice. A multi-tasker he is not.
What’s a girl to do? Her boyfriend won’t take her out, so she goes to a party hosted by Thorndike fils and, for a lark, does a shtick pretending to a countess.
A young – and surprisingly handsome – Frank Morgan* sees her little act and hires her as a Russian countess. You see, he needs, needs, someone to pour tea for wealthy customers in his exclusive clothing boutique. What could be more tantalizing than a Russian countess, forced into exile by the Bolsheviks? “You know how rich American women worship titles,” he says.
Gloria takes the job because (A) the incredible salary + wardrobe, and (B) her best friend’s advice to be kind to rich saps and their money.
Her new job allows her access to the Rich and Famous, and she’s all in: the parties, the men, the whole shebang. Her boyfriend toils day and night in Detroit, testing his invention, but she’s reaching for the brass ring, baby! It’s a wild, fabulous ride in diamond-crusted glamour.
Until it isn’t.
A bad day gets worse. Image: MUBI
With a title like Manhandled, you can guess the result of this fast living.
Everyone in this film is out to get something. Gloria’s character wants excitement, and rich men want to give it to her – as long as there’s a return on investment (wink).
Suddenly the film sheds its comedy, like a woman kicking off her shoes. The tone becomes cynical and a little dark.
Something so awful happens at one party that it’s merely referred to in a title card. But we do see a sombre Gloria leaving said party, which is a veritable bacchanalia.
When her escort tries to assault her in the car on the way home, she begs the driver to stop. She scrambles from the vehicle as the escort makes a halfhearted attempt to coax her back.
(The escort’s body language perfectly illustrates his thought processes: There’s no point, what can you do, plenty more where that came from. Onward, driver!)
Gloria returns to her boarding-room apartment, arms bruised, her gown deflated and lifeless. Her boyfriend is back from Detroit, and he makes a shrewd observation: “You’re like the goods you hated to sell in Thorndyke’s basement,” he says, “rumpled – soiled – pawed over – Manhandled!”
It’s the truth. Gloria is playing a game she cannot win.
You’ve got the wrong idea. Image: Under the Deep Deep Sea
Manhandled was filmed at Paramount Studios in Astoria (Queens) which was, as the time, the largest studio on the American East Coast. It was in operation from 1920 until 1932, when Paramount integrated it with the Hollywood studio.
In her memoirs, Swanson on Swanson, Gloria recalls working at Gimbels soap counter in New York to get the rhythm of a department store.
“I sold toilet soap on special, and after an hour I was quite good at it,” she writes. “On my ten-minute breaks, I would scoot to the ladies’ room, and there I got a whole education in how to deal with guys who got fresh and took girls for granted.”¹
She completely disguised her appearance, even stuffing her nose with cotton to change its shape, which, she claims, made her sound like a “rubber duck.”
Sadly, her employment was short-lived:
The second day, while I was in the ladies’ room, one salesgirl said to another, “Have you heard the rumour? Gloria Swanson’s in the store.”… Then she turned to me and said, “Hey, did you hear that? Gloria Swanson’s supposed to be in the store.”
“Really?” I said like a duck, and with that I headed downstairs and out the side door. My field work was over.²
We highly recommend Manhandled. Even though the film gets a little sappy at the end, we cannot praise Gloria Swanson’s performance enough. She’s amusing and winsome, yet, if she chooses, she’ll break your heart.
This post is part of SILENT MOVIE DAY BLOGATHON, hosted by Silentology and The Everyday Cinephile.
Manhandled starring Gloria Swanson, Tom Moore, Lilyan Tashman. Directed by Allan Dwan. Written by Frank W. Tuttle, Sidney R. Kent & Arthur Stringer. Paramount Pictures, 1924, B&W, 75 mins.
Source
¹Swanson, Gloria. (1980) Swanson on Swanson. New York, NY: Random House, p. 211. ²Ibid. *Frank Morgan plays the wizard in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
