Synopsis
In 17th century Spain, the gypsy, Maritana (Negri), leads her troupe entertaining at the houses of Spanish grandees.
In the house of Don César de Bazan (Moreno), the Count and his friends are enjoying a grand dinner. The gypsy troupe entertains with dancing and singing. As Maritana dances, she and Don César exchange glances and are mutually attracted. After the gypsies leave, the local sheriff arrives and announces that the Count has lost everything to his creditors. The count calls on his friends for help, but they leave him to his fate. Fearing debtors’ prison, Don César flees. Th gypsies hide him in their camp. The next day, the gypsies move on to Madrid to attend the feast of the Madonna. Don César promises to meet Maritana on the public square.
In the palace, King Philip IV (Beery) is posing for Diego Velázquez who is painting his portrait. The painting is frequently interrupted by visitors to the king. Several grandees of the court arrive. Don Salluste (Menjou) and his associates, who are plotting to gain power over the throne, advise King Philip to decline signing a mutual defense pact with France. Queen Isabel (Williams) and the Dauphin enter with the French envoy, Cardinal Richelieu. The Cardinal and the Queen, who is a French princess, advise the King to sign the pact.
A great crowd has gathered in the city, and a procession forms to follow the statue of the Madonna to the city center for the service. After the service, the crowd changes from quietly worshipful into boisterously celebratory. Dancing and gaiety take over the city. Maritana and her troupe dance in the public square.
At the palace the queen visits the King to urge him to support the pact. She seeks the love and attention he gave her when they married. He kisses her hand. The disappointed queen leaves. The King’s attendant enters bringing the King’s festival clothes, a plain suit and a mask. The King intends to visit the party anonymously and find a romantic partner for the night. The King mentions to his attendant that the law about swordplay on the holiday, any man who draws his sword to fight will be arrested and hanged, is intended to protect the King from irate husbands and lovers of any woman the King romances.
Don César and Maritana meet. Maritana is fending off the attentions of a roguish nobleman. Don César and the nobleman argue. They draw their swords, and Don César strikes. He is arrested and taken away. Maritana is distraught. She does not have much time to fret, the King has seen and fallen for her and has her carried off to a place where they can have a quiet tryst.
Don César is sentenced to hang. As a nobleman, he requests a firing squad rather than a hangman. The court agrees. Don César provides a feast for the firing squad. The King cannot have a tryst with a lowly gypsy. He will marry the gypsy to a nobleman and make her a Countess. Who better for the task than the condemned Count. Soon the gypsy, who has agreed to marry the Count, is beautifully garbed. Don César does not know who the bride is but agrees as his final act. They are married, and the bride is whisked away.
The firing squad is so drunk that they do not realize that the count’s faithful follower has exchanged all the bullets for bread dough. The barrage from the firing squad covers the count in bread bullets. He is quietly leaving the palace when he meets Maritana and discovers that she was his bride.
Don César is confronting Philip as Don Salluste enters with Queen Isabel. The queen has been unaware of the king’s many trysts. Don Salluste is hoping that the sight of the king with another woman will make the queen so angry that she will cease to support the treaty. However, since Maritana is accompanied by her husband, the queen is not suspicious about the presence of the king. Philip is pleased to be saved from his wife’s displeasure. He promises to sign the treaty. He forgives Don César and returns his castle and lands. Don César and Maritana plan their happy future.
Discussion
The film is a light hearted romantic adventure featuring a rather typical romantic pair of a highborn individual, the count, and a low born lover, the gypsy. Unusually for this form, neither individual has been accused of a serious offense against state or crown, as is often the case to deepen the suspense and danger. The count has lost his estates due to his own wastefulness. The gypsy is attractive and desired by the king, but he is never much of a menace to her. The count gets threatened by execution for a rather weak offense, drawing a sword on a forbidden day. He is saved by comic circumstances, the firing squad is drunk and the bullets have been replaced with bread dough. The leads are attractive. Their characters are lightly sketched. The tone of the movie is comic amusement. The pace is relatively slow.
The production is expansive and obviously expensive with large sets and many finely costumed extras. Dancers are viewed from a distance, they are framed through arches in the count’s house.
Herbert Brenon, the director, was an experienced filmmaker who directed some of the finest films produced in the last years of the silent era. Brenon was born in Dublin in 1880. Educated in London, he moved to New York shortly after 1900. His early job was as a theater stagehand. His film career started with the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP) in 1909 as a writer and director of shorts. In 1914, he joined Fox Films and soon was working with swimming star Annette Kellerman on Neptune’s Daughter (1914) and Daughter of the Gods (1916). By 1923 Brenon had joined Paramount and then joined the newly formed MetroGoldwynMayer (MGM) where he directed some outstanding features, including Peter Pan (1924), A Kiss for Cinderella (1925), Dancing Mothers (1926), Beau Geste (1926), and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928). Brenon was uncomfortable with talking pictures. After a few talkies in Hollywood, he returned to Britain where he directed 11 minor films and retired in 1940.
Pola Negri was born in Poland in 1897. By age 17, she was a star on the Warsaw stage. After WWI, Negri moved to Berlin where she became the favorite actress of director Ernst Lubitsch. Her characters were earthy, exotic, and strong willed. Passion (1919) (aka, Madame DuBarry ), directed by Lubitsch, was successful in America and brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. By 1922, Negri and Lubitsch had Hollywood contracts. The Spanish Dancer was an early success in her Hollywood career. Other American successes included Forbidden Paradise (1924) directed by Lubitsch, Hotel Imperial (1927) and Barbed Wire (1927), both directed by Mauritz Stiller. Negri had a colorful offscreen life. She had a well publicized affair with Rudolph Valentino with whom she was living at the time of his death. She displayed very public mourning, arriving at the church in New York and fainting next to the casket. She took his body back to Hollywood by train, stopping at numerous stations along the way. Negri was accused of using Valentino’s death as a means to gather personal publicity. The unfavorable stories may have contributed to her decline at the box office. She gained two noble titles from her marriages and divorces from two noblemen, one more title than attained by her rival Gloria Swanson who had only one nobleman for a husband.
Antonio Moreno was born in Madrid in 1887 and came to America in 1900. His early career was spent in repertory. He came to Hollywood in 1912, as the industry started to develop in the Los Angeles area. In the early 20’s, Moreno’s popularity rose with the rising popularity of the so-called Latin lover, darkly handsome romanticized males of southern European extraction. He partnered many leading actresses: Gloria Swanson in My American Wife (1922), Alice Terry in Mare Nostrum (1926), Marion Davies in Beverly of Graustark (1926), Greta Garbo in The Temptress (1926), and Clara Bow in It (1927). His stardom faded in the talkies, but Moreno was a busy character actor until his retirement in 1960.
Wallace Beery was born un Kansas City in 1885. He ran away to join the circus in 1902. Stock companies followed. He was in film by 1913. He was a big man with an unhandsome, but pliable face, that could look cruel and treacherous, sly, or humorous. He played many villains, but also comic characters. He had a reputation as hard to get on with. His first wife, Gloria Swanson, married 1916 to 1918, had few good words to say about him in her biography. Among the numerous silent films in which he appeared were Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Robin Hood (1922), and The Sea Hawk (1925). Beery had a voice that matched his looks and was vocally adept at villainy or comedy. He continued as a leading actor until his death in 1949.
Cinematographer James Wong Howe was born in Canton China in 1899. His family moved to America in 1904. In his youth he drifted into various jobs including farm work, delivery boy, and prize fighter. In 1915 he started as a boy of all work at the Jesse Lasky Studio. He became the slate boy for C.B. DeMille who made him an assistant to the cameraman. In his off hours Howe studied photography. In 1922, he became the cameraman for Mary Miles Minter, a beautiful blond actress whose blue eyes photographed light. Howe devised a special method to photograph her eyes darker and with greater depth. His career was launched. The Spanish Dancer was his fifth credited film. Among his notable silent films are Peter Pan (1924), Mantrap (1926), Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), and Desert Nights (1929).
The anonymous critic for the New York Times reviewed the movie soon after its premiere. He noted that the film had been intended as a star vehicle for Rudolph Valentino. After Valentino withdrew, the star role was altered for a woman, and Pola Negri, recently arrived in Hollywood, was hired for her third Hollywood film. The critic notes that Negri has large eyes, inky hair, and a talent for vampire roles. Much of his review compares the film to the recently released Mary Pickford starrer, Rosita , directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Rosita , based upon the same story of Don César de Bazan in 17th century Spain, had also been altered to highlight the gypsy. Negri is a better fit as a tempestuous street entertainer, but Pickford had the advantage in directors, Lubitsch was more experienced and adept in romantic melodrama.
Despite the emphasis on the gypsy dancer, the story was founded on work featuring Don César de Bazan. Jules Massenet’s eponymous opera of 1872 was based on a 1844 play of the same name by Philippe Dumanoir. The play was based on a popular character in Victor Hugo’s 1838 historical drama Ruy Blas. The Don César de Bazan story has been filmed numerous times. There were at least three silent versions preceding The Spanish Dancer and Rosita . In the talkie era, the Spanish hero has starred in the Italian film Don Cesare di Bazan (1942) and a Russian film, Don César de Bazan (1989) from the Lenfilm Studio of St Petersburg.