Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood

20. The Golden Chance

20 Th~ Gold~n Chanc~ Produced by the jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company for Paramount release. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Original story and scenario by jeanie Macpherson. Art director: Wilfred Buckland. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff Picture started: October 26, I9 I5. Picture resumed: November 5, 191 5. Picture completed: November 26, 19 I5. Cost: $ I8,7 I0.8 I. Length: 5,274 feet (six reels). Released: january 3 I, 1916. Gross: $83,504.03 Cast: Cleo Ridgely (Mary Denby), Wallace Reid (Roger Manning), Horace B. Carpenter (Steven Denby), Ernest joy (Mr. Hillary), Edythe Chapman (Mrs. Hillary), and Raymond Hatton (an underworld rat) Although he often explored similar themes in film after film, Cecil B. DeMille officially remade only three ofhis pictures. It is easy to see why he remade The Squaw Man twice, in 1918 and again inl931-he had a strong personal connection to the property. His 1956 version ofThe Ten Commandments, containing none of the modem elements of the 1923 original, was barely a remake at all. Besides, DeMille's first Ten Commandments was one of the biggest box-office hits of the silent era, and the remake complemented the cycle of Biblical spectacles that Hollywood found profitable in the 1950s. But why would DeMille remake The Golden Chance, which was called Forbidden Fruit in its 1920 incarnation ? The original movie was a solid but hardly spectacular success that was soon forgotten after its initial release. What was the attraction? According to Jesse Lasky both The Cheat and The Golden Chance were written in response to his request for original screen stories to supplement the theatrical adaptations that were the mainstay of the studio's output.l The Cheat was written in New York by Hector Turnbull, a personal favorite ofLasky's who would soonreplace Sam Goldfish as Lasky's brother-in-law. The Golden Chance was written by Jeanie Macpherson, DeMille's screenwriter of choice. Today, when a prolific filmmaker may make one picture a year, we have difficulty believing that DeMille made no fewer than thirteen feature films in 1915. What is more remarkable is that The Golden Chance 71 72 / Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood and The Cheat were produced simultaneously-The Cheat during the day, The Golden Chance at night. Lasky suggests that contractual obligations made it necessary for both pictures to be shot at the same time in order to meet the studio release schedule. William deMille remembered that a problem with the director assigned to The Golden Chance compelled Cecil to step in. In his autobiography DeMille characteristically says that he felt it was necessary to prove by example to other directors on the Lasky lot that they were not overworked, despite their protests to the contrary. Surviving documents suggestthatWilliamdeMille's memory was faulty-Cecil clearly was the original director of The Golden Chance. Production problems forced the picture to shut down, and what seems more likely is that Lasky assigned HectorTurnbull's story to DeMille, and, with both pictures scheduled for early release, the director was unwilling to trust the making of Jeanie Macpherson's script to another filmmaker. DeMille began shooting The Golden Chance with Edna Goodrich in the leading role. Surviving stills indicate that a good portion of the film was completed with Goodrich, but the actress exhibited a fondness for the bottle, and when she arrived on the set in a drunken stupor DeMille fired her from the picture and shut down production. In a letter to Sam Goldfish dated November 2, 1915, Jesse Lasky wrote, "Edna Goodrich will not be with us after her ten weeks have expired. She is hopelessly bad and, as far as Cecil is concerned, I don't believe he could ever be persuaded to direct her again. On Sunday Cecil sent for me and wanted to leave Goodrich out, pay her off and put someone in her picture which is already half finished. Cecil has a fine story but he claims she is killing it. She cannot act and also screens very poorly."2 The Goodrich footage was scrapped and the balance of her Lasky contract was parceled off to the Bosworth-Morosco studio. The role of Mary Denby was given to Cleo Ridgely, and DeMille resumed shooting The Golden Chance while The Cheat was still in production. After a stint in the chorus at New York's famed Hippodrome Theatre , Cleo Ridgely began her screen career with the Kalem Company at its Jacksonville, Florida, studio in 1910. She later worked for...