Parisian Love and Down to the Sea in Ships (DVD)

Parisian Love

From the cafes of Montmartre to the lush interiors of the Hotel Ritz, Clara Bow reigns supreme in Parisian Love. A playful gamin with "It" aplenty, Marie (Bow) is a wily "Apache" dancer who thrives off the American tourists slumming in Paris's seedy districts. When her lover Armand (Donald Keith) is shot during a robbery, Marie vows revenge upon the wealthy culprit: Pierre Marcel (Lou Tellegen). With the help of a comical underworld matriach (Lillian Leighton) and a sinister band of thieves, Marie trades in her wool cap and ragged trousers for ermine and lace in an elaborate plot to seduce Marcel.

Whether garbed as a boy of the street, dolled up as a French maid, dressed as a prim convent girl or gowned in the finery of the Champs-Elysées, Bow casts a hypnotic spell upon the viewer and displays the wit, beauty, charm and expressiveness that made her the box-office queen of the latter-day silents.

This Kino on Video edition was mastered from the sole surviving print of Parisian Love. For decades considered a "lost" film, the print surfaced at the 1998 Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Down to the Sea in Ships

Newly mastered from an archival 35mm print, Down to the Sea in Ships is an adventure film that conveys the dangers and excitement aboard the whaling ships of New England. Produced on location by the short-lived Whaling Film Corp., Down to the Sea in Ships is not only an engaging romance and rousing adventure film, it is a fascinating (and remarkably authentic) record of the 19th century whaler.

Raymond McKee stars as an enterprising young businessman who tries to win the heart of a young Quaker (Marguerite Courtot), in spite of her father's objections. In the first substantial role of her career, Clara Bow co-stars as Dot, the young tomboy who stows away on the whaling vessel and is caught in a whirlpool of mutiny and intrigue upon the frigid sea.