Love's Redemption (1921) Norma Talmadge Film Co./First National. Produced by Joseph M. Schenck. Directed by Albert Parker. Adaptation by Anthony Paul Kelly. Photography by J. Roy Hunt. Cast: Norma Talmadge, Harrison Ford, Montague Love, H. Cooper Cliffe, Ida Waterman, Michael M. Barnes, E.L. Fernandez, Frazer Coulter. 6 reels. This film is LOST

Review from Variety, January 13, 1922

There are many arresting novelties of romantic story involved in the new Norma Talmadge feature, current at the Strand. The tale departs in many respects from the orthodox love theme, and has as its central character a rather unusual heroine, "Ginger" (Miss Talmadge), a waif of the island of Jamaica, with a passion for mothering all the spiritual cripples that drift her way until a homesick English boy comes under her care and in helping him toward his reformation she wins his love.

A curiously sympathetic role is this part of "Ginger," which Miss Talmadge plays with a high degree of sincerity. There is nothing about the work of the cheap sentimentality that so often injures the screen plays of popular women stars. All the appeal is addressed to an intelligent characterization. There is no "Talking down" to the supposed level of film audiences. The thing is direct and earnest, and all its sincerity registers. Miss Talmadge, by the way, has achieved a miracle of youthful slenderness, and makes her "Ginger" look the part of a girl in her early teens.

The direction is a simple and direct as the appeal of the tale; the tropical locale offers large possibilities for picturesque settings, and these incidentals have been skillfully managed. Finally the play has excellent contrasts in comedy touches, effective suspense, and enough of dramatic strength to sustain interest. Anthony Paul Kelly adapted the story from the novel, "On Principle" by Andrew Soutar, and Joseph M. Schenck stands sponsor for the offering which bears the First National mark.

Clifford Standish is one of those younger son British exiles running a plantation in Jamaica. Loneliness drives him to tippling, and he is rapidly going to smash, neglected and imposed upon by his lazy native servants. Jennie Dobson, "daughter of a Spanish beauty and an Englishman of vague identity," known as "Ginger" for her household efficiency, has been running the household of a roving sea captain, but his departure on a long voyage leaves her without an occupation. Straightway she goes looking for some other creature to mother, and the secretary of the Foreigner's Club puts her in the way of Standish.

She first makes his house clean and, armed with a revolver, hustles the servants around to their work. The bachelor establishment is reorganized on a capable basis. The next step is to break the boy's drinking habits, and the energetic "Ginger" goes about this task with the same cheerful courage. Standish's family has ignored him all this time, but the death of an uncle brings him fortune, and the fashionable family at home suddenly becomes interested in his welfare.

With his impending departure for home Standish suddenly realized that he is in love with his little housekeeper, and they are married. The family in England has other plans for his social advancement, so when he arrives with Little Miss Nobody there is the inevitable clash between the bride and the young husband's women relatives. Here are some of the most interesting passages of the story. "Ginger" is the same efficient, capable, dependable creature in this new warfare and comes out on top in the clash, but at length becomes weary of the fight and is about to depart when Standish, with a sudden insight into the situation, packs up and departs with her, young romance stepping out together into a world of their own to work out their individual destinies together.

Miss Talmadge's supporting company is first rate, including Montague Love as the heavy. Business at the Strand Sunday evening was big, a notable demonstration of the star's loyal following among the metropolitan film fans.

Review from The New York Times, January 9, 1922

LOVE'S REDEMPTION, with Norma Talmadge, Harrison Ford, Ida Waterman and others, directed by Albert Parker, adapted by Anthony Paul Kelly from Andrew Soutar's On Principle"; "Edgar Allan Poe," the third of the "Great American Authors' series; "Be Reasonable," a Mack Sennett comedy; "On the Road to Mandalay," sung by Herbert Watrous. At the Strand.

"Love's Redemption" has been such a common theme in the movies that you are not likely to expect anything startlingly new when you go to see a photoplay bearing the words in its title. And you will not find anything startlingly new at the Strand. The story is smooth in continuity, primarily, it would seem, because it has been laid out along a lane, every stretch and turn of which as been traveled many, many times. A hero is drinking himself to death in Jamaica, West Indies--though it might just as well have been Jamaica, New York--a heroine who inspires self-respect in him, his reformation, their marriage, their return to England, their clash with the insincerity and materialism of the people among whom they are thrown there and their final return to Jamaica and happiness--that's the story of "Love's Redemption."

The picture is somewhat redeemed, however, by an excellent cast and many well photographed scenes, made, apparently, in some island of the real West Indies. Miss Talmadge makes her role more than it amounts to in substance, Mr. Ford is a vigorous hero, and Ida Waterman, as a designing Mother-in-law, is vivid in a small part.

The picture entitled "Edgar Allan Poe," also at the Strand, is really a picturization of "Annabel Lee," pleasantly done, with some good photographic effects.

Review from Moving Picture World, January 1, 1922

Love's Redemption
Will Please Large Norma Talmadge Following--Released by First National
Reviewed by Fritz Tidden

As a matter of fact, Norma Talmadge in anything will promote active business at the box office window, needless to say. "Love's Redemption" will satisfy the tremendous following the star enjoys, which is not as casual a statement as it sounds. Primarily it allows Miss Talmadge to appear to great advantage in a role that is refreshingly different from anything she has essayed for some time.

The theme, a variation upon the glad-girl, waif-outcast reformist who finally realizes happiness for herself and those concerned, may be conversant and the pattern of its treatment may be along familiar lines, but there are constant flashes of something different that gives the picture frequent refreshing moments. One of the most valuable assets of the production is its atmosphere, brought forward by Albert Parker's direction especially in the arrangement and selection of settings and the choice of exquisitely beautiful exterior shots photographed on the island of Jamaica, the locale of the story, which Anthony Paul Kelly adapted from Andrew Soutar's novel.

Miss Talmadge's performance in this picture enforces again the multiple reasons just why she commands one of the largest audiences enjoyed by the most prominent stars. To detail these reasons would be to repeat what has been said many times before. She has been provided with expert support from an unusually competent cast, in which the players maintain an even, high grade of excellence.

The Cast

Adapted from Andrew Soutar's Novel.
Scenario by Anthony Paul Kelly
Directed by Albert Parker
Length, 5,889 feet.

The Story
Deprived of her last benefactor by the departure of Capt. Bill Hennessey for England, Ginger, a girl of Spanish-English blood, decides to remake Clifford Standish, an exile from England who is slowly being poisoned by the rum of the island of Jamaica, the locale of the story. It is a battle of a girl's keen wit against great odds. Ginger wins out, only to lose, apparently, as a summons comes to Standish to return to England.

In the midst of aristocratic surroundings, for Ginger goes with him as his wife, there comes the crucial test of whether the man has really remade himself. And Standish is the one who helps Ginger find the answer most emphatically in the affirmative.

Program and Exploitation Catchlines:
Norma Talmadge as "Ginger," the Girl of the Tropics, in a Drama of Island Fires That Awakened Love--and Civilization's Snows that Chilled It.

Exploitation Angles: You need do little more than announce Miss Talmadge, but do that so thoroughly that no one in your section is unaware of her engagement. Add that this is a play taken from Soutar's novel, but hand most of it to the star for she can do to most for you.

Last revised, August 17, 2005