Mademoiselle Midnight / A Mormon Maid

Mae Murray (1885-1965) was one of the most popular screen sirens of the silent era, known to audiences as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips". Starting as a chorus girl in the Ziegfeld Follies, she made her film debut in To Have and to Hold (1916). Her career really took off after playing the title role in Erich von Stroheim's The Merry Widow (1925). Moviegoers loved her extravagant costumes (which she often designed herself) and over-the-top emoting. Murray's acting style, however, didn't hold up so well when sound was introduced. After incurring the wrath of Louis B. Mayer by walking out on her MGM contract, she retired from films completely. A true free spirit, Murray was married four times, and posed for more than one nude portrait, some of which still hang in art museums today.

Mademoiselle Midnight (1924): Renée Sorolla is a hedonistic young woman who calls herself "Mademoiselle Midnight". An unrepentant party girl, she borrows the name from her grandmother, a French courtesan who incurred the wrath of Napoleon himself. Renée considers leaving behind her reckless ways after meeting Jerry Brent, an idealistic American diplomat. Those dreams are dashed when her home is broken into by the bandit João, who kills Renée's father and forces her to marry him. Now Renée's only chance is to get a message to Jerry in America, who she prays still loves her. Mademoiselle Midnight was directed by Murray's then-husband, Robert Z. Leonard, and produced by the company the couple founded in 1921, Tiffany Pictures. After their divorce in 1925, Tiffany quickly went downhill, becoming known as a Poverty Row studio. Leonard went to work at MGM, where he directed classics like The Divorcee (1930) and The Great Ziegfeld (1936).

A Mormon Maid (1917): Dora is an innocent young girl who lives with her mother and father in the wilderness of Utah. When a rogue band of Indians attack their home, a pair of Mormon men who live nearby rescue the family. Brought to live in their colony, the Mormon leader, Darius Burr, takes an interest in Dora. Soon the virginal young woman is forced against her will to join Burr's flock of wives. Another collaboration by the husband-and-wife team, A Mormon Maid was intended by director Leonard to show the pros and cons of Mormonism. When the end result seemed more biased against, Paramount refused to release it, leaving it to be distributed by independent company Friedman Enterprises. Co-star Frank Borzage would become a director, best known for films such as 7th Heaven (1927) and Man's Castle (1933).