The Red Mill

Marion Davies, 1927, MGM, from a Victor Herbert operetta: a servant girl in a Dutch inn plays matchmaker and falls for an Irish visitor (Owen Moore). Roscoe Arbuckle directed, uncredited. He was still banned from the screen, not from the lot. William Goodrich on the credits. Davies in slapstick, not the Hearst-approved gowns: a windmill, a canal, a body that can take a fall. It is the film that proves she was a comedian, and that Arbuckle, after the scandal, could still build a picture.