Ella Cinders (1926)

Redundant and unnecessary.

As Good As It Gets

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Ella Cinders" came out in 1926 and was a huge success for it's star, Colleen Moore. It was based on a comic strip that had appeared the year before and while it lasted until 1961, it just sort of ambled along. The movie was another matter - Colleen had one of her best roles and for once the character in the movie actually looked like the one in the comic strip. The movie retained most of the strip's other characters including Lotta and Prissy Pill, Ella's horrible half sisters and set the story in the intriguing (to film goers at the time) world of Hollywood.Poor little slavey Ella Cinders (Colleen Moore) is worked to death by her horrendous family, Lotta Pill ("always anxious to look her best and her best is none too good"), Prissie Pill and her dragon of a mother (Vera Lewis). "Waiting" in the wings is the ice man and Ella's champion, Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes). He is always there with a shoulder to cry on and Ella sure needs one of those. Meanwhile the "Pollyanna Club" is abuzz with excitement - Roseville is going to pick a girl to represent them in Hollywood for a "Find a Star" competition and Lotta is sure she will be the chosen one. Ella is also determined to enter the competition to seek a way out of the town that has caused her so much unhappiness. There follows some hilarious sequences Ella's "Eye Exercises", impersonating Jackie Coogan for some children and the "fly on the nose" at the photographers.Surprisingly to her family (but not to Waite) Ella wins (her "fly on the nose" picture impressed the judges who were looking for new, funny talent). Disillusion sets in as soon as she disembarks the train. Expecting a big fan fare to greet her, there is a crowd at the station, but they are there to welcome the Indians who have traveled with her. She then proclaims "I'm Ella Cinders - the beauty contest winner", a man replies "I'll keep your secret" and when she finally arrives at GEM Studios it is to find that they are on location in Egypt (the organ music plays strains from "Lawrence of Arabia" which is a bit disconcerting). She is determined not to get discouraged and there is a hilarious scene in which she is trying to "crash" the movies and Harry Langdon makes a brief guest appearance to help her to evade capture. The story has a happy ending. Ella becomes a star, Waite is discovered to be rich, posing as an iceman (for whatever reason I haven't a clue)!!! He goes to Hollywood to seek Ella out and finds her scrubbing the floor at the station - she is filming her latest movie but Waite thinks she hasn't succeeded and scoops her up on to the now moving train to carry her off to wedded happiness. This is such a lovely movie, with emphasis on characterisation and not slapstick. While definitely not as good as "The Extra Girl" or "Show People" it is a gentle look at the movie industry as Colleen plays a girl who forsakes Hollywood for the simple life.Highly Recommended.

Because the plot of this very well-produced silent film is so easily recognizable as "Cinderella", it can be one of your most enjoyable introductions to both the silent film genre, and to one of its most popular actresses, Colleen Moore. The film was an adaptation of the then popular new comic strip "Ella Cinders", with changes to the heroine's situation that were perfectly suited to a silent film starring Ms. Moore. The film easily transcends its source, and succeeds as prime example of the often repeated story about a young woman achieving her dream to become a Hollywood movie star - itself, a "Cinderella" story. Who knew comic strips could be perfect silent film fodder… The Hollywood "movie set" scenes aren't as clever as in other films of this type, despite the appearance of Harry Langdon and others, in cameos. Director Alfred E. Green, Lloyd Hughes (as George Waite), and Vera Lewis (as Ma Cinders) make good contributions. Interestingly, Moore is best on screen, alone, with a lion or fire; and, when attempting to, "Master the art of expressing every emotion with the eyes," imitate Jackie Coogan, and pose at a "photo session" for the movie star contest she eventually wins. "Ella Cinders" was a huge success, and helped propel Colleen Moore to the #1 position on Quigley Publications' "Box Office Stars" list for 1926. ******** Ella Cinders (6/6/26) Alfred E. Green ~ Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Vera Lewis

ELLA CINDERS (First National, 1926), a John McCormick production, directed by Alfred E. Green, is a star vehicle for Colleen Moore, a popular silent screen flapper of the 1920s, in one of her more notable comedies of her career that has become forgotten through the passage of time. It's a Hollywood story taken from both comic strip character and Cinderella fairy tale, and reminiscent to Mabel Normand performance in THE EXTRA GIRL (1923). Similarities in theme makes it quite easy to confuse these two, especially when both characters are seen disrupting the studio when encountered by a lion. While THE EXTRA GIRL switches to melodrama from time to time, ELLA CINDERS is pure comedy that makes good use of Moore's comedic talents.Opening title card: "The Cinders residence in Roseville - where the first bowl of wax bananas appeared on an American sideboard." Ella Cinders (Colleen Moore) works like a slave for her wicked stepmother (Vera Lewis) and equally wicked stepsisters known as the Pills, Lotta (Doris Baker) and Prissy (Emily Gerdes), waiting on them hand and foot. Her one and only friend is Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes), a young man employed for the Union Ice Company, who in reality happens to be George Waite, a football hero and graduate from the University of Illinois as well as being the son of a millionaire (revealed on screen through a close up shot of a newspaper clipping)who disapproves of Ella. During a meeting of the Pollyanna Club held at the Cinders household every second Thursday of the month, where members get to "cheat at cards," Ella overhears her stepmother's intention on having Lotta representing Roseville by entering her in a movie contest sponsored by the Gem Film Company, with the prize being a trip to Hollywood and a chance to appear in a motion picture. Seeing this an opportunity in breaking away from the Pills, Ella earns the extra money needed for entrance fees and studio portrait taken of herself through babysitting. As she is poses to have her picture taken (one point being a strong resemblance of Lillian Gish), the photographer (Harry Allen) snapshots the very moment Ella becomes cross-eyed (like Ben Turpin) as she blows away a fly resting on her nose. It so happens that this is the picture that makes it to the judges. At the ball, where the winner's name is to be announced, to everyone's surprise, Ella's picture is the winner. After a merry send-off from the community (with the exception of the Pills) at the train station where the mayor (Jed Prouty) makes a speech, Ella takes off for Hollywood. Upon her arrival, she taxis over to the studio to find the Gem Film Company shut down and told by a guard that the contest was a scam and the "sharpies" arrested. Now stranded in the land of make-believe, and refusing to go back home in fear of being a laughing stock, Ella makes the best of her situation by "haunting the studio gates," sneaking past the guards and being chased around the lot, disrupting scenes currently in production and driving one of the directors (Alfred E. Green) out of his mind. With much more to follow, it gets better than this. Stay tuned and see what further develops for this Hollywood Cinderella.Amusing at times as it is familiar, ELLA CINDERS, if remembered at all, has all the ingredients for surefire material in the Betty Hutton or Lucille Ball tradition. Funniest scene comes early in the story where Ella studies the method of acting from "The Art of Motion Picture Book," going through the motions with her eyes. An excellent use of special effects done in split screen, her eyes move individually in all directions. This scene alone was certainly one that had audiences laughing out of their seats back in 1926. This is followed by another set in the California bound train where Ella falls asleep, with all passengers getting off and to be awaken later surrounded by Indians, actually actors dressed as Indians who had come on at an earlier stop, being lead to believe the train was attacked. She becomes ill after smoking a cigar offered to her by an "Indian chief." Another highlight is the unbilled guest appearance of comedian Harry Langdon whom Ella mistakes as a wanna-be actor avoiding capture from the studio guards. "There's after me, too," she tells Langdon as he holds on to the door during a movie rehearsal.Of a handful of Colleen Moore features produced during the silent era, ELLA CINDERS is best known due to availability on video cassette from various distributors and sporadic television revivals some decades ago, notably on the weekly public television series "The Toy That Grew Up," from the 1960s, complete with composed organ score, the same one used for the Grapevine Video Company with the running time of 70 minutes. While prints of ELLA CINDERS is in need of restoration, average or not so good prints in circulation don't deprive silent movie lovers from enjoying the misadventures of Miss Ella Cinders. (***)

I watched this silent comedy with Colleen Moore and gorgeous Lloyd Hughes with my 6 year old daughter and we were rapt with attention all the way through. This film boasts a touching sweet romance, and many fine and unique comedy moments, such as Ella getting her picture taken for a beauty contest and having a fly land on her nose, and Lloyd's character using the missing shoe for measurements to buy her a pair of dress shoes when she goes off to Hollywood. Unlike one commentator here however I didn't care for that organ score. I heard some copyrighted song musical phrases in there that were misplaced too, like a strain from Dr. Zhivago! Weird. If you love Colleen Moore or want to learn more about her this is a film not to be missed. She was an excellent comedienne, even better than Mabel Normand.