Famous Players-Lasky (Paramount), February 16, 1925. Directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki.

Starring Adolphe Menjou, Frances Howard, Ricardo Cortez.

An imaginary European kingdom is the setting for this classic romance. Later redone as a Grace Kelly vehicle, the original silent version is a lot more interesting, featuring a marvelous performance by Adolphe Menjou as a skirt-chasing prince, and superb cinematography by Alvin Wyckoff, DeMille's ace cameraman. The splendid setting of this film would've been right up Erich von Stroheim's alley, but he was under contract to M-G-M at the time. Instead, Dimitri Buchowetski took up the megaphone, and the result is a film with plenty of romance and wit to please American audiences, and just the right continental touch to give it a distinctive style. Nearly forgotten today, Buchowetski died just a few years after directing this film, and it remains the only one of his works in circulation. If The Swan is any indication, he might've become another Lubitsch... we'll never know. Organ score by Bob Vaughn. 88 minutes.

BONUS: Al St. John stars in his two-reel comedy Jungle Heat (Educational, April 24, 1927). Set in the African jungle, it's a peppy slapstick comedy with unusual stop-motion animation effects and some incredible sight gags!