Primary sourceDocumentary1916

The Dumb Girl of Portici

Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley · 1916

A 1915 silent drama by Universal, directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, starring Anna Pavlova in her only feature film role.

Pavlova starred as Fenella in her only feature film, an attempt to bring ballet to American cinema audiences.

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Black and white still from the 1916 film The Dumb Girl of Portici. A woman in a dark draped gown stands in the foreground on a tiled floor, with her arms raised over her head. Behind her, a crowd of people in period costume gathers on steps before a classical painted mural with columns, and a woman in a light robe holds a tray of fruit above her head. — Still from The Dumb Girl of Portici, directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, 1916.

About this source

What it is

This is a still from The Dumb Girl of Portici, a 1916 American silent drama directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber. It was adapted from the libretto of Daniel Auber's opera La muette de Portici. Anna Pavlova starred as Fenella, a poor Italian girl who falls in love with a nobleman's son.

Why it matters

The film was Universal's most expensive production at the time and the longest film made by a woman director in the 1910s, making it significant both for Lois Weber's career and for Pavlova's. It was Pavlova's only feature film, showing her attempt to bring ballet's fame to the new mass audience of American cinema.

Look closer

What does Pavlova's pose and gesture in this still tell you about silent-film acting?
Why might a world-famous ballerina want to appear in a Hollywood film rather than only on stage?
What does the scale of the production (cost, length) suggest about how studios saw Pavlova's fame?

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