Charles Major's novel When Knighthood Was in Flower, written under the pen name Edwin Caskoden, first appeared in 1898 and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for three years. It was inspired by the life of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary, who fell in love with Charles Brandon, a knight beneath her station, but was forced to marry Louis XII of France. Thirty years younger than her husband, she was widowed within a few months without producing an heir. Although his successor, Francis I, wanted to arrange a second marriage for her, Mary married her true love in secret, which greatly angered her brother when the marriage came to light. Although his counselors urged Henry to have Brandon executed, he let the pair off with a fine. Major decked the story out with court intrigue and a daredevil escape from France's lecherous new king (in truth, Francis I attended Mary and Brandon's wedding), inspiring a craze for historical romance. The book was so popular, Paul Kester adapted it to the stage in 1901, where it enjoyed a six month Broadway run with Julia Marlowe as Mary. Biograph bought the film rights in 1908, and it may have been adapted by D.W. Griffith, though no prints or other records survive.
With the success of European costume films like Ernst Lubitsch's Madame DuBarry (1919), Hollywood wanted to get into the market. United Artists had a big hit with The Three Musketeers (1921), produced by Douglas Fairbanks' company and starring Adolphe Menjou. That inspired William Randolph Hearst to jump on the bandwagon with this adaptation of Major's novel. Always on the lookout for projects that would showcase Davies' beauty, he thought the role of a Tudor princess would be perfect. He entrusted the direction to Robert Vignola, an Italian actor turned director who had already helmed three other films starring Davies, starting with Enchantment (1921). He then set out to make the film her most lavish ever.
With a budget of $1.8 million, When Knighthood Was in Flower was the most expensive picture made at its time and the first of Davies' films to cost more than $1 million. Ziegfeld Follies designer Joseph Urban planned so many lavish sets, Hearst had to rent space at two other New York studios to complete the film and hire 3,000 extras for the crowd scenes. The film also featured exteriors of Windsor Castle in England. For Davies' 15 gowns, Urban's daughter, Gretl Urban Thurlow, duplicated outfits originally worn by Mary Tudor. Hearst also took advantage of Paramount's development of the Handschiegl method for hand-tinting films. Invented by engraver Max Handschiegl in 1916 for Cecil B. DeMille's Joan the Woman (1916), the process involved creating a separate black-and-white print for each color to be used. Areas to be colored were then blocked out with an opaque paint. When the print was duplicated, those areas of the print were of a different consistency, which made them capable of absorbing dyes when run through special dye transfer machines. At most, a film could have three colors applied in that way before the creation of a master print.
Davies threw herself into the role, spending four hours a day for four months to master fencing for one scene in the film. To escape her brother, Mary masquerades as a boy, hiding out at a local inn. There she has to forego her ladylike demeanor and table manners to pass as a common lad, even going so far as to eat with her hands. Then she's challenged to a fight and faces off against a group of enemies. Davies was justifiably proud of her work in the fight scene, though she would also complain that the fencing left her legs and back aching. To cope with the pain, she had to stand and walk as straightly as possible, which Vignola said made her look like a perfect 16th century noblewoman.
Cast as the villain, in only his second film, was William Powell, finally breaking into films after over a decade of stage work. Although Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures worked through Paramount at the time Powell signed with them, and Powell would later move to MGM after Hearst had moved his production unit there, he and Davies never made another film together.
For the picture's New York City premiere, William Frederick Peters wrote an original score. Victor Herbert contributed two songs, "The When Knighthood Was in Flower Waltz" and "The Marion Davies March." The theatre had a special marquee measuring 60 feet by 35 feet, at the time Broadway's largest electric sign ever. Davies' name was spelled out in ten foot high letters made entirely of frosted white electric lights. The theatre was filled with flowers to add to the romantic atmosphere. That all paid off, as the film met with ecstatic reviews and was one of the year's top-grossing pictures.
Among those praising the film were New York mayor John F. Hylan, who had been helped to power by Hearst, and the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII. One critic who took issue with the picture was the film editor for the New York Morning Telegraph, who praised Davies' performance but criticized Hearst for over-producing the picture. Hearst was so intrigued by the review he arranged to meet her, then hired her for one of his own papers. That was the start of Louella Parsons' career as one of the screen's most influential gossip columnists.
When Knighthood Was in Flower inspired a 1923 spoof starring Stan Laurel, When Knights Were Cold. Only a portion of that film survives. The Davies' film's success convinced Mary Pickford to film another Major novel, Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, in 1924, while Davies filmed his Yolanda, also directed by Vignola, the same year. Walt Disney would produce his own version of the Davies film at his British studio in 1953. The Sword and the Rose starred Glynis Johns as Mary Tudor, with Richard Todd as her lover and James Robertson Justice as Henry VIII. In the cable series The Tudors, Mary's story is highly fictionalized, with her name changed to Margery and her first husband the king of Portugal, whom Mary murders to be with Brandon. Gabrielle Anwar played Margery/Mary, with future Superman Henry Cavill as Brandon.
Since the silent era, the film has been little seen. The 2017 restoration by Ben Model and the Library of Congress, which debuted at the Toronto Silent Film Festival, includes tinting and digital coloring of some scenes to reproduce the original's hand tinting. With its new availability, When Knighthood Was in Flower proves that Davies could more than hold her own against even the most lavish of Hearst's productions.
Director: Robert Vignola
Screenplay: William LeBaron, Luther Reed
From the novel by Charles Major
Cinematography: Ira H. Morgan, Harold Wenstrom
Score: William Frederick Peters and Victor Herbert (original premiere), Ben Model (restoration)
Cast: Marion Davies (Mary Tudor), Forrest Stanley (Charles Brandon), Lyn Harding (Henry VIII), Theresa Maxwell Conover (Queen Catherine), Pedro de Cordoba (Duke of Buckingham), Ruth Shepley (Lady Jane Bolingbroke), Ernest Glendinning (Sir Edwin Caskoden), William Norris (Louis XII), William Powell (Francis I), Gustav von Seyffertitz (Grammont), Paul Panzer (Captain of the Guard)
By Frank Miller
