This is yet another movie that should be shown to anyone who might doubt the talents of Marion Davies. She is delightful in this performance, with some wonderful bits of physical comedy. Director Fatty Arbuckle surely deserves the credit as well. The supporting players are also quite good, but make no mistake - this is her film.

Despite watching this film in a less than ideal print, with a canned soundtrack (as of this writing, I hope TCM eventually airs this film with a good soundtrack based on the public domain music of Victor Herbert for this operetta -- I know they have it in their library, what are they waiting for???), I really enjoyed this romantic comedy. Although still essentially a period piece (Hearst loved those and kept putting Marion in them), Marion Davies' screwball comedy skills brighten up the whole picture, which otherwise would have been just a quaint little programmer, soon forgotten.

Marion is ably supported by handsome Owen Moore (Mary Pickford's first husband), and additional comic relief is provided by wonderful Karl Dane (who looks almost handsome here!), and perky Louise Fazenda, who actually was quite pretty when young, so it was brave of her to agree to look ugly for this film. Not to mention our own little favorite funny man, Snitz Edwards, who is always a barrel of laughs in every film he's in, simply by hamming it up for the camera.

The plot doesn't have much to do with the Victor Herbert operetta; that was more of a serious story, and sometimes the pace of this film seemed a bit fragmented, but overall it really is a crowd-pleaser and needs to be more widely available; just one more example of Marion Davies' astounding comedic abilities. She was so much more than just Hearst's paramour! She was the first screwball comedienne! (Also a woman with a big heart, since apparently she was instrumental in getting Roscoe Arbuckle this directorial job and I'm sure his influence added to the comedy).

8 out of 10.

Update: TCM is airing this film in April 2007 for the first time.

The good news is that even the title cards have a wit and humor that is carried over beautifully onto film under Fatty Arbuckle's direction for THE RED MILL, based loosely on a Victor Herbert operetta.

Quaint is a good word to describe the costumes and settings of the Dutch tale, which opens with a charming ice skating sequence that is played for laughs and largely succeeds because of the clever acting of MARION DAVIES and OWEN MOORE. The tale that follows is a case of mistaken identity, with Moore confusing Davies with the burgonmaster's daughter LOUISE FAZENDA, who is engaged in a comical relationship with someone else.

Davies has never been better at establishing herself as a comedienne from the start, given lots of bits of business (on and off the ice), including the stay in a haunted mill that occupies that last fifteen minutes of the story and is a good mixture of laughter and fright.

Technically, the film looks great with TCM's restoration and a bouncy score that accompanies rather than distracts (as some of the new scores do). Very worthwhile Marion Davies vehicle shows that she did indeed have promise as more than Hearst's favorite protégé.

Trivia note: The sets and costumes cry out for early Technicolor but only the night scenes are shaded a blue tint.