Event

Silent Sunday - Showing of Male and Female

Male and Female (1919)

"Legend has it that Cecil B. De Mille retitled this 1919 version of James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton because he was afraid that audiences would think it was a navy picture. Crammed with sin, sex, and sermonizing, Male and Female is a perfect opportunity to examine the dominant and most delirious directorial personality of the 20s at its height. With Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan." Chicago Reader

The film centers on the relationship between Lady Mary Loam (Gloria Swanson), a British aristocrat, and her butler, Crichton (Thomas Meighan). Crichton fancies a romance with Mary, but she disdains him because of his lower social class. When the two and some others are shipwrecked on a deserted island, they are left to fend for themselves in a state of nature. Only the butler has the necessary skills for survival, and a role reversal ensues, with the butler becoming a king among the stranded group.