Miss Lulu Bett

William C. deMille: Miss Lulu Bett (US 1921) with Lois Wilson and Milton Sills. Photo: The Movie Database.

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): L'Eredità DeMille / The DeMille Legacy, Cinema Verdi, 13 Oct 1991

Miss Lulu Bett (Famous Players-Lasky, 1921), di William C. deMille, 35 mm, 5778 ft, 77 min (20 fps), Museum of Modern Art.
    Special harp accompaniment by Andrea Piazza. After reviving Italian folk music and a revealing stay in Bali, whose landscape and atmosphere inspired him to compose new music, he now turns his beloved harp and romantically modern sensibility to the advantage of the silent moving images. (GCM 1991 Program Schedule)

Miss Lulu Bett (FP-L, 7 reels) Adapt: Clara Beranger; From the novel and play by Zona Gale; CAm: Wilky. With Lois Wilson, Milton Sills, Theodore Roberts, Mabel Van Buren, May Giraci. [BRU, LoC, MoMA, UCLA.] "A wealth of material for deMille's type of character development on the screen, and he has availed himself of all the opportunities... with outstanding results... in retaining the spirit of Miss Gale's work deMille has made a picture that is most interestingly realistic and becomes a human document that is a valuable contribution to the season's screen." -MPW, 12/31/21. "It takes rank as an Mr. deMille... aided, presumably, by Miss Clara Beranger, the scenarist, and others of his staff, but it was his own work as director in chargethat counted for most in the... picture... and therefore Miss Lulu Bett is put down as one of the best things he has ever done." -NYT, 12/20/21. (GCM 1991: The DeMille Legacy / L'Eredità DeMille, A cura di Paolo Cherchi Usai, Lorenzo Codelli, p. 184).

AA: In Pordenone's William C. deMille retrospective my two favourites were Jack Straw and Miss Lulu Bett, two sophisticated, intimate achievements of subtle psychology. This film is a drama about Lulu Bett's pursuit of happiness, fighting slavery in her sister's kitchen, the treachery of a suitor and the hypocrisy of the justice of the peace. The knight in shining armour is the village schoolteacher.

SYNOPSIS FROM AFI CATALOG: "Spinster Lulu Bett is a drudge in the home of her married sister, Mrs. Dwight Deacon, whose husband is justice of the peace and dentist in the small town where they live. The monotony of Lulu's life is broken by the arrival of Dwight's brother, Ninian, who takes pity on her. He arranges a supper party in her honor and jokingly recites the marriage ceremony with Lulu; Dwight, in his official capacity, realizes the ceremony is binding, and Lulu remains with Ninian until she learns that he has another wife, who is missing. Returning home, Lulu is treated by Dwight as a deserted wife to avoid exposing his brother as a bigamist; and she is the object of unrelenting gossip. Finally, Lulu refuses to be a servant and accepts the attentions of Neil Cornish, the village schoolteacher; and after being notified that Ninian's wife is alive, she is happily married to Neil."