Sounds Of Silents

Ashes of Vengeance (1923)

A classic showcase vehicle for silent-era superstar Norma Talmadge, revitalized with synchronized symphonic music, digital image enhancement, original title cards reproduction, a new opening titles sequence and a new historical setting prologue.

A historical romance set in 16th Century France, Ashes of Vengeance is beautiful, grand, lavish, elegant and meticulously crafted to please its audience--all of which descriptions equally apply to its star, Norma Talmadge.
 

She was one of the most famous people in the world during the 1920's. For most of the decade, she consistently ranked among the "top box-office draws"--a list created annually from a national poll of film exhibitors--and in 1923, the year Ashes of Vengeance was released, she was number one on the list. She received an average of 3,000 fan letters a week and earned a weekly salary of $10,000. Such merits put her stardom on par with Pickford, Fairbanks, Swanson and even Chaplin but, unlike those legendary deities of the silver screen, Norma Talmadge is all but completely forgotten today.
 

How could such a huge star become so obscure? The blame rests with two simple but brutal culprits. First, she didn't survive the sound revolution--few silent stars did, but some had initial luck because public curiosity to hear them speak made their first few talkies financial, if not always critical, hits. Some silent film stars who faded soon after the arrival of sound had successful comebacks while others became even bigger stars in the sound era. Talmadge made just two talkies, both disastrous flops, after which she retired from acting and from public life. Enormously wealthy, she seemed not to have missed the adulation of her former legions of fans. One day in New York, a few years after her retirement, she was recognized by a woman who asked for an autograph, to which Talmadge replied, "Go away, dear--I don't need you any more."
 

The second and most important reason Norma Talmadge is so forgotten that even college courses, books and websites devoted to cinema history and movie nostalgia rarely mention her is that most of her silent films are lost, in fragments or in such bad condition that viewing them is pointless--they show white, ghost-like figures playing scenes before light gray, blurry backgrounds while missing frames and sloppy rejoining of broken film cause everything to jump, jerk and shudder. Without enough decipherable evidence surviving from the past, history will not remember the dead.
 

It seems almost providential that one of Talmadge's few intact, relatively well preserved silent triumphs should be called Ashes of Vengeance. Directed by Frank Lloyd, one of the premiere directors of the time, and produced by Talmadge's husband, Joseph M. Schenck, the film gives us a rare opportunity to see this magnificent star in all her glory.
 

Aside from Talmadge, the cast includes leading man Conway Tearle, a stage actor who gives a seriously subdued performance as the stalwart hero who tries to remain true to his fickle fiancee even as he falls in love with the sister of his archenemy. In the role of the pompous but cowardly villain who, by arrangement of their noble families, expects to marry the unhappy but duty-bound heroine, Wallace Beery once again gives a scene stealing, bigger-than-life performance.
 

Without question, however, this is Norma Talmadge's film. Dressed in gorgeous period costumes, complimented by exquisite sets, art direction, lighting and cinematography, this production showcases Norma Talmadge in a manner befitting her status as a great film star.
 

So treat yourself to the precious gift of experiencing the divine Norma Talmadge in one of her sensational vehicles, as Sounds of Silents presents the GCM Production of a MaxManLA Video, Ashes of Vengeance, revitalized with synchronized symphonic music, digital image enhancement, original title cards reproduction, a new opening titles sequence and a new historical setting prologue.

The link below offers FREE online viewing and several FREE downloading options. 

 ASHES OF VENGEANCE with synced symphonic music