| Flames of Passion | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Graham Cutts |
| Written by | Herbert Wilcox M. V. Wilcox |
| Produced by | Herbert Wilcox |
| Starring | Mae Marsh C. Aubrey Smith |
| Cinematography | René Guissart |
Production company | Graham-Wilcox Productions |
| Distributed by | Astra Film |
Release date | November 1922 |
Running time | 9 reels |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
Flames of Passion (1922) was a British silent film drama directed by Graham Cutts, starred Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith. One reel of the film was filmed in the subtractive color process Prizma Color.
The film was made by the newly formed Graham-Wilcox Productions company, a joint venture between Cutts and producer Herbert Wilcox. The entrepreneurial Wilcox tempted American star Marsh to England with a high salary offer, believing this would improve the film's marketability in the U.S.[1]
The gamble paid off as it became the first post-war British film to be sold to the U.S. The final reel of the film was filmed in the Prizmacolor process.[2]
The wife of a wealthy barrister seduces her chauffeur, with whom she falls in love. She gives birth to a baby, apparently without her husband knowing anything about her pregnancy.
The child is killed by the chauffeur during a car accident—he was visibly drunk when driving. The result is a showpiece trial at the Old Bailey, presumably of the chauffeur on a charge of infanticide, in which the woman at first tries to protect her lover, but is forced finally under cross-examination to make a dramatic public confession that the dead infant was hers. By the end of the film, she returns to her husband.
Flames of Passion proved controversial with critics, many of whom found the subject matter lurid, sensationalist and distasteful. Cinemagoers had no such qualms, and turned the film into a big box-office hit.[2]
This was the first British film to be sold for distribution in the United States following World War I where it was shown under the title A Woman's Secret.[3]
This is now considered a lost film.