Savage Woman (1918) Clara Kimball Young Picture Co. (or C.K.Y.?), Distributor: Select Pictures Corp. Presenter: Clara Kimball Young. Director: Edmund Mortimer and Robert G. Vignola. Scenario: Kathryne Stuart. Camera: Arthur Edeson. Gowns: Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon). Cast: Clara Kimball Young, Milton Sills, Edward M. Kimball, Marcia Manon, Clyde Benson. 5 reels. This film is apparently LOST

It was made at the Lasky Studio in Hollywood.

A Magazine Cover with a portrait of Young in Savage Woman

An unidentfied clipping

Review from Variety, August 16, 1918

Clara Kimball Young's current Select release is "The Savage Woman," adapted from the French novel by Francois Curel, entitled "La Fille Sauvage," scenario by Kathryn Stuart, directed by Edmund Mortimer.

Renee (Miss Young) is the daughter of a derelict trader who ended his days in the Abyssinian mountains. She is reared as a savage woman, clad only in a leopard skin. Jean Lerier has had an affair with Aimee, a French cocotte and goes away to forget. He encounters Renee and "treats her rough," and she looks up too him as "the devil man." Jean brings her back to Paris, dresses her in the latest fashion to confront Aimee. He learns to love the savage woman but, remembering his experience with Aimee, refuses to marry Renee.

Renee once more dons her leopard skin, rushes off in a rowboat to find more ancient stones in which "the devil man" is interested, is picked up by a passing steamer and taken to her native heath. Jean goes on another expedition, is captured by the savages and is rescued by Renee, the natives believing her the reincarnated Queen of Sheba. It ends in a clinch.

The production is a massive one, full of "big" scenes and a quantity of double exposures. The role of the savage woman is a radical departure from anything Miss Young has yet essayed. Excellent photography by Arthur Edeson.

Review from Moving Picture World, August 31, 1918

"THE SAVAGE WOMAN"
Clara Kimball Young Reverts to the Primitive in Colorful Jungle Romance.
Reviewed by Edward Weitzel.

Ever since Rider Haggard wrote "She," the beautiful heroine clad in scanty but picturesque garb who inhabits some African jungle and casts her spell over a handsome young explorer, has been a favorite character in fiction. Francois Curel, the French novelist, wrote a story called "La Fille Sauvage," which furnished the groundwork for the Select picture, "The Savage Woman," in which Clara Kimball Young, at the head of her own company, acts the part of Renee Benoit, the daughter of a drunken African trader, who has been allowed to grow up as wild and uncivilized as one of the natives of the land. The scenario was made by Katheryn Stuart and the production directed by Edmund Mortimer.

The pictorial features of the photoplay are many, and the romance wanders along in the unreal but entertaining strain that belongs to tales of this sort. A little more skill in putting the picture together and bringing out its dramatic possibilities would have improved it considerably. The action of the five reels covers a great deal of ground, and there is no really big scene in the picture. The novelty of seeing Clara Kimball Young dressed in a leopard's skin and several strings of glass beads and running barefooted through the jungle after the manner of "Tarzan of the Apes" is one of its chief attractions, and the production shows care and good judgement.

Renee is happy and contented, playing with the monkeys in the jungle, until Jean Lerier, a French explorer who has been treated badly by a beautiful woman of the Paris underworld, takes her to France and introduces her to smart gowns and the ways of Bohemian society. The girl, now deeply in love with Jean, is forced by her still untamed nature to return to Africa and resume her old manner of living. Lerier also returns and Renee saves his life as he is about to be sacrificed by the natives. She is taken for the reincarnation of the Queen of Sheba and the tribe are afraid to disobey her. Lerier has treated her but lightly before, but he now realizes he loves her well enough to make her his wife.

Clara Kimball Young acts the young savage cleverly, and is excellently supported by Milton Sills as Jean, Marcia Manon as Aimee Ducharme, and Clyde Benson as Prince Menelek. Arthur Edison was the photographer.

THE SAVAGE WOMAN
Clara Kimball Young Presents Herself and Her Own Company in an Adaptation of Francois Curel's "La Fille Sauvage."

Cast:

The Story: Renee is mistaken by a native prince who thinks she is the reincarnated spirit of the Queen of Sheba, and tries to capture her. She escapes, but is shot accidentally by Lerier, who nurses her back to health and takes her to Paris. He soon tires of her and turns to his former love, Aimee. Renee in a rage destroys a valuable curio and then goes to Abyssinia to get another one. Lerier goes back to the spot where he met Renee and is captured by the fanatic prince who prepares to sacrifice him to the spirit of the queen. Renee appears and saves him. The natives mistake her for the queen and flee in terror.

Feature Clara Kimball Young as Renee Benoit and Milton Sills as Jean Lerier.

Program and Advertising Phrases: Best of All Clara Kimball Young's Intensely Dramatic Offerings.
How the Queen of Sheba Came to Life and Thwarted Villainy.
Queen of Motion Picture Stars in Her Greatest Photodrama.
Translating a Savage Woman to a Parisian Ball Room.
Leopard Skins and Flowing Hair Sets New Fashion in Society.
How a Wild Woman Tamed Parisian Social Lions.

Stunt Suggestions: In addition to capitalizing Miss Young's popularity work on the story. Really novel stories are few and here is one you can talk about with safety on this score. Tell it is from the writings of a French author and play up the high lights of the story. Get one or two extra sets of stills and use them for window work.

Advertising Aids: Two one-sheets, two three-sheets, one six-sheet, one 24-sheet. Window cards, 14x21. Heralds. Lobby display photographs, 8x10, 11x14, 22x28. Slides. Cuts, two one-column, two two-column, three-column, one one-half-column cut of star, and one one-column and one two-column cuts of star.

Last revised October 14, 2005