The Gown of Destiny
Scene from The Gown of Destiny
Directed byLynn Reynolds
Written byEarl Derr Biggers (story)
Lynn Reynolds
Produced byThomas H. Ince
StarringAlma Rubens
Herrera Tejedde
Allan Sears
CinematographyJohn W. Brown
William A. Reinhart
Production
company
Distributed byTriangle Distributing
Release date
November 30, 1917
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

The Gown of Destiny is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Lynn Reynolds and starring Alma Rubens, Herrera Tejedde and Allan Sears.[1] The film shows how a dress performs a patriotic function for France during World War One even though its designer is refused military service. Its wardrobe was designed by Peggy Hamilton and Hickson Inc. of New York's Fifth Avenue.[2]

Synopsis

Alma Rubens in a Peggy Hamilton designed dress (1917)

During World War One, a fictional French dress designer in the United States, André Leriche, is refused service in the French army on the grounds that because of his effeminate profession he is not strong enough. He returns to his work and makes a sari-inspired dress that so impresses the unfaithful husband of the buyer Mrs Reyton that he returns to her. As a gift to his wife, Mr Reyton sends three ambulances to the front to help with the French war effort against the Germans, so the dress performs a patriotic function even though its maker cannot.[2]

When Mrs Reyton gives the dress to her niece, it transforms her from a wallflower to a young woman so beautiful that a playboy falls in love with her and is so transformed that he joins the military and wins a medal when he saves Leriche's home town, and so his father, from the Germans. The dress, therefore, performs a further patriotic function.[2]

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Connelly p.355
  2. 1 2 3 Finamore, M. Tolini (2013). Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film. Springer. pp. 68–72. ISBN 978-0-230-38949-6.

Bibliography

  • Robert B. Connelly. The Silents: Silent Feature Films, 1910-36, Volume 40, Issue 2. December Press, 1998.
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