| Hula | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Victor Fleming |
| Written by | Doris Anderson (adaptation) Ethel Doherty (scenario) George Marion, Jr. (titles) Frederica Sagor (uncredited) |
| Based on | Hula, a Romance of Hawaii byArmine von Tempski |
| Produced by | Adolph Zukor Jesse L. Lasky B. P. Schulberg (associate producer) |
| Starring | Clara Bow Clive Brook Arlette Marchal Albert Gran |
| Cinematography | William Marshall |
| Edited by | E. Lloyd Sheldon Eda Warren |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 64 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (Englishintertitles) |
Hula is a 1927 Americansilentromantic comedy film directed byVictor Fleming, and based on the novelHula, a Romance of Hawaii (1927) byArmine von Tempski. The film starsClara Bow and was released byParamount Pictures.[1] The film entered into the public domain on January 1, 2023, because regardless of the film itself's renewal status, the copyright of the book it was based on was renewed in 1954.[2]
Hula Calhoun (Clara Bow) is the daughter of a Hawaiian planter, Bill Calhoun (Albert Gran). She follows the advice of her uncle Edwin (Agostino Borgato), and follows a simple and natural life, far from social conventions of her family and is considered a "wild child" who wears pants and rides horses.[3]
Courted with adoration by Harry Dehan (Arnold Kent), Hula prefers a young British engineer, Anthony Haldane (Clive Brook), who came to the island to oversee the construction of a dam on her father's property. However, Haldane is already married. At a party, Haldane tries to keep his distance but Hula gets drunk and performs a seductivehula dance for him. She manages to provoke him so much that he promises that he will get a divorce. When his wife, Margaret (Patricia Dupont), appears, Hula makes a deal with one of the foreman to use dynamite to blow up a point on the dam. Thinking that her husband is now ruined, Mrs. Haldane agrees to the divorce, and the two lovers can finally get married.
In the opening scene of the film Hula is shownswimming nude in a stream, and later is wearing pants and articulates her sexual desires.[3] Similar toSadie Thompson (1928), the film depicts a modern woman who is located outside the bounds of American civilization and thus able to act in an "uncivilized" manner like natives who live on the islands.[4][5]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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