And talking of Gloria Swanson – Her Gilded Cage (1922)

Posted: October 8th, 2021 | No Comments »

Talking of Swanson’s apparent taste for things Chinese the other day, this 1922 portrait of her by Karl Strauss always makes me think of Liangbatou, the Manchu female headress/headwear styles and the background porthole (metalwork or bamboo? I can’t quite tell) perhaps adds to that feeling….

The image is from when Swanson was filming Her Gilded Cage (1922), a silent drama about a dancer seeking love and fame from Paris cabarets to New York society. The film is sadly ‘lost’ but the few remaining still indicate a fairly heavy ‘Orientalist’ touch (see below). IT didn’t get great reviews i’m afraid – more of a fashion show than a movie (like that’s a bad thing!).

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