The Mad Dancer

The Mad Dancer
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Directed by	Burton L. King
Written by	William B. Laub
Based on	"The Mad Dancer" by Louise Winter
Produced by	Burton L. King
Starring	Ann Pennington Johnnie Walker Coit Albertson
Cinematography	Charles J. Davis
Edited by	William B. Laub
Production company	Burton King Productions
Distributed by	Jans Film Service
Release date	February 15, 1925 (1925-02-15)
Running time	70 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Mad Dancer is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Burton L. King and starring Ann Pennington, Johnnie Walker, and Coit Albertson.[1]

Synopsis

Mimi, a dancer who lives in the Latin Quarter of Paris, poses nude for a sculpture. When her father commits suicide she moves to the United States but finds her relatives there disapprove of her. She becomes engaged to the son of an American senator, but her past threatens to catch up with her.

Cast

• Ann Pennington as Mimi
• Johnnie Walker as Keith Arundel
• Coit Albertson as Serge Verlaine
• John Woodford as Robert Halleck
• Frank Montgomery as Jean Gaboule
• Ricca Allen as Ada Halleck
• William F. Haddock as Elmer Halleck
• John Costello as John Arundel
• Nellie Savage as Princess Gibesco
• Echlin Gayer as Prince Carl
• Clarence Sunshine as Cupid Karsleed

Production

The Mad Dancer was filmed at the Tec-Art Studio in New York City.[2] Pennington, who had performed in the Ziegfeld Follies and George White's Scandals, appeared nude for the modeling scene for the sculpture.[3] At the time, brief stationary nudity, similar to a tableau vivant, appeared in a few American films with scenes involving women posing for painters or sculptors. As an experiment, one scene involving Pennington and Vincent Lopez and his band was broadcast over the radio on Newark, New Jersey station WJZ (today WABC of New York City) while being filming.[4]

Preservation

Prints of The Mad Dancer are held in the UCLA Film and Television Archive and George Eastman Museum Motion Picture Collection.[5]

References

1. Munden p. 93.
2. Koszarski p. 78.
3. Ann Pennington biography at silenthollywood.com
4. "Ann Pennington Broadcasts," Radio Digest, January 21, 1925, p. 3. Includes a still of Pennington with Vincent Lopez and members of his band.
5. Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: The Mad Dancer

Bibliography

• Koszarski, Richard (2008). Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-4293-5
• Munden, Kenneth White (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20969-9

External links

• The Mad Dancer at IMDb
• Still on the cover of a French magazine
• H.E.R. Studios, Inc. v. Jans Productions, Inc. (N.Y. Sup. 1925) (documents from appeal of court case on claim for costs of creating titles for The Mad Dancer)