You Never Know Women (1926)

You Never Know Women: Directed by William A. Wellman. With Florence Vidor, Lowell Sherman, Clive Brook, El Brendel. A love triangle in a circus troupe,

“You know as soon as he shows up that Lowell Sherman is a suave rotter. It was his signature role in the movies, and had been since he played the City Slicker in Griffithu0026#39;s WAY DOWN EAST. When a worker saves Florence Vidor from being crushed by a falling girder and she faints in his arms, Sherman steps from a saloon car and pushes him aside. He takes on the heroic role himself as an entree into Florenceu0026#39;s world of of a touring Russian vaudeville troupe and, he hopes, her.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are complications to his quest: the loyalty of the closed world of the troupe, and the doglike love of Clive Brook, the troupeu0026#39;s magician. Of course, she loves him — like a brother — and is fascinated by the debonair Sherman.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a movie about illusion and the revelation of the realities behind them. Brooks throws knives at Miss Vidor, without endangering her; he turns her into a butterfly floating through the theater; he makes her vanish from one spot and appear in another; he escapes from water traps…. until he doesnu0026#39;t, and reality is revealed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWilliam Wellman was coming off a string of unsuccessful movies, and other people who talk and write about his films think this one about a small world and intruders is the first stirring of his auctorial voice. I think he was assigned a project and discovered he liked its themes. He would return to it again and again, a theatrical world that outsiders just donu0026#39;t understand, in movies like A STAR IS BORN, LADY OF BURLESQUE and BUFFALO BILL: tough, bitter and mocking tales about how people protect their own.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHe certainly shows us the community. The shots of the troupe in performance are close-ups or shot from the wings. The clear implication is that outsiders donu0026#39;t see whatu0026#39;s going on. Itu0026#39;s stage illusion (or perhaps movie illusion), and unless youu0026#39;re part of the troupe, you never see the reality.”