Soul of the Beast (1923) User Reviews (5)

Nice little circus movie

[overseer-3 · 8/10 · 7 February 2004]

Love that tame elephant in this film! How did they get him to do all the things he did? Who was the animal trainer?

There are so many questions I have when I watch old silent movies like this one, and the answers are most often long lost. Here pretty Madge Bellamy loves a circus elephant and he loves her back. Can't say I blame him, even an elephant couldn't be blind to her magnificent beauty. She runs away from a mean stepfather who abuses her and meets up with a trapping/logging community, concealing her identity, and falling in love with a lame violinist who protects her from the evil surrounding them. Assorted villains add suspense and a canoe chase on rapids is well done, with all ending happily.

Best thing about the film is that elephant. Gosh, he was cute!

Filmed in Boulder Creek, California

[turbodv8 · 7/10 · 14 November 2010]

I saw this film projected last night at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. The historian informed me that it was shot in Boulder Creek, CA. I wanted to see if I could identify specific filming locations after 85 years, Boulder Creek and surrounding area being an old haunt of mine for 25 years. Although I could tell it was filmed generally in the Santa Cruz mountains, and guessed the canoe river chase was on the San Lorenzo river, nothing popped out at me. Until the end, during the scene where the villain is climbing a sandstone formation and the elephant is hosing him down with water. That is when I got goosebumps! I could immediately identify it as the swimming hole at Junction Park, in Boulder Creek, CA! I swim there regularly in the summer, and the combination of the sandstone embankment with horizontal striations, on which the villain was climbing, and the sand bar on the left, are unique and unmistakable. It literally jumped out at me the moment it came on screen. You can still walk down the steps and take a swim in that exact same spot!

Madge Bellamy has her innings!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 5 January 2018]

Many of the silent features currently available on DVD have been mastered from 16mm prints that were once rented out by Kodak.

Aside from Paramount, First National and Warner Brothers, the majors did not participate, so the Kodak collection was especially strong on independent and "B" movies.

As a result, some major stars like Madge Bellamy were either under-represented or now appear in vehicles that do them little credit.

"Soul of the Beast" (1923), for instance, stars Madge Bellamy (a circus girl), Cullen Landis (a crippled young farmer in the Canadian backwoods), and Noah Beery (the heartless villain).

Aside from Beery, however, the players make little impression as all the limelight is stolen by an elephant!

John Griffith Wray's rather static direction doesn't help either, although he does stage the action scenes rather well. Worst of all is the unflattering lighting in the 5/10 Grapevine print which makes Madge Bellamy look like a ghost. Tinting in this movie was not a nice extra, it's an absolute must-have!

Surreal Film Adventure

[drednm · 2 September 2008]

Odd little film that stars Madge Bellamy as a Canadian girl who runs away from the circus her step-father owns because of his abusive ways. She takes her pet elephant Oscar with her (of course) and hides out in the deep woods until one day they come upon a small village that is run by an abusive man (Noah Beery). She also finds a lame violinist (Cullen Landis) who is a special victim of Beery's.

Bellamy is put to work in a kitchen while Beery continues to run the town. After Landis buys Bellamy a dress, Beery goes nuts so they run away with Oscar still trying to find them. The escape down river in canoes is well done.

A surreal film that almost plays as a fairy tale, THE SOUL OF THE BEAST has some very good moments involving the talented elephant. The three stars are all quite good. Beery was a major villain of the silent screen. Bellamy was a big star. Landis is best remembered as the male lead in the first all talking picture: THE LIGHTS OF NEW YORK.

A Ten-Ton Flop

[briantaves · 30 October 2011]

Soul of the Beast was released by Metro Pictures Corp. on May 7, almost a year after it was produced, under a unique contract signed on March 8, 1923. Marcus Loew was attracted to Soul of the Beast by its novelty value. Madge Bellamy plays "the Cinderella of the Circus," Ruth. Owning the show is her stepfather, who cages and exhibits her as "the wild woman from Borneo," so that only Oscar the elephant can save her when a fire breaks out. Fleeing to the Canadian woods, she meets a handicapped young musician (Cullen Landis) and both are bullied by Caesar (Noah Beery). Fortunately, Oscar, no matter how out-of-place, finds his favorite human companion, and he pursues Caesar into a raging river. With Paul cured by surgery, the movie ends as Oscar rocks the crib containing the baby of the virtuous couple.

John Griffith Wray's direction does nothing to reduce the absurdity, with the occasional bits of humor falling flat. Outrageous elements in Ralph H. Dixon's scenario from C. Gardner Sullivan's story that might have succeeded as pure farce are handled seriously. Sullivan's outline, as indicated by the working titles Someone To Love and Ten Ton Love, was bizarre, even at barely five reels in length. Bellamy recalled, "Soul of the Beast did me a lot of harm…. I was disreputably coy in it. I gave a worse performance than the elephant. We both simpered in the picture." Publicity stills showed Bellamy in the embrace of Oscar. The idea to combine the youthful actress with a gigantic "pet" was regarded as valid by at least one Ince competitor, Cecil B. DeMille, who complimented Ince after watching the movie with his family. "'Soul of the Beast ' is ten tons of laughter. The kids pronounced it the best they had ever seen and the grown-ups were just as enthusiastic." Just before shooting was about to commence, Wray contracted with Howe's Great London Circus. Early in the planning, Ince decided that rather than building sets for the "big top" sequences he would rent an entire circus in order to secure the most realistic atmosphere. Further, he ordered that the cast—Bellamy, Landis, Beery, Vola Vale, Bert Sprotts, Harry Rattenberry, Carrie Clark Ward, and Lincoln Stedman—should travel with the circus, joining them in meals and learning their habits before shooting began. Henry Sharp and Gus Boswell went along as cinematographers and all of the movie was shot as the circus played for a week in May in San Rafael, Vallejo, Oakland, Richmond, San Jose, Lodi, Martinez, Fraser, and Antioch.

Circus attendance broke all records with the filmmakers accompanying them, and the performers of the big top were eager to demonstrate their talent for the camera. Many of their costumes were purchased by Ince for possible future circus-related productions. Endless difficulties were encountered in transporting Oscar, and the High Sierras served for the forest scenes, giving the pachyderm the space he needed to behave naturally. Oscar was covered by two $10,000 accident policies throughout production, and he consumed hundreds of pounds of lump sugar in order to be convinced to do his tricks. Soul of the Beast was shot from March 24 to May 20, 1922, and cost $206,982.

Whatever the truth, by 1927, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer reported a mere $150,000 in paid business. However, its family appeal made it one of the first late Ince movies to be released on the 16 mm. home movie market, with the result that it is perhaps the most widely-seen Ince film made during his final years. This is doubly unfortunate since, as I outline in my Ince biography, it is very atypical of his product during these years.