MGM silent. 62 minutes (6 reels).

US release: 4/12/25 (premiere at NYC's Capitol Theatre); 4/27/25 (general release).

Not available on VHS or DVD.

Print Status: Print survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives (IMDb). It's also currently available on YouTube.

Cast: Eleanor Boardman, Pat O'Malley, Harrison Ford, Trixie Friganza, William J. Kelly, Rosita Marstini, Sojin Kamiyama, Evelyn Sherman, George Nichols, Margaret Seddon, Lillian Elliott. (Joan Crawford in uncredited bit part.)

Credits: Based on the novel Proud Flesh by Lawrence Rising (New York, 1924). Director: King Vidor. Director of Photography: John Arnold. Adapted for Screen: Harry Behn, Agnes Christine Johnston. Titles: Marian Ainslee, Joseph W. Farnham.

Plot Summary:

King Vidor does a nice job of making an insignificant novel by Lawrence Rising into a pleasant light comedy. Fernanda (Eleanor Boardman, who would become Vidor's second wife) is born in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake and raised by aristocratic relatives in Spain. As a young woman she is engaged to marry Don Jaime Diego (Harrison Ford), but she feels he treats her too lightly. She tells him that she is going to America, but he takes the news so calmly that she is forced to really go. Diego follows after her and, in fact, arrives before she does. This does not stop Fernanda from meeting the attractive Pat O'Malley (Pat O'Malley, apparently using his own name for the character). She falls for him immediately, but when she discovers that, as a contractor, he is basically a glorified plumber, it gives her pause. O'Malley, however, persists and ultimately spirits her off to a cabin. When Diego shows up, O'Malley reluctantly lets Fernanda leave with him, and returns home, depressed. Soon enough Fernanda shows up because she can't forget him. They wind up together, while Diego merely pulls out his little black book and finds another girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Notes:

* In production from early February to March 1925. (AFI)

* Also known as Jornada and Jornada Romântica in Brazil; Hans spanske Flamme in Denmark; Capriciosa in France; Orgoglio in Italy; Orgulho Vencido in Portugal; and Orgullo in Venezuela. (silentera.com)

* In only her second film appearance (after the also-uncredited Lady of the Night), Joan appears as an uncredited extra in several party scenes.
* According to a viewer of the film as posted on YouTube, Joan appears at the following approximate points of the film: 35:02, 35:11, 35:25, 35:46.

American Film Institute page

IMDb page

silentera.com page

Turner Classic Movies overview

Wikipedia page

Mordaunt Hall in the New York Times (April 14, 1925)

"Proud Flesh," the new picture holding forth at the Capitol this week, is a bright entertainment in which there are a slight touch of heart interest and plenty of amusement. It has been handled most adroitly and is filled with original ideas. It was translated to the screen from Lawrence Rising's novel and was directed by King Vidor. Eleanor Boardman, whose charm and ability added to the interest in "The Way of a Girl," impersonates Fernanda, a young woman who was born in San Francisco just before the earthquake and soon afterward was taken to Spain. Don Jaime, a fastidious and immaculate Spaniard, portrayed by Harrison Ford, has his own way of serenading the girl he loves, who happens to be Fernanda. He drives in his carriage to the pretty girl's home, with his guitar players running behind him. After a glance at himself in the mirror he gives the signal for the musicians to play, and Fernanda, who has inherited a startling (to the Spaniards) love of bathing, is disturbed while engaged in her ablutions. She robes herself in a négligée and appears at the window.

The most humorous stretches in this picture take place after Fernanda's arrival in San Francisco. Having lived in Spain so long, she is not particular about the day of her arrival, but informs her relatives that she is certain of the month. She had told Don Jaime that her uncle owned a house with twenty-four bathtubs, which are increasing in number every time the Spaniard mentions them. In engaging his passage on the steamer Don Jaime instructs the menials to reserve for him on the steamship "a room with a view."

America steps in on the day that Fernanda essays to reach her uncle's abode. She quarrels with the taxi-cab driver because he insists on attempting to climb a steep hill, and the irate chauffeur ejects her and her maid with the baggage from the vehicle. The pieces of baggage roll down the hill, but Fernanda is saved further inconvenience by the timely presence of Patrick O'Malley, played by the actor of the same name. He is a wealthy plumber, a specialist in bathtubs. Soon he falls in love with Fernanda. Fortunately for the Spaniard there is no fighting between O'Malley and Don Jaime—who had arrived a few days before Fernanda in California. The American is a persistent individual who knows the girl he wants to marry. He even invades the ballroom and carries Fernanda away, because she had consented to marry him, but had reconsidered her decision. He would give $10,000 for a war with Spain.

Miss Boardman is charming as Fernanda. In several scenes she wears a Weird silver headdress which does not detract from her beauty. She is alert and convincing in her acting and never at a loss for a winning expression. One of the amusing sequences is where O'Malley, disguised as one of his working plumbers, enters the house, and causes no little anxiety to Don Jaime. Harrison Ford is capital as the Spaniard and his cape with the white satin lining is very effective. He emulates Sir Walter Raleigh by spreading it out for Fernanda to walk upon after he has rescued her from O'Malley's hunting lodge. Mr. O'Malley is impressive in his namesake's role.There are streaks of satire in this production, and the subtitles are always helpful and often provocative of laughter. The main title is reflected slightly by the bathtub king wanting to marry the aristrocratic girl. To this feature is added an interesting surrounding program, with an amusing "Out-of-the-Inkwell" cartoon.

The Bathtub King. PROUD FLESH, with Eleanor Boardman, Patrick O'Malley, Harrison Ford, Trixie Friganza, William J. Kelly, Rosita Marstini, Sojin, Evelyn Sherman, George Nichols, Margaret Seddon, Lillian Elliott, Priscilla Bonner and others, adapted from Lawrence Rising's novel, directed by King Vidor; overture, "Intermezzo" from "Cavalleria Rusticana"; "A Song for Easter and Tableau"; "The Cloud Maker," a Robert C. Bruce scenic; Lottice Howell; Mlle. Gambarelli in "A Bit of Bric-a-Brac"; impressions of "The Sultan of Sulu." At the Capitol.

Stephanie Jones  (January 2022)

Rating:   - 1/2 of 5

Reviewed on this site for Joan purposes: Joan appears only as an extra in party scenes at about the 35:02 thru 35:46 points of the movie.

Released in 1925 just before his much-more-renowned The Big Parade, Proud Flesh is a very minor silent film by director King Vidor, starring his soon-to-be wife Eleanor Boardman as "Fernanda," an American who was left an orphan by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and taken in by a Spanish family.

The titles early in the film give you some idea of the ridiculousness of the premise:
"For apparently no reason at all this story begins with the San Francisco earthquake." (I'm guessing the studio forced Vidor to include actual newsreel footage of the SF quake, and he had to find some way to incorporate it into his plot.)

"Historians, writing of the earthquake, neglect to record the birth of Fernanda Borel...Which is one reason why history is so dull."

"Left an orphan, Fernanda was reared by the Borels in Spain...who really had done nothing to deserve such punishment."

(Such titles might indicate that the story to come, featuring Fernanda, is tempestuous and interesting...Alas, the story is about as generic and dull as can be.)

The early few minutes in Spain feature a pampered Fernanda: "To the servants, Fernanda was insane. She wasted a tubful of water every day, just for bathing." (Spoiler alert: Could there be a plumber in her future?!)  Also featured in the Spanish scenes is her suitor Don Diego (Harrison Ford), an overt dandy who has his minions present him a mirror to gaze upon himself, sing his love songs for him, and build him a human tower to climb up to Fernanda's balcony.

Because Diego doesn't pay enough attention to her, Fernanda announces: "I am leaving for San Francisco, where my Uncle has a house with seventeen bathtubs on a hill." (Again with the bathtubs... Spoiler alert: Could there be a plumber in her future?!)

Fernanda arrives in SF and meets a self-made American man who gives her a lift, a secretly wealthy plumber/contractor named "Patrick O'Malley" (also played by an actor named "Pat O'Malley"). The dandy Don Diego has arrived at her aunt/uncle's house before her. The rest of the film is a weak battle between the Old World Diego and the Robust American O'Malley, with a bit of political commentary thrown in.

At one point, Plumber O'Malley gives a speech saying, "I'm as good as any man you ever met...Just because I'm a plumber it doesn't mean that I'm not a gentleman...and your equal!" O'Malley then asks what Washington/Lincoln/Roosevelt/Wilson have all fought for..."to make us all free and equal!" After this outburst, the snobbish Don Diego invites O'Malley to tea, along with the Chinese butler and Fernanda's maid/companion. Says Diego: "Now we are all free and equal...and uncomfortable." (I can't remember seeing anything as awkward and honest as this in any film aside from 1993's "Remains of the Day," when the elites ask Anthony Hopkins' butler for his opinion on the current political crisis and he is unable to answer.)

After this, the film continues with a few more snarky "Senor Plumber" and bathtub references. But despite these, Fernanda's aunt and uncle host a party at which Fernanda reluctantly dances with/starts to fall in love with O'Malley (while the seedy Don Diego hangs out with a group of girls, including Joan---her only brief appearances in the film occur during several points in this under-1-minute-long stretch). Cut to the next day, when Fernanda is simultaneously mesmerized by the Great American Outdoors (here typified by actual footage of Northern California's Cypress Point) and the Honest American Man (typified by O'Malley). After a few more simplistic plot machinations, she finally accepts the down-to-earth (but rich) plumber as her own. (The European Dandy Don Diego, as it turns out, has another woman's address at the ready.)

Overall, Proud Flesh is a stereotypical example of 1925 studios simplistically touting the victory of the "common man" over the "dandy." (It's the former, after all, who came to see the pictures!)
 

Tom C.  (July 2021)

Rating:   of 5

Spoiler alert! There is only a minute of JC---as an extra---in this movie. She pops up near the 35 minute mark. Check that---this is early enough in 1925 that she's still Lucille LeSueur.