The Coast of Folly was released in September of 1925 and spent one week in the #1 position on Variety’s Top Ten box-office charts for major cities, ranked in the Top Ten for 5 weeks, and easily made more than $1M. And when they watch her characterization in “The Coast of Folly,” they will leave the theatre well repaid for the effort.” Lawrence Gray and Gloria Swanson Photoplay noted that Swanson plays two roles and notes, “Her work in this picture will be much discussed, so don’t miss it.” The same magazine applauded her work as the “gaudy elderly female.” Exhibitors Trade Review gushed, “They’ll always walk a mile to see Gloria. Reviews of the film were rather coy because they didn’t want to give the plot away. The real selling point, however, was that the film also boasted Swanson playing her own mother (Nadine Gathway aka the Countess de Tauro). The film was directed by Allan Dwan and co-starred Anthony Jowitt as the married man, Dorothy Cumming as his wife, Eugenie Besserer as the nanny, and Lawrence Gray and Richard Arlen as Joyce’s beachy friends. The glam settings also ensured that Swanson would be seen in a parade of high-fashion costumes, much to the delight of her ardent fans. Set in the world of the idle rich, the 1924 film moved the book’s action from New Jersey to New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, but retained the scenes set on the French Riviera, where Joyce goes to escape the bad publicity. She set out to proved her grandfather wrong and that her generation does not have a “compulsion of failure.” The title derives from Joyce’s grandfather’s remark that she and her young friends are aimless, like “jellyfish washed up on the coast of folly.” The novel follows Joyce’s examination of her reckless behavior and how she can make things right. Joyce’s mother, who had abandoned the family years before and has become the Countess de Tauro, returns when she hears her daughter may be following the path she had taken. Things start to get sticky when the man’s wife files for divorce and a newspaper gossip columnist “wonders” if Joyce will be named as co-respondent. Based on the novel by Coningsby Lawson, the story follows Joyce Gathway (Swanson) and her friendship with a married man. One of Gloria Swanson’s stubbornly “lost” Paramount silent films is The Coast of Folly (1925), in which she plays a socialite amid the “Lost Generation” of the post-war era.
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