Children of Divorce

An accomplished editor and cinematographer, von Sternberg was frequently hired to rescue troubled productions, like this drama of three people struggling with a cynicism about marriage. As sets had been struck and the actors re-assigned, he filmed in a tent, between thunderstorms. Clara Bow and Gary Cooper, lustful lovers off-screen, were bullied into effective performances as miserable marrieds.Screening with the surviving fragment of von Sternberg's last silent, The Case of Lena Smith (1929, c5min).