La Bohème (1926) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents LILLIAN GISH and JOHN GILBERT in KING VIDOR'S production LA BOHEME with RENEE ADOREE, GEORGE HASSELL, ROY D'ARCY, KARL DANE, FRANK CURRIER AND EDWARD EVERETT HORTON By FRED DE GRESAC Suggested by Henry Murger's "LIFE IN THE LATIN QUARTER" Continuity by RAY DOYLE and HARRY BEHN Directed by KING VIDOR A METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURE Presentation and Musical Score Arranged by Major Edward Bowers, David Mendoza and William Axt THE CAST MIMI LILLIAN GISH RODOLPHE JOHN GILBERT MUSETTE Renee Adoree COUNT PAUL Roy D'Arcy COLLINE Edward Everett Horton MARCEL Gino Corrado SCHAUNARD George Hassell ALEXIS David Mir BERNARD Gene Pouyet BENOIT Karl Dane MADAME BENOT Matilde Comont LOUISE Catherine Vidor PHEMEIE Valentina Zimina THEATRE MANAGER Frank Currier Director: KING VIDOR AUTHOR: FRED DE GRESAC ADAPTORS: RAY DOYLE and HARRY BEHN PHOTOGRAPHER: HENRIK SARTOV A METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURE The Story of "La Boheme" IN a cheap, paris rooming house, frequented by the students and budding artists of the Latin Quartier, live Mimi and Rudolphe. Mimi is an orphan, a fragile waif who ekes out a bare living by sewing, and rodolphe an ambitious playwright who manages to exist by loans from friends and by doing hack work for a newspaper. Rodolphe shares his chambers with other members of the Bohemian Brotherhood, a group of young intellectuals whose tempestuous love affairs entertain the gossips of the Latin Quartier. The Brotherhood is composed of Schaunard, devoted to the twin arts of music and painting; Gustave Colline, self styled "a thinker"; Marcelle, a painter, and Rodolphe, the poet-playwright. When Rodolphe first sees Mimi, ascending the malodorous stairs of their dingy lodging house, he is amazed by her angelic beauty. Later he learns that she is to be dispossessed from her room, being unable to pay her rent. That evening, as Mimi starts to leave the house with her few possessions tied in a small bundle, the Bohemian Brotherhood intercept her on the stairs and, augmented by Musette, Schaunard's sweetheart, persuade her to have supper with them. They are unable to raise money enough to pay Mimi's rent, but solve the problem by making her one of them, and she becomes the little sister of the Bohemians. In Schaunard's Elysium, the fanciful name of their attic chanbers, mimi's life is transformed into a thing of beautiful gratitude to her new found friends, especially so to the romantic playwright, who sets himself to win her with little kindnesses. His dashing wit and handsome appearance also charm the little seamstress. By the time Easter has come the two have found a deep and sincere love for one another, and at a picnic in the shadow-haunted Bois de Boulogne they confes their mutual love. Time flies swiftly for the lovers, and soon Rodolphe finishes his play, "The Avenger." Manager after manager rejects the ambitious opus of the young man. Discouraged by this continual dashing of his hopes, Rodolphe despairs of his ability, and begins to look upon himself as a failure. But Mimi, in her great faith, will not allow him to think so; she encourages him to writ it over again. With petty cajolery she wins him from his despondency. With renewed fervor he revises the play, and so absorbed is he by it, that he forgets to write his weekly hack articles for the newspaper. finally a messenger arrives to remind him that he must have his work at the editorial office by a certain time. In a desperate hurry the young playwright finishes his article and is about to bring it to the offices of the journal. but Mimi offers to take it for him, so that he may have more time to work on his play. On her arrival, the editor griffly tells her that Rodolphe's articles are no longer wanted; the paper has gone to press, and Rodolphe is discharged. Mimi is frantic with anxiety. She realizes that the success of the play is as vital to the life of the ambitious Rodolphe as food -- and yet, he must eat. Finally she hits on a device by which she may aid him. She conceals his discharge from him, and each week pretends to take his articles to the paper, returning with money presumably paid to Rodolphe by the editor. But, in reality, she ricks her fragile health by sewing all night. Rodolphe, not suspecting Mimi's sacrifice, is happy; the play almost writes itself in the fire of his inspiration. At last he finishes it, and the tow lovers are enthusiastic about its artistic worth, and the new vistas of life that its success will open to them. During the while that Rudolphe has been engrossed by his play, a cynical boulevardier, Vicompte Paul, charmed by Mimi's beauty, has been cultivating her friendship by bringing her sewing to do. By a disply of his wealth, his fine home, his gorgeous apparel, and by shoing her the pleasures and luxuries that he could give her, he attempts to win her away from rodolphe. But Mimi is faithful and devoted to her lover, and Paul, much impressed by her high hearted steadfastness, admires her for her virtues, and becomes her friend. When Rodolphe finishes his masterpiece, Mimi shows it to Paul, and he is immediately impressed with the originality of the young playwright. In his enthusiasm, he tells Mimi that he will find a manager to produce it, and goes out to interest a friend of his in the play. He is successful in this and they make an appointment for the reading. In order to surprise Rodolphe with his good fortune, and to keep him from disappointment should she fail, Mimi holds this new development a close secret. On the appointed night, Mimi, in borrowed clothes, goes to the theatre with Paul, where the manager gives her an encouraging audience. On the same night, Rodolphe learns from the editor of his newspaper that he has been discharged for a month. On going into Mimi's room he finds evidences of her sacrifice, and is deeply moved. Mimi, overjoyed with the happy termination of her endeavors, returns from the theatre and hastens to remove and hide the clothes which she has borrowed for her important mission. While she is still engaged in this, Rodolphe enters to tell her that he is aware of her sacrifice, and assure her of his love and gratitude. He sees the gay shoes that she has been unable to remove, finds the clothes she has so hastily concealed, and jumping to an erroneous conclusion, accuses her of intimacy with Paul. Hurriedly, pathetically, she tries to explain, but he won't listen to her, and in a sudden rage hurls her to the floor. She coughs terribly, a result of the long, hard nights of work in his behalf. Remorseful, and alarmed by her illness, rodolphe rushes for a doctor. Rodolphe returns with the physician, and finds that Mimi has gone. he reads a note she left him, which tells him how she has thought herself an impediment to his literary success, how she can not bear to let him sacrifice himself for her, and that she is leaving him, but will return when his play is a success. In vain does the heartbroken Rodolphe search for her in the Latin Wuartier. For she has gone to another district, to slave in a factory for scanty food and a cold lodging. Months pass; months of frantic searching on the part of Rodolphe, and of heart randing toil and privation on the part of Mimi. In these months Rodolphe's play has been accepted. A day before the opening of his play, Rodolphe tries to alleviate his pain by giving a party to herald his coming triumph. And, even while music and all manner of merriment reign at Schaunard's Elysium, Mimi falls desperately ill, and learns from the doctor who attends her that she has but a day to live. The following night the play opens, and rodolphe triumphs, while Mimi, knowing that death is upon her, staggers back to the old room. A friend apprises Rodolphe of Mimi's return, and he rushes to her side. But his joy at her return is soon ended, when he sees how pitifully frail and thin she has become. He overwhelms her with caresses, but Mimi warns him that she is dying, and that he must let her speak. She tells him that she loves him and that he must not reproach himself for what has happened, then quietly expires, clinging even in death to a tiny muff that he had given her. Rodolphe is convulsed with grief. Ten years pass slowly for Rodolphe, and he finds himself a great success, the literary idol of all Paris, but still unhappy -- carrying always in his heart the weight of his tragic love. A Successful Experiment THE stage type of rehearsal, unchanged since the halcyon days of ancient Greek drama, may prove the solution of the screen's greatest problems -- and they are many. This is the theory evolved from a new system of direction which King Vidor successfully tried out for the picturization of the opera-novel "La Boheme," Lillian Gish's first starring production for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The entire screen world watched Vidor's experiment with keen interest. For it means a vast saving of time and worry. The first step, originally taken by the "La Boheme" company, consisted of a series of careful rehearsals of every scene in the photoplay as written into the script.