Lorena (1918)

Last week, you could read a post here on the French silent film Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917), starring one of our favourite European film stars, Suzanne Grandais. Today another post on a film with Grandais, Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918), produced by Eclair. The Spanish company Amatller Marca Luna published the cards to promote their chocolates.


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 1. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Fred Zorilla in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 6, no. 2. Photo: Eclipse. Fred Zorilla and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 3. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 4. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Jean Ayme and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 5. Photo: Eclipse. Maillard, Suzanne Grandais (right woman) and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card b Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 6, no. 6. Photo: Eclipse. On the right, Suzanne Grandais and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 7. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).

Our search for the plot

It was hard to find the plot of Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918) on French sites. In the French online system Gallica e.g. some numbers of the leading magazine Ciné-Journal from 1918 are failing. Thanks to the Dutch online newspaper site Delpher, we managed to find a content description in the Provinciale Geldersche en Nijmeegsche courant, a Dutch regional paper of 1919.

Lorena is the daughter of the marquis of Chambrey, and secretly engaged to the painter Pierre Laurent, but her father has other plans. He wants to give her hand to Count Borgo, a son of a late friend.

Lorena hides in Mme Laurent's place but is discovered and brought back home. yet, when it all comes out that Count Borgo is already married, Lorena may marry her artist. Borgo, though, is keen on revenge and challenges Pierre to a duel.

When the duel is undecided, Pierre comes into his power. When Borgo wants to use his right to shoot at Pierre from a distance of 12 meters, Lorena intervenes. After having drugged her lover, she dresses like a man and goes to the duel. Borgo is softened by so much courage and shoots at a bottle instead of at the woman.

Lorena was produced by Grandais' own company Les Films Suzanne Grandais, but under the aegis of Eclipse, and also distributed by Eclipse. Scriptwriter was Claude Valmont.

The main actors were Suzanne Grandais in the title role, Jean Ayme as Count Borgo and Fred Zorilla as Pierre Laurent. Supporting actors were Berthe Jalabert as Madame Laurent and Maillard as Monsieur Chambrey. The film premiered in Paris on 11 February 1918 (so a year before the review in the Dutch regional paper).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 8. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Fred Zorilla and Berthe Jalabert in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 6, no. 9. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 10. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna, series 6, no. 11. Photo: Eclair. Suzanne Grandais and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna, series 6, no. 12. Photo: Eclair. Suzanne Grandais and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 13. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 14. Photo: Eclipse. Fred Zorilla, Suzanne Grandais and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 15. Photo: Eclipse. Jean Ayme and Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 17. Photo: Eclipse. Fred Zorilla, Suzanne Grandais, and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 18. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Fred Zorilla in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).

Sources: Provinciale Geldersche en Nijmeegsche courant, 15-02-1919 (Delpher - Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.