A Clouded Name (Silent)

Norma Shearer plays Marjorie Dare, a debutante with a broken heart. Her fiance, Jim Allen, blames Marjorie's family for his father's financial ruin. Because of this, Jim breaks off their engagement and escapes to the wilderness to live the life of a hermit. Undaunted, Marjorie braves no man's land to find her lost lover. There she is captured by the crooked Stewart Leighton, who seeks her family's riches. Now Jim must put aside his grudge and come out of hiding to save the woman he still loves...

A Clouded Name marks one of the earliest major roles for legendary actress Norma Shearer (1902-1983). Born in Canada, she moved to New York as a teenager in hopes of finding work at the still-busy NYC-based studios. Despite a lack of confidence due to being cross-eyed, Shearer landed a small part in The Flapper (1920) which led to bigger and bigger roles. Hollywood beckoned soon after the filming of A Clouded Name, and she signed to MGM the following year. She made an impression in her first work for the studio, Starring alongside Lon Chaney in He Who Gets Slapped (1924). More importantly, she made an impression on "Boy Wonder" studio exec Irving Thalberg, who married the actress in 1927. Her marriage to Thalberg guaranteed Shearer juicy parts, and after the arrival of sound, she carved out a career playing strong, sexually liberated women. It would be in racy pre-Code dramas such as The Divorcee (1930; for which she won an Academy Award) and A Free Soul (1931) that Shearer truly made her name. Even though the Production Code forced Norma to drop her "free-spirited" persona, she still found success playing women of great dignity in Marie Antoinette (1938) and The Women (1939). She retired in 1942 at the relatively young age of 40 (Thalberg having died in 1936.) Ever insecure about her looks, she rarely made public appearances afterwards, but her groundbreaking work during the Golden Age of Hollywood has ensured her generations of fans.

• silent