Ella Cinders



With her trendsetting Dutch bob haircut and short skirts, Colleen Moore brought insouciance and innocence to the Flapper image, character and aesthetic. By 1926, however, when she appeared in Ella Cinders, Moore's interpretation of the flapper had been eclipsed by the more overtly sexual version popularized by Clara Bow or Joan Crawford. In Ella Cinders, Ella (Colleen Moore) wins a beauty contest sponsored by a movie magazine and is awarded a studio contract.

In the house of late father, Ella Cinders (Moore) works for her stepmother and two stepsisters, Prissy Pill (Emily Gerdes) and Lotta Pill (Doris Baker), finding support from the local iceman, Waite Lifter (Lloyd Hughes). The Gem Film Company has a contest in which the winner gets an all-expense paid trip to Hollywood and a movie role. A photograph is needed to enter, so Ella spends three nights babysitting to raise $3 for the photo session. However, the photographer unwittingly takes a picture of her looking cross-eyed at a fly on her nose which turns out to be the photo entered in the contest. Entrants must go to a Town Hall ball, but Ella's stepmother and stepsisters won't allow her to go. Waite sees her crying on the front steps and tells her he will take her to the ball. She says she has nothing to wear, so he convinces her to use one of her stepsisters' dresses. At the judges' table, her stepsisters react violently when they see the dress. The embarrassed Ella flees the ball, losing one of her slippers. Later, the judges come to the house and tell Ella that she is the winner because they were amused by the cross-eyed photo. Ella heads for Hollywood, where she is disappointed to discover the contest was a fraud. She nevertheless manages to land a movie contract. Waite turns out to be wealthy football hero George Waite, and the two are reunited.

New York Times reviewer Mordaunt Hall observed that the film was "filled with those wild incidents which are seldom heard of in ordinary society," and noted "Miss Moore is energetic and vivacious." The film is an archetype of 1920s comedy, featuring a star whose air of emancipation inspired her generation.

Ella Cinders was added to the National Film Registry in 2013.


 * Whole-Plot Reference: To Cinderella