The Cave Girl (film)


The Cave Girl is a 1921 American drama film directed by Joseph J. Franz and featuring Boris Karloff. The film is presumed lost.

Plot

Professor Sperry moves to a cave in the wilderness to live the primitive life, taking his daughter Margot with him.
Meanwhile, Divvy Bates is being pressured to marry Elsie Case. Elsie's mother and Divvy's wealthy father arrange a trip to the Bates' remote cabin to give Elsie a chance to extract a proposal from Divvy. At the cabin, Divvy catches Margot making a raid on the Bates' supplies and is attracted to her. Elsie makes an effort to compete with Margot. When the hired hand Baptiste is fired, he retaliates by burning down the cabin. The party is forced to seek refuge in the cave with the Professor and Margot.
Seeing her chance to marry Divvy slipping away, Elsie conspires with Baptiste to kidnap Margot who ends up set adrift in a canoe. She then suffers from conscience and realizes that she has done wrong. Elsie confesses to Divvy who then rescues Margot from the river rapids.

Cast

The source for the film was the play of the same name by George Middleton and Guy Bolton.
Cave Girl was made by Jesse D. Hampton Productions and completed in February 1921. Exteriors were filmed in Yosemite Valley in the winter of 1920–21. Inspiration Pictures acquired the film from Hampton in May 1921.

Release

Charles Duell, the head of Inspiration Pictures, arranged to screen the picture for the first time at governor's mansion in New York, June 1921. The governor had recently spearheaded legislation that resulted in the formation of New York's Motion Picture Commission, a committee tasked with the censorship of films.
In February 1922 Film Daily gave it a positive review due primarily to the photography and the exteriors: "For winter scenery and fine out-of-doors atmosphere The Cave Girl belongs way up in the front rank and even if the story isn't a whopper, the feature as a whole will be likely to satisfy because of its splendid pictorial appeal."