Clara Bow

HULA

Paramount Famous Lasky Corp., 1927.  Directed by Victor Fleming.  Camera:  William Marshall.  With Clara Bow, Clive Brook, Arlette Marchal, Arnold Kent, Patricia Dupont, Maude Truax, Albert Gran, Agostino Borgato, Duke Kahanamoku.

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"Hula" Calhoun, the daughter of a Hawaiian planter, sidesteps the dissolute influence of her father through the guidance of her Uncle Edwin, who prefers a more natural existence to the society life of the family.

Although Hula is adored by Harry Dehan, a boisterous rounder, she becomes infatuated with Anthony Haldane, a young English engineer who comes to supervise the construction of a dam on the estate.  Haldane remains distant, however, and when saving her from a runaway horse, he informs her that he is married.  At her birthday party, the broken-hearted girl turns to Dehan, and in a drunken frenzy she provokes Haldane by her dancing; he then promises to obtain a divorce, but Mrs. Haldane appears.

Hula jealously bribes the foreman to dynamite a spot near the dam, convincing the wife that her husband is ruined.  Haldane's wife agrees to the divorce, and he is free to marry Hula.

Notes
Based on the novel Hula, a Romance of Hawaii by Armine von Tempski (New York, 1927).

American Film Institute Catalog