The Delicious Little Devil

Mae Murray plays Mary McGuire, a woman who loses her job and pretends to be a notorious dancer in order to secure work as a hostess and dancer in a nightclub. There, she catches the eye of Jimmy Calhoun, a millionaire’s son played by Rudolph Valentino, and the two of them fall for each other. But Jimmy’s father objects to their union and tries everything in his power to split them up.

A double life, mistaken identity and a lot of misunderstandings, those elements proved to be a formula for success for many comedies in the early days of cinema. With big names such as Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino in the starring roles, THE DELICIOUS LITTLE DEVIL was a box office hit. Like so many other famous silent movie stars, Mae Murray started her career as a dancer before she moved on to the movies. And just like so many other female silent movie stars, she was branded a ‘diva’. Standing up for yourself and your rights did never go over well with the movie studios in the golden age of Hollywood, who thought nothing of starting a smear campaign against the starlets who didn’t fall in line. Murray was married to director Robert Z. Leonard during the production of THE DELICIOUS LITTLE DEVIL, and the duo made about 20 movies together during their marriage.

Murray’s co-star Rudolph Valentino started his career as a dancer as well. When he entered the film industry, it wasn’t clear what Valentino would become: the villain or hero? It became quickly apparent that the American audience saw the Italian Valentino as an ‘exotic’ export product. Valentine embodied the old Hollywood glamour and grew into a sex symbol, known as the Latin Lover. His love life made headlines more than once and the tragic end to his short life – he died at 31 at the height of his career – only further fueled the mysticism surrounding the man.