Romola is a 1924 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Henry King

Henry King (director)

Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...

 and shot on location in Italy. The film stars Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish

Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....

, Dorothy Gish

Dorothy Gish

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...

, William Powell

William Powell

William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...

 and Ronald Colman

Ronald Colman

Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...

, and is based on the George Eliot

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...

 novel of the same name

Romola

Romola is a historical novel by George Eliot set in the fifteenth century, and is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view". It first appeared in fourteen parts published in Cornhill Magazine from July 1862 to August 1863...

. This was the second film in which Henry King directed Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman for Inspiration Films, an independent production company which chiefly consisted of King, one Charles Duell and stars Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess

Richard Barthelmess

Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...

.

Plot

In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.

Cast

• Lillian Gish
  Lillian Gish
  Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
  
   - Romola
• Dorothy Gish
  Dorothy Gish
  Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...
  
   - Tessa
• William Powell
  William Powell
  William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
  
   - Tito Melema (as William H. Powell)
• Ronald Colman
  Ronald Colman
  Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
  
   - Carlo Bucellini
• Charles Lane - Baldassar Calvo
• Herbert Grimwood - Savonarola
• Bonaventura Ibáñez - Bardo Bardi
• Frank Puglia
  Frank Puglia
  Frank Puglia was an Italian film actor. Puglia had small but memorable roles in films including Casablanca and 1942's The Jungle Book. Born in Sicily, the actor started his career as a teen on stage in Italian operas. He emigrated to the U.S...
  
   - Adolfo Spini
• Amelia Summerville
  Amelia Summerville
  Amelia Summerville , born Amelia Shaw, was an-Irish-born American stage and silent film actress.Summerville was born in County Kildare, Ireland and migrated to Toronto, Canada as a child....
  
   - Brigida
• Tina Ceccaci Renaldi - Monna Ghita
• Eduilio Mucci - Nello
• Angela Scatigna - Bratti
• Ugo Uccellini - Bishop of Nemours
• Alfredo Martinelli
  Alfredo Martinelli
  Alfredo Martinelli was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 103 films between 1916 and 1967.He was born and died in Siena, Tuscany.-Selected filmography:* I Topi Grigi * The White Sister...
  
  - Captain of the Barque
• Attilo Deodati - Tomaso

External links

• lantern slide plate to Romola