The Expressions of Priscilla Deane (1920) 🇬🇧

The fascinating girl “crook” of the pictures.

Priscilla Deane is one of the most vivacious girls appearing on the screen. She has been variously described as the magnetic star, the spitfire of the screen, and the essence of vivacity.

As everybody knows, Priscilla is not only the dashing girl crook of pictures, but she is also the original “Wild Cat.” Of course Priscilla has her milder moments.

In real life she possesses an amazing amount of energy: her eyes gleam, her features are keen, she is a sprightly chatterbox, never still for two moments together, and full of handclaps, screams, gurgles, and giggles.

A man who has interviewed her confessed that to talk to her made his pulse beat about one hundred.

“If you don’t know Priscilla personally,” he said, “the next best thing is a shower bath with ‘water’ of pure ice; this would give you something of the same effect.”

Expert with a Gun.

Priscilla Deane, who has portrayed so many “crook” roles, has excited admiration for her realistic work even among the officers of the law. By their association with the light-fingered gentry, they are presumed to have a thorough education in the ways of crookdom.

Miss Deane recently received from Sheriff Jones of California a handsome pair of gold handcuffs and an automatic pistol, as a token of his admiration.

He was also kind enough to show Priscilla through the gaol, and lock her up in a cell for a moment, and then he rounded off her criminal career by appointing her a deputy sheriff.

Priscilla, by the way, is an expert with the shot gun or rifle, and when she can spare time from her studio work, she much enjoys a rabbit hunt.

She recalls the time when she was but five years old, and playing the part of Gretchen in a company playing “Rip Van Winkle.”

The venerable actor, Joseph Jefferson, invited her and her mother to spend the week-end at his homestead at Buzzard’s Bay, and she accompanied the famous actor on a hunting expedition; since that time she has always cherished an ambition to own a rifle and go hunting.

Even before she went into motion pictures. Miss Deane acquired the ability to hit a target with more than average regularity, and now whenever her director, who produced The Virgin of Stamboul at Universal City, gives her a holiday, Miss Deane, who is starring in the picture, jumps into her hunting togs, mounts a horse, and in less than an hour may be found in one of the many canyons near Universal City.

Her Love of Animals.

Priscilla is very fond of animals, and the mew of a kitten, or the bleat of a straying kid, or the whine of a puppy, strike responsive chords in the famous star’s heart.

In the Virgin of Stamboul, the star has ample opportunity to play with her animal friends. Whole herds of donkeys, a smattering of camels, a flock of elephants, a thousand dogs, and several scores of cats are used in the elaborate production.

One of her particular favourites is a bleating little kid, who squeaks most dismally throughout the day.

Believing that the little squeaker was bleating for milk, Miss Deane ordered that a big can should be rushed to the street at Universal City, where her production was being filmed.

To her surprise and annoyance, the little goat flicked his whiskers at the milk, and turned greedily toward a pile of tin cans.

“That’s not a kid,” she said sorrowfully; “he’s just a plain, ordinary goat; but I like him just the same.”

“Me for a Turkish bath,” said Priscilla Dean, when the camera clicked its last click on The Virgin of Stamboul, her latest Universal photo-drama.

“I’m going to soak for a month, too,” she added, as she disappeared with a can of scouring-powder, and all the equipment of the bath.

For five months Priscilla Dean has been forced to wear a complexion not her own. She was forced, at the beginning of the picture, to stain her skin a copper-red for her role, because it was too much trouble to put on and take off the stain, and because Tod Browning, her director, feared that she would not be able to exactly duplicate the shade, she wore the paint for five weary months, with the exception of from Saturday to Monday of each week.

Now that the big production is finished Priscilla is going to resume her own alabaster-like complexion. It will require a long Turkish bath to remove the complexion, but she is going to get rid of the colour if she has to sunburn and peel.

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Pretty Priscilla, smiling sweetly.

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Photo Captions:

• Charming and coy.
• Daintily dimpled.
• Perfectly pert.
• Indignation.
• So sad.
• Her horror.

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Special to “The Picture Show.”

Collection: Picture Show Magazine, May 1920