Rowland V. Lee — He Might Have Been a Pioneer (1925) 🇺🇸

Rowland V. Lee might have been hailed as a pioneer in directing the filming of fantasies for the screen if —

But that’s too long a story to tell in detail here. Only those who beheld the picture, “Whims of the Gods,” in the making a few years ago at Goldwyn’s, could have hazarded a guess as to what applause he might have won with some of the photographic effects surrounding the quaint story of a Chinese boy’s whimsical imaginary adventures on a trip to America.

The picture has never been released, and probably never will he now. There were some doubts as to the appeal of fantasy at the time it was being filmed, and that was one of the chief reasons, it seems, why it was laid on the shelf. And now the lapse of time probably renders out of date some of the effects which it embodies. Consequently, Lee’s adventure into a comparatively unexplored realm of photographic magic remains an “X” of movie history.

Lee has had some very interesting strokes of fortune since then, and he has evidenced a degree of daring in other lines. He directed “Alice Adams,” the Booth Tarkington story, that received commendation as an intelligent and refined piece of work. He also recently made “The Man Without a Country,” for Fox.

When Fox lately purchased the rights to In Love with Love, the very successful stage play, Lee was also the man assigned to make this.

It is his custom to take a three-month vacation abroad each year. He visits all the principal European capitals, where he watches pictures being made to get new ideas for his own work.

Lee could have been a star if he had wanted to, for he had youth and handsomeness, and was offered an alluring contract at one time by Ince [Thomas H. Ince].

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Photo by: Mojonier

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, March 1925