April Showers (1923 film)

Filmed in early [1923], April Showers would bring Colleen to the Mayer-Schulberg Studio (formerly the Selig studio). April Showers followed The Nth Commandment, and it was an old-fashioned romantic story billed as having “…the ‘all-Irish-all-star’ cast.^[2] The January 23 Los Angeles Times ran a story entitled “She Couldn't Keep Down Her Irish Blood,” which concerned the making of April Showers and managed to tap into the "Irish" persona she had cultivated:

“The piquant Colleen plays the role of a rather tomboyish little Irish girl of plain but honest parents.... Miss Moore lives her parts at home as well as before the camera and in practicing before her grandmother, Mm. Mary Kelly, she finally drew fire from that saint of the household.

“’Colleen me child,’ said Grandmother Kelly, ‘It's all very well to act like a little hoyden and be rough and tomboyish—but there’s too much of that sort on the screen, me dear. Remember, not all the Irish men are policemen and not all the Irish women are washwomen.... You don’t have to be any wilder because you’re supposed to be Irish.’

“’All right, grandmother,’ humbly agreed Colleen, ‘but it’s hard for me not to let myself go—being Irish.’"

Actor Harlan trained with real boxers to prepare for the role.^[3] shortly after this film was finished, Colleen would go to work for Associated First National where, with the success of the film Flaming Youth, she would achieve a new level of fame.

Notes

Bibliography

• Jeff Codori (2012), Colleen Moore; A Biography of the Silent Film Star, McFarland Publishing,(Print ISBN 978-0-7864-4969-9, EBook ISBN 978-0-7864-8899-5).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to April Showers (1923 film).

• April Showers at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• April Showers at IMDb
• April Showers at AllMovie
• April Showers at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)