The Spanish Dancer

The Spanish Dancer is a 1923 American silent costume epic starring Pola Negri as a gypsy fortune teller, Antonio Moreno as a romantic count, and Wallace Beery as the king of Spain. The film was directed by Herbert Brenon and also features a five-year-old Anne Shirley, appearing under the name "Dawn O'Day." The film survives today.

The film is essentially the same story as Mary Pickford's Rosita which was filmed around the same time as The Spanish Dancer with Negri's old colleague from Germany Ernst Lubitsch directing. Negri's The Spanish Dancer was considered the better film.



Plot
As described in a film magazine review, Maritana, a beautiful Spanish young woman, is so full of life and fun that she is adored by the poor people among whom she lives and who dote on her dancing in the public squares. Through her daring, she and her sweetheart Don Cesar de Bazan become involved in the affairs of the Spanish court, and he with his life is to pay the supreme penalty. Using her feminine charms and her artful wiles, she not only saves him but wins a respected place for herself.

Preservation
The Spanish Dancer was restored by the EYE Film Institute in the Netherlands, and the film was shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., on August 5, 2012, accompanied by the 1916 Lois Weber film Shoes.