From PHOTOPLAY, April, 1924:
HERE is a tragedy, told simply, faithfully and effectively.
One of the striking features is the direction by Fred Niblo, who has not allowed himself to overplay his hand at any time. The result is a picture that, even in its lighter moments, holds the hint of drama, of tragedy. It is a story of the love of two men for one woman. Her husband cannot keep her from the other man, so kills her. But around this theme has been placed some wonderful mountain scenery, a large amount of excellent acting, and some capital photography. Barbara La Marr is the woman in the triangle, the men being played by Ramon Novarro and William V. Mong. Mr. Novarro is getting better all the time, and Miss La Marr has a role that suits her eminently. Mr. Mong can always be depended upon.
From PICTURE PLAY, June 1924:
All went well at the first showing of Fred Niblo's production of "Thy Name is Woman" in New York, until the big scene. The big scene shows the hero and the heroine confronted by the usual perplexing situation. "What to do? What to do?" cries the smuggler's beautiful wife when she realizes she is in love with the handsome soldier whose duty is to bring the wily gent to stern Spanish justice. "What to do? What to do?" exclaims Ramon Novarro, as the rural cop who knows that he must choose between honor and eloping with Barbara La Marr.
At this tense moment in Mr. Niblo's Spanish drama, William V. Mong, as the husband, settles the problem. He bursts in upon the unfortunate couple, in the fastness of a mountain lodge, and strikes a noble attitude in the doorway. But in his hand he carries a fishing rod and, squirming and fighting on the end of the rod, is one lone poor fish.
Immediately the audience knew what to do. It laughed. Maybe it was wrong to laugh, because maybe Mr. Niblo had intended "Thy Name is Woman" as a successor to "Blood and Sand." You could see, all the way through, that it was meant to be strong drama. But, somehow or other, the best dramatic situations had a way of backfiring and affecting the audience like so many gags in a Mack Sennett comedy.
Other and less sophisticated audiences may find nothing funny in "Thy Name is Woman." In fact, the majority of the New York reviewers took it seriously in spite of the rollicking good humor of the audience. However, aside from its comedy high lights, I thought it was a dull picture and the direction seemed downright clumsy. Mr. Niblo obviously made a praiseworthy effort to free himself from the chains of melodrama and spectacle and to substitute quieter and more thoughtful drama. But it takes a keener imagination to develop an intimate drama than to produce a spectacle and the details, which might have made "Thy Name is Woman" a good picture, are hopelessly conventional.
This may sound like a good old-fashioned panning but I feel very strongly against pictures that take up space in good legitimate theaters on the plea that they are "special attractions" when anyone with two cents' worth of honesty knows that they ought to go into the regular movie theaters at regular prices and only advertised by the regular line of adjectives. If "Thy Name is Woman" comes to you as a straight and honest movie and not as a specially priced "wonder classic" you may not expect much of it and therefore you may not be disappointed.
The picture's chief claim to fan interest is the fact that the leading roles are played by Barbara La Marr and Ramon Novarro. Miss La Marr has the equipment of an unusually interesting actress, if she only would forget that she is a dangerous siren! As for Novarro, he struggles with a bit of character drawing but every time he threatens to get away with it, an inept subtitle comes along and boots him with a slapstick kick. In other words, Novarro plays the role of a Booth Tarkington Spaniard, while the subtitles insist on describing him as a great, big rough meat eater. The confusion is sometimes disastrous.
