Editing King Vidor (section)

=== Silent era: 1923–1928 ===
[[File:La Bohème (1926) 1.jpg|thumb|Hendrik Sartov (cinematographer), King Vidor (director), [[Irving Thalberg]] (producer) & Lillian Gish (co-star) on the set of ''La Bohème'']]
Vidor's yeoman service to Louis B. Mayer secured him entrée into [[Goldwyn Pictures]] in 1923, a holding soon to be amalgamated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Samuel Goldwyn and other film producers of the early 1920s favored "literary" texts as the basis for movie screenplays. Parvenu-rich movie executives wished to provide a patina of class or "tone" to an industry often regarded as vulgar and cash-driven.<ref name="Baxter 1976, p. 17" />

Vidor was content to adapt these "prestigious properties" so securing his reputation as a reliable studio asset.<ref>Baxter 1976, p. 18-19</ref> His work during this period did not rise to the level of his later work, but a few films stand out. ''Wild Oranges'' (1924), from a story by [[Joseph Hergesheimer]], is notable as a harbinger of his best work in the sound era. The natural features of the coastal regions of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] are endowed with sinister and homicidal potential, where a fugitive arrives to terrorize rural residents. As such, the film exhibits Vidor's trademark use of nature to symbolize aspects of the human conflict.<ref>Baxter 1976, p. "...shows nature as a sinister force..." p. 20: Vidor "was often able to introduce a dramatically high-lighted use of nature."</ref>

==== Vidor and the John Gilbert collaborations: 1925–1926 ====

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's cast of rising movie stars included soon-to-be matinee idol [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]]. Vidor directed him in ''[[His Hour]]'' (1924), based on an [[Elinor Glyn]] "febrile romance", and is one of the few films from Vidor's output of that period to survive. Gilbert, as the Russian nobleman Prince Gritzko, was so ardently performed as co-star [[Aileen Pringle]]'s seducer that one scene was deleted.<ref>Baxter 1976 p. 19-20 Gilbert's "soon to be international following..." and p. 20: Footage in which Gilbert "kisses" Pringle's cheek with his eyelashes was deemed too salacious and removed</ref>

Vidor's typically "routine" movies of this period include ''Wine of Youth'' (1924) and ''Proud Flesh'' (1925) emphasize the "time-honored virtues" of familial and matrimonial loyalty, even among the liberated [[Jazz Age]] flappers.<ref>Baxter 1976, p. 19–20</ref>
King Vidor's tenure as a studio stringer was at an end. His next feature would transform his career and have a resounding impact on the late silent film era: ''The Big Parade''.<ref>Baxter 1976 p. 20</ref><ref>Berlinale, 2020: ''The Big Parade'' "paradigm would later inform films such as Westfront 1918 (dir: G. W. Pabst, Germany 1930) and ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (dir: Lewis Milestone, USA 1930)."</ref>