Editing King Vidor (section)

==Metro and ''Peg o' My Heart'' (1922)==
Film producer [[Louis B. Mayer]] engaged Vidor to direct Broadway actress [[Laurette Taylor]] in a film version of her famous juvenile role as Peg O'Connell in ''Peg o' My Heart'', written by her husband [[J. Hartley Manners]]. Despite viewing screen tests supplied by director D. W. Griffth, Vidor was anxious that the aging Taylor (born 1884) would not be convincing as her 18-year-old stage character on screen. Biographer Marguerite Courtney describes their first encounter:

{{blockquote |in [her] frowzy wig and dead white makeup, the famous star looked closer to forty than eighteen. At the first sight of Laurette [Vidor] experienced acute relief. She came toward him smiling, and his camera-minded eye saw at once a face all round and animated, essentially youthful. Pumping her hand he burst out impulsively "For Heaven's sake, let's make a test with your own lovely hair!"}}

The process of adapting the stage version to film was nevertheless fraught with difficulties, complicated by a romantic attachment between director and star. The final product proved cinematically "lifeless".<ref>Baxter 1976, p. 15-16</ref>

Pleased with ''Peg o' My Heart'' box-office receipts, Mayer matched Vidor and Taylor again, resulting in a second feature film success, ''Happiness'' (1923) also written by Manners, with Taylor playing a charming [[Pollyanna]]-like character. The film would mark Vidor's final collaboration with the couple.<ref>Baxter 1976, p. 16</ref>

Next, Vidor was entrusted to direct Mayer's top female star [[Clara Kimball Young]] in ''[[The Woman of Bronze]]'', a 1923 melodrama that resembled the formulaic films he had created with Florence Vidor at Vidor Village.<ref name="Baxter 1976, p. 17">Baxter 1976, p. 17</ref>