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Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2020 18:16:40 GMT -6
What is your favorite 1920s Joan film?
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Post by tom on Apr 2, 2021 17:50:39 GMT -6
What is your favorite 1920s Joan film? Across to Singapore. It's the one that ignited my interest in early JC movies. I remember watching it late one night on TCM. I couldn't sleep. So, I turned on the TV, and A2S was on. It was fun. Cute story. I recognized Ernest Torrence & Ramon Novarro. Couldn't take my eyes off the young female lead. She was gorgeous! When I Googled and saw it was Joan Crawford, my jaw hit the ground. |
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 23, 2021 8:42:38 GMT -6
I just watched 1928 Our Dancing Daughters. The name really fits this movie. The mothers raise their daughters to do make sure they grow up and marry a very wealthy man to take care of her, (The Mother.). The mother will dress the daughter up and have her go out dancing and make sure she brings back a millionaire. If successful, the mother will be supported and well taken care of. The daughter has to be the girl that all the men admire. This comes with the stipulation that the daughter is wholesome and has a good reputation. She has to be refined, somewhat educated and has probably gone to charm school to know how to act properly if the man is to take the girl home to “his” mommy one day. Every single scene Joan is in is captivating. Her facial expressions shows how she feels, and what she’s thinking. She expresses every emotion with her beautiful blue eyes and a flip of her hair or turn of her head. I couldn’t take my own eyes off her. It was fun to see the roaring 20’s. The grand Art Deco sets and the flappers dancing the night away. Joan really got to show her award trophy winning dance moves in this movie right from the beginning. Check out Joan’s hairdo; it’s Perfect for this movie. She wears it well and I’m sure it became more popular with the ladies after this movie was released. The fans who disregarded fire regulations and stood five deep behind the last row of seats at the film’s first performance. The script was prepared to suit Crawford’s personality for the first time in her career. The outcome of Our Dancing Daughters broke every existing record at the theatre at that time. Our Dancing Daughters extraordinary popularity led to a doubling of Crawford’s salary to five hundred dollars a week. Her contract option had been picked up at $1,000 a week on 28 November 1928. Following Our Dancing Daughters, it was raised by a further $500 and there was to be no ‘layoff’ period–the stretch of time that an artist was officially on holiday without pay. In other words, she was now considered so valuable a property that she was to be given a paid vacation. None of us was starred in the picture,’ Crawford recalled, ‘but theatre owners, sensing the audience response, “starred” me. My name went up on their marquees.’ Crawford’s stock soared in ways that MGM couldn’t ignore, even if it had wanted to: in the box-office grosses of all the Loew’s theatres, and in the suddenly increased the tons of fan mail that came to Joan. People wrote to Crawford as if they knew her. At a stroke, she had found ‘that incredible thing, a public… ‘From this moment on, I had a sense of audience, warm living people who would care for me in direct proportion to the energy and talent I could give, a public to whom I owed a loyalty and from whom I’ve always received loyalty.’ She answered every letter personally. It was true of the first couple of tons of mail-bags, until she saw the rising cost of loyalty in time and postage. How could MGM not notice Joan’s new based fan acceptance. Crawford’s new sense of identity was also formally registered. ‘Joan Crawford’, asking that all future issue salary checks from now on to “Joan Crawford”, instead of Lucille LeSueur. Great movie. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
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Post by tom on Apr 23, 2021 10:53:00 GMT -6
Watching Our Dancing Daughters is on my weekend to-do list!
Watched Untamed last night, her first talkie (second if you include her little song & dance number in Hollywood Revue). Such a good movie.
Her transformation from jungle wild-child to urban sophisticate mirrors JC's own transformation from high school dropout to the biggest star in Hollywood. Robert Montgomery - who I just read was Elizabeth Montgomery's day (she of Bewitched TV show fame) - and Ernest Torrence are good, as always.
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 23, 2021 12:13:28 GMT -6
Robert Montgomery is Elizabeth’s dad. I read that he said something rude about gays. He stared with Joan in some early movies and she wouldn’t put up with it. Jimmy Haines being her best Buddy. Later in life even before the TV show Bewitched came out he changed his point of view and was okay with gay people. I’m glad.
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Post by tom on Apr 23, 2021 15:02:21 GMT -6
Robert Montgomery is Elizabeth’s dad. I read that he said something rude about gays. He stared with Joan in some early movies and she wouldn’t put up with it. Jimmy Haines being her best Buddy. Later in life even before the TV show Bewitched came out he changed his point of view and was okay with gay people. I’m glad. Amen to that. Say what you want about JC, she stood by her friends! Half way through Our Dancing Daughters (I really should be working! LOL). I agree with you, she looks fabulous in this picture. The scene with her playing the drums is a personal favorite. Am always impressed at what good supporting actors there are in these early MGM films. Dorothy Sebastian is excellent, Ed Nugent, Anita Page, Nils Asther, etc. etc. By the way, do we ever figure out exactly what Dorothy Sebastian's dirty little secret is?!? |
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 24, 2021 8:02:35 GMT -6
I’m guessing Beatrice, (Dorothy Sebastian) secret is she has been with other men and her husband knows. Very Naughty back then.
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Post by tom on Apr 26, 2021 13:26:18 GMT -6
I’m guessing Beatrice, (Dorothy Sebastian) secret is she has been with other men and her husband knows. Very Naughty back then. Having just re-watched it, you have to be right. There was the scene in which the gents crashed Bea's pad during the rain storm. One of them toasted "To the husbands of the women we love." And, Nils Asther's character retorted "To the lovers of the women we marry!" or some such. Poor Bea! T |
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Post by davidmorrocco on Apr 27, 2021 7:21:16 GMT -6
Yes, that was the give away scene and you got it. Such a great movie. I was singing “Has anybody seen my girl?” It was Stuck in my head the whole next day. I heard it playing in the background of the movie even though it was a silent movie. That alone gives it two thumbs up for me.
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Post by tom on Apr 27, 2021 14:31:23 GMT -6
Yes, that was the give away scene and you got it. Such a great movie. I was singing “Has anybody seen my girl?” It was Stuck in my head the whole next day. I heard it playing in the background of the movie even though it was a silent movie. That alone gives it two thumbs up for me. I was humming this one after watching ODD! James Melton I Loved You Then as I Love You Now |
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Post by davidmorrocco on May 19, 2021 13:57:49 GMT -6
I finally got my last VHS on DVD through Amazon. 1929 “Our Modern Maidens.” It was fun to watch Douglas Fairbanks Jr. act with Joan. I enjoyed the part where he did impressions of John Barrymore and John Gilbert and his father. Joan Crawford married co-star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in a well orchestrated publicity event for the film. This was Joan Crawford's last silent film. I always admire Adrian’s fashion designs. His creations are works of art. The roaring 20’s looked like a a lot of fun. I haven’t seen this movie for so long that I forgot about it. So I was surprised at the twist of the plot near the end of the movie. I’m glad that I watched it.
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