Friday, February 26, 2010

365 Movies: Our Dancing Daughters Review


Our Dancing Daughters stars Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Anita Page, Dorothy Sebastian, Nils Asther, and Eddie Nugent in this 1928 silent film. The film is about twenty somethings enjoying their lifestyles but when love is thrown into the mix, hearts will be broken. Diana Medford(Crawford) is a fun loving free spirit, who enjoys life and the things it brings along. When Diana is at a party, she meets the wealthy and handsome Ben Blaine(Brown) and the two have an immediate attraction for one another. While Diana has her eye on Ben, Ben's eyes catch gold digging Ann(Page), who wants to snag the wealthy Ben. Thinking, that Diana is too much of a free spirit, he marries Ann instead, thinking she is a more stable girl. He is very off! Ann just wanted to be married to him for the money and her Mother helps to push her into a life filled with unhappiness. Ann goes into the situation as a bit of naive girl with her Mother controlling every situation. When she realizes, that Ben and his money isn't what makes her happy, it's too late and the film ends in tragedy for her. As many times, as I've seen this movie, I never grow tired of it. It's a film with much more depth than what it seems to present. I really prefer watching Joan in her younger years from the late 1920's to the early to mid 1930's. She excels amazingly in this film but someone snags the film away from her - Anita Page. At just 19 years old, Anita had an enormous amount of talent and she does wonderfully as Ann. I also love seeing Eddie Nugent. Seriously, I could watch a movie with just him and his silly expressions. He's so goofy!




Review for Tomorrow: Happy Landing

1 comment:

Artman2112 said...

i agree with you 100% on this all the way. I too enjoy the Joan of the late 20's to mid 30's the best, and just watching the 3 films in this series one can see the transormation of her from jazz-baby flapper Joan to depression era city gal Joan. i find it fascinating! this was i think only the second Anita page film i had ever seen when i first saw it and i was absolutely amazed at her depth of characterization, she was an amazing actress! even more apparent when one sees the follow up to this where she very effectively plays someone almost completely different! since then i've seen many of her films and she was just as awesome in talkies as she was in silent films. i hope the day comes when she receives much more of the recognition she deserves!!
ok long-winded comment over ;)