Our Blushing Brides

Overly long, dated, predictable melodrama done in 1930. Joan Crawford plays a department store model, Gerry Marsh, who resists the charms of Tony Jardine (Robert Montgomery), whose family owns the store. Meanwhile, she watches her two roommates (Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page) make big mistakes regarding men.

This is a pre-code film, and despite the above-mentioned problems, they're always interesting to watch. This one had to do with giving in to one's baser instincts (having sex) for money and the good life. This is 1930, and America was still preoccupied with class distinctions. Gerry refuses to give in to Tony, but her roommate Connie (Anita Page) is kept by his brother David. Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) marries a big talker.

Two scenes stick out as a sign of the times - outside Gerry's apartment building on a hot summer night, the street is teeming with kids playing, an ice cream cart, and people sitting on the stoop. A very realistic portrayal of cities back then. With no air conditioning and no television, people sat outside for the air and to talk with their neighbors. Social interaction, not social networks, Internet, and cable, provided their entertainment.

The second striking thing was the radio description of an engagement of a couple from socially prominent families. I remember seeing an old Vogue magazine where an woman engaged to some sort of royalty got a full page portrait. Not uncommon.

For anyone who only knows the hard-faced Joan Crawford of later years, this movie will serve as a revelation. Made for movies with those huge, mesmerizing eyes, beautiful face, and trim figure, Crawford shines here. At times she sounds like she's sporting some sort of affected accent, though I don't know why. Page and Sebastian are also very good in their roles. Montgomery is underused - he was more than a dashing leading man - but he looks great and does the role well.

All in all, worth seeing for the young Crawford and a look at life in 1930 for shop girls.

Enjoyed this 1930's film starring Joan Crawford, (Gerry March) who lives with several girls who all work for a department store, some girls sell perfume and most of them are fashion models. All the girls are looking for the right man to marry who has money and they also want to throw away their alarm clocks and stop working and have babies. Gerry March has been around the block a few times and is always on guard against men who try to hit on her mainly because they have hurt her very badly in the past. Gerry tries to caution all the girls and stays pretty much to herself until Tony Jardine, (Robert Montgomery) enters her life and she really falls for him in a big way until he brings her to his secret tree house which looks like a penthouse suite and stairs that fold up. Tony is her boss at the department store and after the tree house scene, Gerry writes him off her list as a typical male trying to score. Great entertaining film, and if you like to see what women wore in the 1930's this is the film for you.

About three working girls/roommates/gal pals and their relationships with three men/millionaires/heels. The girls all work at Jardine's department store where virtuous Jerry (played by Joan Crawford) models dresses and ladies lingerie, blonde and innocent Connie (Anita Page) works the perfume counter, and wisecracking, sarcastic Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) is stuck in blankets (where there's "not a male customer in a carload"). Franky finally does meet a man in the blanket department - he's loaded with free-flowing wads of cash, so she immediately agrees to go out with him. Meanwhile pretty Connie is having a love affair with the owner's son, David Jardine (played by Raymond Hackett, who looked to me like a cross between David and Ricky Nelson), and Jerry has a fancy for the other son, Tony Jardine (Robert Montgomery). Jerry thinks Tony is "different" from the other cads/men she meets - but she soon finds out he's not as she ends up in his lair - a tree house complete with sunken couch, dim lights, mood music, and disappearing staircase. Oh brother!

This film is quite enjoyable, I like the interrelationships between the three girls - there's plenty of chemistry and camaraderie there. Robert Montgomery is a doll, his slim self handsomely decked out in tuxedo, white tie, and tails (ooh la la) - he plays his playboy-like part expertly. Joan Crawford acts up a storm in this, with a full range of emotions - and gets to show herself off in slinky outfits and barely-there lingerie as well (which she REALLY seems to enjoy doing!). The film includes a fun fashion show, complete with foppish Parisian dress designers, and lots of capes, drapes, ruffles, and deco look hats.

Our Blushing Brides - another in the early black/white ensemble films with Joan Crawford and Anita Page- this one came along just in time for talkies. Joan is Geraldine March, Anita is Connie Blair, and Dorothy Sebastian is Francine Daniels, all chasing their various men. This one also has Hedda Hopper as Mrs. Ross-Weaver, and a dashing 26 year old Robert Montgomery as Tony Jardine. Crawford would work with Hedda Hopper in "The Women" in 1939, which also featured fashion shows that take place in a store where they work.... Also present is an 18 year old Ann Dvorak as one of the models, and Louise Beavers, from Imitation of Life, as the dresser. Geraldine and Francine prance around in tight dresses and slips, a sure sign that the movie code wasn't being enforced yet. Way too much time is spent on the fashion shows, in a Busby Berkeley-like synchronized dance around the pool. Later, Geraldine wears a blond wig, and speaks with a stilted, proper accent that wasn't there before, I guess to impress her rich new suitor, Tony (Montgomery). As the girls have their ups and downs, they all lean on Geraldine. Good performances by all, except that near the end, Joan starts doing her big, overdone facial expressions that were so necessary in all her silent films.

Jerry March (Joan Crawford), Connie Blair (Anita Page), and Francine Daniels (Dorothy Sebastian) are best friends and department store sales clerks. They share an apartment in New York City. Tony Jardine (Robert Montgomery) is the charming older son of the store owner and he has eyes for Jerry. David Jardine (Raymond Hackett) is the less responsible younger playboy brother and he likes Connie. Martin W. Sanderson (John Miljan) flirts with Francine.

Jerry and Tony have a good meet-cute although it's a little creepy in today's world. In a modern movie, Tony would play up the exaggerated visual of being bowled over. The premise remains the same throughout history. Ah-OO-Ga! This is a good setup for a light fun rom-com. The modeling does get a bit repetitive although it was probably daring for its time. The dancing isn't special enough to be good musical work. Then it turns darker and ends in something really dark. This is pre-Code and an early talkie for Joan Crawford as she transitions from the silent era. She is certainly a star in this new cinematic landscape.