This Modern Age

Two stars of different generations combine their talents in This Modern Age which does not prove to be all that modern even for 1931. Pauline Frederick and Joan Crawford are mother and daughter in this MGM film and it's about a reunion that brings out a few issues and unpleasant truths. In later years it would be Joan cast as the mother with a past.

In her flapper years Crawford is looking forward to a trip to Paris where she will reunite with Frederick after many years separation. Along the way she meets All American Harvard football player Neil Hamilton and his straightlaced parents Hobart Bosworth and Emma Dunn.

But later on she meets two male acquaintances of Frederick, drunken playboy Monroe Owsley who might have been cast her instead of Crawford's good friend William Haines. It's very much a Haines type role. And there's this friend of Mom's the titled Albert Conti. They're very good friends indeed.

A great deal of Puritan moralizing is offered in This Modern Age. In the end it all works out for the lovebirds.

A really creaky old time vehicle, This Modern Age is palatable for today's audiences by the performances of Crawford and Frederick.

"This Modern Age" is a Joan Crawford film that looks like the picture was rushed into production before the script was finalized. It just seems to have some rough spots as well as an ending that isn't very satisfying.

The film begins with Val moving to France to see her mother--a woman who she hasn't seen in many years. That's because her parents divorced when she was young and Val was brought up by her dad in the States. While Val's desire to get to know her mother is reasonable, she doesn't realize that her mother is NOT the nice lady she thinks she is--she's a kept woman whose nice home actually belongs to her rich lover. In essence, she's an older prostitute--one whose current keeper is tiring of her.

At first, Val falls in with some vacuous party animals. When she's out with Tony one night, the car wrecks and she's rescued by a rich and handsome guy, Bob (Neil Hamilton). The pair begin dating and soon they are contemplating marriage. All they need to do is have her meet his parents. This goes just fine. But, when his parents come to her home, it's a bit of a disaster, as her old gadabout friends arrive and behave quite boorishly. However, that's NOT what bothers Bob--it's when he overhears a conversation with her mother and her lover--and he learns the truth. Bob is still interested in marrying Val, but he wants her to leave her mother and this raunchy life. She thinks he's just a snob (well, he IS a bit of a snob) and tells him to get lost. Then, when her mother realizes what's happened, she admits to Val that she is indeed a skank. What's next? See this and find out for yourself. However, be forewarned that the ultimate resolution comes WAY too quickly and isn't the least bit realistic.

Overall, this is an A-picture whose script make it look like a cheap B-movie. Predictable and a bit silly.

I wonder if Joan Crawford disliked Jean Harlow's career boom. In This Modern Age, Joan wears a platinum wig and prances around like a party girl, but she's really innocent and only interested in a wedding ring, much like Jean's character in The Girl from Missouri.

Joan's mother is Pauline Frederick, and since she's a divorcee and has a well-known relationship with Albert Conti, she has a bit of a bad reputation. She wants Joan to have a fair shot in life, but this film is a far cry from Stella Dallas. Joan attracts the high-class Neil Hamilton and worries that his parents won't approve of her. This isn't the best mother-daughter drama to come out of the 1930s, and while Joan looks very pretty, I won't choose to watch it again. I'll stick with Stella Dallas when I want a good cry.

I hated this movie. A blonde Joan Crawford plays a girl whose father died so she wants to meet her estranged mother. Well, Moms is a trashy old broad living it up in Paris on some French guy's dime. So Joan comes to Paris and very quickly finds she likes her mother's lifestyle and friends. She gets into a drunk driving accident thanks to the douchebag her classy mom set her up with. Then stuffy Neil Hamilton shows up and helps pull the two of them from the wreck. This is all treated very lightly. Anyway, Joan and Neil start to date but Neil's parents don't approve of her friends. I could go on but it's all very tedious and who cares. This is a stinker. What an unlikable group of characters. Everybody dresses nicely and enunciates all their words ever so properly yet I couldn't help but need a bath after watching them! At least Joan looks nice. Avoid this unless you're an avid Crawford fan.

There is considerable energy in this Joan Crawford vehicle, and it compares favorably with some of her other films of the period - it is much more engaging than Laughing Sinners, for example. A number of scenes are very short, and the story moves along briskly. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the performance of Pauline Frederick as Crawford's mother - she is believable and touching, and evokes great sympathy as a woman in a difficult situation. The settings, of course, are sumptuous in that art deco MGM style that is so appealing from the distance of more than 70 years. Also noteworthy is that although this is a drama, there is a fair amount of humor throughout. It is not one of the depressing, heavy-going melodramas typical of the period.