La cadette

Clara Bow was a cutie even when carrying a few extra pounds, but critical focus on her weight overshadowed opinion regarding the merits of the film. It's decent enough, and she and Jean Arthur (who overcame similar criticism for the sound of her voice to enjoy a lengthy career in talkies) play well off one another.

I have liked Jean Arthur for a long time and Clara Bow since I got to know her more recently and I wish I could rate 'The Saturday Night Kid' higher than 5 stars, but it really isn't a particularly good film. Bow is playing the responsible, honest sister of Arthur. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her acting or her voice, which some critics disliked. Both are good, and I enjoyed watching her as Mayme. But almost everything else in this film simply does not work. Judging by Arthur's performance here, you would never believe she would go on to become a star most often playing working girls with a heart of gold. In 'The Saturday Night Kid' her role as Janie is thoroughly negative: She is a devious sneak and a thief. That is of course not a bad thing in itself; most films have at least one villain. What is bad about it is that Arthur's acting is not up to the role. She gives the impression of unintentionally making her character even less likeable than it is in any case (I think that's mainly because of one factor: In her later films she used her grating voice to great comic effect; her, she is just whining). As for the others, Edna May Oliver is overacting and Jean Harlow fairly unremarkable. The male actors did not really register with me. The plot is in principle not bad, but director A. Edward Sutherland fails to give it the tempo and sparkle it demands. I caught myself glancing at my watch several times. The shortcomings of this picture have therefore nothing to do with the fact that it is an early talkie marred by technical problems. Rather, the responsibility lies with Arthur, who had not yet found her voice, and Sutherland, who spoiled a fundamentally good plot.

Hard-living was visibly taking its toll on Clara Bow by the end of the roaring twenties, hence her casting as Jean Arthur's wiser older sister in this disarming preCode quickie that establishes its tone of breezy amorality from the very outset when Miss Bow is required to postpone her morning bath since her friendly neighbourhood bootlegger, racing tipster & gambler Charles Sellon is using the tub to manufacture his liquor.

It's Clara who assumes the mantle of responsibility when little sister loses Edna Mae Oliver's welfare fund betting on a horse (while the film itself contains a remarkable but generally overlooked moment in film history where Bow and Arthur fleetingly get to share the screen with Jean Harlow).

In conclusion, aside from the novelty of seeing Miss Arthur boyishly bobbed as a flapper, after a nondescript career in silents the advent of talkies finally enabled to unleash that extraordinary voice.

Most of the plot revolves around a New York City department store - "Ginsberg's" - that like so many department stores up until the middle of the 20th century were run by the actual founder of the same name. There is an actual Mr. Ginsberg in the cast. It reminds me a little of "It's a Great Life" made the same year, although the sisters working at Ginsberg's here are hardly the Duncan sisters as far as teamwork and sister love. It does gives you a feel for what a dictatorship these big dynastic department stores were at that time. They apparently paid people a living wage, but a living wage was considered enough to make it sharing a room in a cheap boarding house, as sisters Mayme Barry (Clara Bow) and Janie Barry (Jean Arthur) are doing here.

The gist of the story is that Mayme and Janie are clerks at Ginsberg's. Mayme is called "The Saturday Night Kid" because she hardly ever misses going out on a Saturday night - until she meets fellow clerk William Taylor (James Hall). Mayme's personality is defined by loyalty and sensitivity when hurt by those she cares about, although she puts on a hard shell to pretend nothing hurts her. Jean Arthur, as sister Janie is the sneak. She's weak and selfish, and is capable of being a weasel and a liar to get out of a bad situation. She feels bad about it later, she just has no spine or character.

Now Mayme has fallen hard for Bill, but after he becomes a floorwalker - a big promotion in those days - he gets snooty with her and hurts her badly. She breaks up with him. Sister Janie has always had a crush on Bill, and although she doesn't outright try and steal him from Mayme, she tells some lies to make herself look good at Mayme's expense, to the point of getting Mayme possibly sent to jail! What do I mean by this and how does all of this work out? Watch and find out.

My favorite scene - Mayme is having the gang from work over to her apartment and they have a kind of dining room situation on the roof outside their window with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. The way the conversation flows between characters is quite mature considering this is the first full year of talking pictures.

One more thing, even though to me it was a tie as to whether Clara Bow or Jean Arthur owned this picture - Clara with her wise flapper persona and Jean with this whiny unlikeable character she plays that makes you scratch your head when you think about all of the wise likable parts that were to come, Edna May Oliver sure takes the cake with an early performance as a supervisor at Ginsberg's in this, only her first sound performance. You can really see the comic potential there, and apparently so could RKO, because they snapped her up immediately afterward.

In THE SATURDAY NIGHT KID, Clara Bow plays Mayme, a salesgirl who's in love with a fellow clerk named Bill (James Hall). Her sister Janie (Jean Arthur) also has eyes for him and schemes to snare for herself. The scenario is ordinary and the resolution is both banal and predictable. Clara Bow's performance in her third talkie is good, proving she could easily handle sound. Unfortunately, her role is, for the most part, colorless and inhibited. Mayme lacks the free-spiritedness and boldness of such roles like Alverna in MANTRAP and Betty Lou in IT; she's just a blandly virtuous heroine searching for true love. It doesn't help that her leading man Hall is uncharismatic and dull.

Occasionally, however, Bow gets to shine. She displays her comedic flair in some funny sequences, particularly a scene where she tries to help the inexperienced Hall in a difficult task without making him look incompetent. Bow also exhibits a flash of her effervescent "It" persona in a flirtatious chasing sequence. And in her big dramatic moments, Clara is persuasive and invigorating, making one regret she rarely had the opportunity for substantial dramatic material.

Jean Arthur is delightfully perfidious as Janie. Among the supporting players, Edna May Oliver as Mayme's snooty, imperious supervisor Miss Streeter and Charles Sellon as Lem Woodruff, the fumbling proprietor of the boardinghouse Mayme, Janie, and Bill live in, stand out. In an early film appearance, Jean Harlow has too minute a role to create any impression.

Overall, THE SATURDAY NIGHT KID is a pedestrian movie that doesn't take full advantage of Bow's talents. Considering that many of Clara Bow's films are lost or deteriorating, however, one should be grateful that this film has been recently restored.