Why Be Good?

Colleen Moore is a modern girl. She likes drinking and necking and winning dance cups. One evening, she has just won another dance competition at a speakeasy, only for her boyfriend to fall asleep drunk at their table. She heads over to Neil Hamilton's table. He had tried to pick her up earlier, and now he's going to take her home...at 3AM, which worries her mother enough to ask if she's still a good girl.

The next morning, Colleen is fifteen minutes late to her job at the department store. Guess who's the owner's son and the new personnel manager? After Hamilton expresses his interest in Miss Moore to his father, his father expresses concerns about girls these days, with "the drinking, the spooning, the kissing - and - and the broad-mindedness."

Miss Moore's last silent movie has her performing the persona she had established for herself in FLAMING YOUTH. She enjoys the good life, and keeps herself clean, growing angry at the sneers of young men who want the drinking, and the spooning, and the kissing, and the broad-mindedness, but don't want it for their wives. Like many of the flapper movies of the 1920s, it insists that times have changed... but not that much.

Miss Moore is comfortable in the role, while Hamilton comes off as a stuffed shirt. Director William Seiter shows the easy mix of light comedy and social message that would keep him working through his death, and Sidney Hickox's camerawork shows why he was Miss Moore's favorite cinematographer.

WHY BE GOOD? Is not novel nor deep. It's still a very enjoyable movie for one of the 1920s' biggest stars before the talkies and the Depression overwhelmed the movies.

Colleen Moore stars as Pert Kelly, a sales girl in a department store by day and a jazz baby by night. One night she meets a guy (Neil Hamilton) who happens to be the son of the department store owner. They hit it off, but when she's late for work the following morning, she's called into his office and they discover who they are. She's fired by the store owner, but she thinks the son did it. Rich daddy tries to protect his son from that kind of girl and talks him into testing her by taking her to a hotel to see how she reacts. Is she a good girl? Does it matter? After all, why be good? Moore is terrific as the dance-crazed flapper (who still lives at home with mom and pop). With her signature hair-do and skimpy dresses, she the very picture of the silent flapper. Hamilton is also good as the naïve son. Co-stars include Jack Norton as the drunken boyfriend, Bodil Rosing as the mother, John St. Polis as the father, and Edward Martindel as the store owner. Look fast for Grady Sutton, Mischa Auer, and Jean Harlow among the revelers.

This film was recently released on DVD after a massive effort to restore its video elements from several sources and its excellent Vitaphone soundtrack. After being listed as a lost film for many decades, we now have a shiny new version restored and available.

Lost until the late 1990's and then only restored in 2014, this is a real gem to have found. It's a playful film that evokes the era of the roaring 20's as well as any other, and has a nice bit of feminism in it as well. The two young people (the delightful Colleen Moore and dapper Neil Hamilton) push against the boundary of what was considered acceptable, and more importantly, she sticks up for herself, first with her parents and then with him. Her character, Pert Kelly (what a perfect name) the "hot potato", asserts her freedom with this line to her father:

"Pop, listen to me! This is 1929 - not 1899 - I contribute as much money to this house as you do - and as long as I think it is harmless, I'm going to wear what I like, and do what I like! I want to go out, and dance, and have fun, as long as I can, as much as I can!"

She can take care of herself; when a sleazy guy comes on to her, she plays along but is always in control, but when a guy comes along that she does like (Hamilton), she's not afraid to kiss him first. She's confident, saying to her friends, "Sure, I'm good! I'm just naturally too hot for this old folks' home!" At the same time, we see how her having fun and dancing wildly forces her to beware of being considered a "bad girl", or to be taken advantage of by a man. She just wants to be herself and yet has to thread the needle to be acceptable to everyone around her. This leads to this fantastic line:

"You men! You insist on a girl being just what you want - and then you bawl her (out) for being it."

Unfortunately, the feminist message is a little undercut by the women ("girls") in the office who are late to work putting on pouty, little girl airs to try to seduce the boss, though I confess I found the scene amusing.

The plot is simple but it's loaded with fantastic intertitles featuring 1920's slang, and it's got some nice art deco sets to go along with all the flapper outfits and dancing. While the film is a great time capsule of that era, the scenes of the younger generation struggling against the older are timeless. The fathers of both are shown to be too old-fashioned, but her mother (Bodil Rosing, who is wonderful) is more understanding, and has some really lovely scenes with Moore. In an interview for the film, Moore pointed out the hypocrisy of the older generation by saying "Is it any worse for a girl to call kissing 'necking' and admit she does it, than it was for her mother to call it 'spooning' and deny it?" Hamilton added, "It's all in the point of view... Our parents probably scandalized our grandparents, and our kids will probably look back on us as a lot of old fogies." It seems you can repeat these lines for every generation.

This film marked the end of an era not just for America, but for Colleen Moore, who would only appear in a few sound movies afterwards. She's wonderful.

The other day I was thinking that as an aspiring movie aficionado I could not spend my whole time stuck with 1920s and -30s films but had to see something different for a change. So I tried 'For a Few Dollars More' (1965). Oh dear. What a relief to return to something as enjoyable as this neat little picture! 'Why Be Good?' is not only a great example of late 1920s film making - it has sound but is no talkie -; it is a film with an attitude and message that continue to resonate. Pert Kelly (Colleen Moore) is a sales girl in a department store and a fun loving character - she regularly wins dancing contests. One night she meets a swell guy, played by Neil Hamilton, for whom she quickly develops feelings (which are returned). The next day it turns out that the guy is Winthrop Peabody, the new Human Resources manager of the store where she works, and what is more, he is the son of the millionaire owner. The problem is the store rules don't allow him romantic relations with sales girls, and his dad soon notices what happened and fires Pert. I liked almost everything about this film, most of all the character of the female lead and the stance the picture takes against double standards: Pert knows men like fun-loving girls but at the same time suspect them of a lack of morals, which is why such girls are no marriage material. Colleen Moore is great in this role. The film is very well-paced, with no dull moments or passages where the plot is sagging. If anything, it is a too short: My impression was that whenever Winthrop hurts Pert, the two of them are reconciled amazingly quickly, and the reconciliation always takes place off screen. The final reconcilation, at the end of the film, becomes evident only when it turns out that they have married (the ending is really rather abrupt). Otherwise: great film, excellent entertainment.

This is a simple but charming film showing why Colleen Moore became a star and an incarnation of the Flapper. She plays a working class girl who likes dancing and night life and dates with her boss-to-be (Neil Hamilton) without any of them knowing this. They like each other but will have to deal with doubts on their mutual behavior. The plot is not much, but the acting is fresh, the action follows a good pace and Miss Moore is natural, vivacious and convincing. The rest of the cast is also good, specially Bodil Rosing playing her sympathetic mother.

This film and Synthetic Sin were supposed to be lost but were located in Italy and carefully restored starting in 2012, and finally reissued for us all to enjoy. Thanks to the Vitaphone team, Warner, UCLA and Bologna archives, and to Joe Yranski, a film historian who gave the connection to locate the films. And this one is certainly worth it! The image quality is superior, a pleasure to watch as it should have been in its day. Even for a late silent from 1929 which was released with an added sonorized soundtrack with Vitaphone syncronized discs. This adds plenty of jazz music of the moment. The dialogues (titles), settings and clothes are amazingly modern, with a ceiling mirror ball in the dancing hall far ahead the 70s ones and high heeled sequined shoes. Mischa Auer, Andy Devine and Jean Harlow can be spotted as extras.

As a whole, highly recommended, and deserving to be known.