The Florodora Girl

The late 1890's are lovingly reconstructed, with wonderful costumes and nice sets. Very good script. Marion Davies as a chorus girl who doesn't want to be a rich man's toy has lots of chances to show her stuff. There is only one Floradora dance routine and it is quite calm. The final scenes are in two color Technicolor.

"Floradora Girl" is an early sound picture that starred Marion Davies and a little known Lawrence Gray. Both had been leads in silent films and had some success transitioning to sound. But his career faded fast as many new male actors were getting established in sound pictures. Davies' career also faded fast, but that was mostly because of her personal life. She wasn't a great actress, but a good one in several films. It depended on the material she got, and a few years into sound pictures, she wasn't getting the scripts that many new and up-and-coming actresses were getting.

The plot for this film isn't exceptional, but Davies is okay as Daisy. The cast is sizable, but except for a couple supporting actors, there are few familiar faces in this cast. What lifts this film some, is its very good portrayal of some period things of history. The setting is supposed to be in the 1890s. Of special interest to sports fans are scenes of a football game that show players with minimum equipment, and a couple of very unusual plays, including, the wedge.

There is some humor - the funniest scene being efforts by a crowd of people to resuscitate Daisy (Davies) after she faked drowning to be rescued by Jack (Gray). Except for the scenes of turn of the 20th century things of interest, there isn't a lot to recommend this film as above average run-of-the-mill.

I must admit that like many others, I too, had never seen a Marion Davies film. She certainly held my attention from the opening, and I'm now a fan for life! The focus of my review, however, is on two technical aspects of this film (not to mention the fabulous costumes by Adrian)! First, I was amazed at the filming of the swing sequence, in which Davies and Gray are filmed - head on - as the movement of their background literally made this viewer rather dizzy. Had it not been filmed in 1930, one would swear the couple was being filmed in front of a blue screen, with the background added later. Nonetheless, it's all real, with something not unlike a monstrous selfie-stick attached to the swing itself! (See photo #16 in the 21 photos accompanying this article to see just how it was shot!) The other phenomenon, of course, is the Technicolor finale. Who knew that such a film existed almost a decade before the more famous "sepia tone-to-color" magic of "The Wizard of Oz," or the other-worldly color filmed segments of " The Women," and "The Picture of Dorian Gray?" Fascinating!

The Florodora Girl (1930)

*** (out of 4)

Set during the Gay Nineties, this film stars Marion Davies playing a chorus girl who is being taught how to play the "game" by a couple veterans. The game consists of landing a rich husband and she has one guy (Lawrence Gray) interested but the friends are constantly messing up the relationship. Soon the man finds himself broke and his mother objects to him marrying someone without money. It's funny but I never really considered Davies one of my favorite actresses but after viewing this movie I realized that I had seen the majority of her sound work, which is a lot more than I can say for some of my favorites. What I've come to realize with Davies is that even when the film isn't all that good and even when her performance might not be right, she still manages to come across very charming and fun. Whenever she is on she can be dynamite and that's exactly what she is in this piece, which has to be one of the best, if not the best film she did during the sound era. I was really impressed with how wonderful her performance was here because the comic timing was perfect but so was the more dramatic moments. I thought the first hour was extremely tight and well directed with Davies really going all out. There are countless funny situations and the majority of them work extremely well including one bit where she's on a swing with Gray. There's also a very funny sequence dealing with a "becoming a father" joke. Gray is also very good in his spot as the boyfriend and the rest of the supporting cast are good as well. With that said, there's no doubt that this film belongs to Davies. The final ten-minutes were originally shot in Technicolor but it has faded so bad that the sequence looks orange but I still enjoyed seeing Davies in somewhat color.

I've never seen a Marion Davies movie before. I had heard of her of course. Shacking up with that creep Hearst is skin crawling. She went for the money I guess.

But that aside, she was an excellent comedian actress. I was completely surprised when watching this film that Davies totally takes over your attention. Everyone in this film is a good actor but she lights up the screen in every scene she's in.

Her timing is flawless and her performance seems effortless. I had read that at social gatherings she was the life of the party and that Hearst couldn't take his eyes off of her. This movie kind of illustrates that.

I like to pick out the flaws of actors and movies because Hollywood is so self absorbed. But Davies was something else in this film.