Coeurs impatients

This was the third film in the Joan Crawford flapper trilogy - (Our Dancing Daughters (1928)/Our Modern Maidens (1929)/Our Blushing Brides (1930)). The first two were silent, the third was a talking picture. This was not Joan Crawford's first talking picture nor her first film with costar Robert Montgomery - both those honors go to 1929's "Untamed".

You can really see the onset of the Great Depression having an effect in this final film of the trilogy. The first two films involve lots of melodrama, but there is also widespread prosperity and a focus on living it up with partying that reflects the excesses of the 1920's. This final film really isn't about living it up at all. It's more about three shop girls just getting by and how the men in the lives of two of them (Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian) promise the good life but end up raining down tragedy upon them, while the third shop girl, Gerry (Joan Crawford), has her own cynical attitude towards men reinforced by watching the fates of her two friends. That makes the ending seem a little tacked on and even unbelievable to some degree, but it's still a good film.

Unfortunately this film is neither on DVD or VHS. "Our Dancing Daughters" and "Our Modern Maidens" can be found on used VHS copies, but the transfer is pretty blurry. None of the three is on DVD, and considering their place in Joan Crawford's filmography, I find that to be a shame.

Here we witness the reunion of Joan Crawford, Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page two years after their 1928 hit, Our Dancing Daughters. This time, perhaps reflecting the input of left- wing screenwriter John Howard Lawson, the girls are proletarian department store workers instead of the privileged creatures they played in the previous film. The early scenes pan through the dressing room where the employees dress for the day's work, catching snatches of shopgirl conversation. But the three central characters are still struggling with that old demon, sexual morality in the modern era. In this round, Crawford is the cynical one who has been abused so often by men that she has developed a distinct armor against their advances; Sebastian and Page are utter dupes who, in their yearning to marry money and escape a life of drudgery, fall for the first superficial moneyed suitor that comes along. Robert Montgomery, Raymond Hackett and John Miljan are the flawed menfolk they encounter.

Though the plot developments are contrived even by the standards of the day, this is not a bad entertainment but it suffers midway when the progression of events grinds to a halt in favor of an elaborate but not very imaginative fashion show, ostensibly to impress female moviegoers, or perhaps to show off Crawford's beautiful body and skill at posing. She gets the star treatment here, frequently in dazzling close-up. Sometimes her facial expressions veer a bit into semi-dementia, but she restrains herself admirably. Anita Page does very well as the innocent victim of the thoughtless Hackett. Sebastian's role is in the wan mode of ZaSu Pitts; she has an amusing drunk scene. Montgomery, born to wear white tie and tails, must have gotten a big career boost with this one.

If nothing else, this film can probably boast the most impressive tree house ever created for the screen.

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.

Joan Crawford in another of the alliterative early talkie series she did (others were "Our Dancing Daughters" and "Our Modern Maidens; one shudders to think what they would have done with the letter "C", and perhaps that's why they skipped it!) Jerry (Crawford), Frankie (Sebastian) and Connie (Page) are three NY department store shopgirls who live in a cramped apartment and use a hammer and a nail to open their canned dinner while listening to jazz on the phonograph and conserving the hot water so they can take a bath. Jerry's pals long for rescue by a rich man, but practical Jerry knows better; she's been there, done that, and knows that beaus with bucks only want one thing with a shopgirl, and it's not marriage. Still, though, there is that dreamy Tony Jardine (Montgomery, at the height of his boyish sexiness), son of the store owner, who seems to take a shine to Jerry and vice versa. A telling scene comes when Jerry has to model some lingerie for a store customer in Tony's presence, opening her robe to display herself to his eyes, making her totally vulnerable. While Jerry's pals find the men they think they want, Jerry won't give in to Tony's rather caddish overtures. And there is that nice Joe from the store with the flivver and gin flask. He's not dreamy, but he is solid and upstanding, and that's what Jerry wants. She has second thoughts when both her friends seem to have found love AND riches. But she can't forget Tony's kisses. Maybe she should abandon up her ideals and stop suffering and give in to Tony already.

The cast is wonderful here and Joan has lost her stagy silent mannerisms and you can just see a glimmer of the Crawford that was to come. The Depression was on, but you wouldn't know it by Joan (or this character), who persevered in spite of everything. Joan was the most ambitious actress ever to step tootsie in Hollywood and seems to have been propelled along by sheer force of will, but she did have real acting talent, and this movie displays it. Bob Montgomery plays another of his dependable rich-boy roles and looks great in a tuxedo, chatting idly about Oyster Bay. At one point, Jerry won't make out with him, so he says "Let's have a cigarette," like he just invented it. (Don't you miss smoking? I do). What a great line.

Will Jerry and her pals triumph or will they be crushed by love that was just an illusion? Watch and find out!

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.