The Florodora Girl

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!

This is an interesting historical drama from the 1930's. It is set in 1890's about an unlucky Floradora girl named Daisy. In New York at the Floradora club, all of the chorus girls seem to be having the great fortune of snagging and marrying wealthy men, except the naive Daisy Dell played by Marion Davies. Her fellow dancers help her catch the eye of wealthy Jack Vibart (Lawrence Gray), using their "tricks"...think cramp in the water tricks.

The story goes beyond Daisy and Jack's initial romance as Jack looses his family's money, they break of their wedding...

The story is ok, but the real reason to watch this Marion Davies film is for the historical depictions...like the early automobile, beachside antics of the time...including a resuscitation, a football game in which wealthy attendees watch from their cars or carts, an amazing country picnic with a tree swing large enough for two and the Floradora performances themselves.

Maybe a must see for fans of either Marion Davies or the 1890's. I did enjoy that Jack's mother didn't have the typical disapproving role.

While not one of her most entertaining outings, "The Florodora Girl" has much to recommend it, especially in its musical interludes which a provide a feast of 1890's songs. Just about all these are well rendered by Miss Davies and chorus. Mr Gray, "who sings better than he talks" (as Mordaunt Hall aptly commented), has only the one number and irritatingly not only fails to join in singing the climactic, real Florodora hit, "Tell Me, Pretty Maiden", but actually louses it up. This is the way of the plot which tends to hamper the movie at every turn of its routine screws.

Some poorly contrived humorous interludes with over-enthusiastic Walter Catlett, and Harry Beaumont's rather routine, static and uninspired direction do little to help; but fortunately the movie offers plenty of visual compensations by way of its lavish sets and costumes, in addition to the aural appeal of its music score.

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.

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.