This Modern Age

I hated this movie. A blonde Joan Crawford plays a girl whose father died so she wants to meet her estranged mother. Well, Moms is a trashy old broad living it up in Paris on some French guy's dime. So Joan comes to Paris and very quickly finds she likes her mother's lifestyle and friends. She gets into a drunk driving accident thanks to the douchebag her classy mom set her up with. Then stuffy Neil Hamilton shows up and helps pull the two of them from the wreck. This is all treated very lightly. Anyway, Joan and Neil start to date but Neil's parents don't approve of her friends. I could go on but it's all very tedious and who cares. This is a stinker. What an unlikable group of characters. Everybody dresses nicely and enunciates all their words ever so properly yet I couldn't help but need a bath after watching them! At least Joan looks nice. Avoid this unless you're an avid Crawford fan.

Two stars of different generations combine their talents in This Modern Age which does not prove to be all that modern even for 1931. Pauline Frederick and Joan Crawford are mother and daughter in this MGM film and it's about a reunion that brings out a few issues and unpleasant truths. In later years it would be Joan cast as the mother with a past.

In her flapper years Crawford is looking forward to a trip to Paris where she will reunite with Frederick after many years separation. Along the way she meets All American Harvard football player Neil Hamilton and his straightlaced parents Hobart Bosworth and Emma Dunn.

But later on she meets two male acquaintances of Frederick, drunken playboy Monroe Owsley who might have been cast her instead of Crawford's good friend William Haines. It's very much a Haines type role. And there's this friend of Mom's the titled Albert Conti. They're very good friends indeed.

A great deal of Puritan moralizing is offered in This Modern Age. In the end it all works out for the lovebirds.

A really creaky old time vehicle, This Modern Age is palatable for today's audiences by the performances of Crawford and Frederick.

I wonder if Joan Crawford disliked Jean Harlow's career boom. In This Modern Age, Joan wears a platinum wig and prances around like a party girl, but she's really innocent and only interested in a wedding ring, much like Jean's character in The Girl from Missouri.

Joan's mother is Pauline Frederick, and since she's a divorcee and has a well-known relationship with Albert Conti, she has a bit of a bad reputation. She wants Joan to have a fair shot in life, but this film is a far cry from Stella Dallas. Joan attracts the high-class Neil Hamilton and worries that his parents won't approve of her. This isn't the best mother-daughter drama to come out of the 1930s, and while Joan looks very pretty, I won't choose to watch it again. I'll stick with Stella Dallas when I want a good cry.

This Modern Age (1931)

** (out of 4)

Fair soap opera from MGM has Valentine Winters (Joan Crawford) going to stay with her mother (Pauline Frederick) and quickly falling in love with a rich man (Neil Hamilton) from a good family. Valentine realizes that this man could give her all she wanted in life but he and his family objects to her friends and especially her mother. The factory known as MGM serves great for fans today because it means their favorite stars were pumping out a number of films each year unlike today where you get one if you're lucky. With so many films being pumped out it's really no shock that most of them would be forgotten today had it not been for the fact that they featured a legend. THIS MODERN AGE is a rather predictable melodrama but it remains interesting thanks in large part to Crawford who is dashing as ever. The story itself is a pretty weak one as the girl must pick between money or her mother. This plays out in a way you pretty much see coming from a mile away and I certainly doubt that anyone is going to be shocked by the ending. The entire premise of nobody caring about what happens was an interesting setting but there simply wasn't enough done with it. This atmosphere does lead to some eye rolling bits including a drunk driving scene, which ends in an accident but it's all played for laughs, which certainly doesn't sit too well today. Crawford easily steals the film as the innocent girl who just likes to have fun. The legend perfectly handles every aspect of the performance and she manages to mix it up well with the supporting cast. Both Frederick and Hamilton are good in their parts as well. Fans of Crawford will certainly want to check this one out but a better screenplay certainly would have helped things.

Diane Winters (Pauline Frederick) opens a letter to learn that her nineteen year old daughter is coming to live with her. Valentine (Joan Crawford) arrives timidly but quickly learns to love her mother. She does not know, however, that her mother is a kept woman living a lavish lifestyle thanks to a wealthy benefactor. Rich people flock to the home including Tony Girard (Monroe Owsley), a lovesick drunk who befriend Valentine. She also meets the respectable Bob Blake Jr. (Neil Hamilton) who she hopes to wed, until she realizes that their families clash.

This is a good early talkie because it doesn't suffer from being a film for the sake of being a film. It has an actual story which is performed well by the cast. It is a bit short and not emotional enough to be considered a great film, but if you're a fan of early Crawford films like I am, you'll enjoy yourself.

Speaking of Crawford, it is a bit ironic that her character is so moral here. The drunk driving accident brings up the hit-and-run trouble she had in her own life and her stance against her mother's lifestyle is in stark contrast to her true beliefs.