Twinkletoes

An example of an improbable genre, this silent musical, released for Christmas 1926, makes an agreeable light entertainment, at least until it collapses into a subplot of virginity threatened. As a vehicle for Colleen Moore, who personified flaming youth in a series of jazz-age comedies, it illustrates how this star's image sidestepped the sexual challenge of contemporaries like Clara Bow and Joan Crawford.

Here, in a project that she guided herself, she goes blonde as an aspiring dancer, devoted to her dear old Dad, tempted by an unhappily married local boxer, but targeted by a leering seducer. Throughout this plot, set in Cockney London, her working-class heroine remains good-hearted, relentlessly perky, yet fundamentally innocent. She leaps into a street melee, climbs ladders, rescues a child from a beating, and slugs a disbeliever in her stardom. (Throughout four dance numbers, Moore neither disgraces nor distinguishes herself.)

Director Charles Brabin works up some flavorful Limehouse atmosphere, staging a spirited street brawl for the opening. However, only one sequence- a romantic scene on a stairway when Moore realizes that she loves the boxer -reveals distinctive cinematic choices. The visual sophistication seen in Brabin's MASK OF FU MANCHU in 1932 is absent, apart from some prism shots to express a state of tipsiness.

Among the routinely sentimental figures, Gladys Brockwell hits a strikingly realistic note as the hero's snarling drunken wife, but the character of "Roseleaf", the producer who threatens Moore's virtue, has an anti-semitic subtext that seems borderline offensive (Warner Oland would redeem his role the next year by playing Al Jolson's rabbi father in THE JAZZ SINGER).

Colleen Moore was a major star of the silent screen. Here in Twinkletoes she shows us why. In a career that ranged from slapstick comedy to flappers to dramatic heroines, Moore was first and foremost an actress. Here she plays a Cockney waif who aspires to be a dancer. She grows up in the rough and tumble Limehouse district of London with her dad (Tully Marshall) and has a crush on a local boxer (Kenneth Harlan) but he is married to a harridan (Gladys Brockwell).

The film starts out with a street brawl between Brockwell and a woman who flirts with Harlan. Moore rushes to the scene and stops the riot by dancing and making people laugh and smile.

Later, at an amateur show run by sleazy manager (Warner Oland), Moore brings down the house with a busker dance followed by a ballet. Amazingly it is Moore doing those balletic moves ON POINT. Great stuff. There are a few melodramatic subplots that all lead to the expected conclusion.

Moore had become a superstar in 1923 with Flaming Youth, the film that defined the Jazz Age and the flapper. From then thru the early talkies Moore remained a star. Twinkletoes was a smash as were films like Ella Cinders and Lilac Time (with Gary Cooper). And she's excellent here as the girl who dreams of being a star.

Harlan is OK as the love interest. Marshall is splendidly seedy as the dad, but it's Gladys Brockwell who really scores as the treacherous Cissie. Brockwell would also steal the show in the first all-talking film, Lights of New York, which starred Helene Costello and Cullen Landis. Willie Fung is one of the Chinese fans, and Ned Sparks co-stars but I never spotted him. Lucien Littlefield plays Hank.

Although this film was not the light comedy I expected, I was still drawn into the story by the great Colleen Moore.

In the seedy Limehouse district of London, Colleen Moore (as Twinkletoes) rushes to bust up a major street brawl, with her comedic ballet routine. Ms. Moore's charming dance, with musical assist from father Tully Marshall (as Dad Minasi), soothes the savagery. Ironically, Moore falls in love with the man in the center of the conflict, professional boxer Kenneth Harlan (as Chuck Lightfoot). Mr. Harlan is also enchanted with Moore; however, he is already married to boozy, shrewish Gladys Brockwell (as Cissie).

This film was released in late 1926, around the time Colleen Moore was determined to be the year's #1 US Box Office Star, by Quigley Publications (currently recognized as the industry standard). So, Moore is justified in production and characterization resembling Lillian Gish or Mary Pickford; she had reached a equalizing level. "Twinkletoes" is an enjoyable feature, although it falls short of the poetic standard it is so obviously straining to achieve.

****** Twinkletoes (11/28/26) Charles Brabin ~ Colleen Moore, Kenneth Harlan, Tully Marshall, Gladys Brockwell

Colleen Moore, minus her flapper bob, is Twinkeltoes. Years before her mother was a dancer. Now Twinks is about to headline a new production, and all of Limehouse is excited. But this is based on a Thomas Burke story -- best known for the tale that BROKEN BLOSSOMS is based on; the well-meaning girl's life is sloppy and complicated, although she doesn't realize it at first. Matters will not turn out well, despite a tacked-on happy ending. She is in love with Kenneth Harlan, who is married to the drunken and vicious Gladys Brockwell. Her father, Tully Marshall, has been supporting the two of them with stolen goods in the basement of his shop.

Miss Moore's vehicles live in her close-ups and her mugging, and there are plenty of both on view. She ably portrays a full range of emotions and is never quite broken; the movie is a fine commercial vehicle for the star. With Lucien Littlefield and Warner Oland.