Le nostre sorelle di danza

It sounds absurd, but I would suggest that Harry Beaumont's 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters would make an amusing double bill with Whit Stillman's 1990 film Metropolitan. Both films are rather sophisticated critiques of life among society's elite, the gala balls, the flippant attitudes, and crushing realities of romance, treachery and friendship. Written by three women, Our Dancing Daughters is an interesting example of early female empowerment, teaching women that being true to yourself is better than letting others shape you to their ends.

A young Joan Crawford, Anita Page, and Dorothy Sebastian play three wild girls in the early Jazz age who are coming to terms with their place in society and the repercussions of their "flapper" ways. Crawford is "dangerous" Diana, wild, intelligent, and sexual beyond her years. She's unapologetically flirtatious and provocative. Page is Anne, saucy and flirtatious as well. Anne is also poorer than her friends and her mother is counting on her to marry into wealth, urging her to use her virtue as a tool. Sebastian's Beatrice is largely reformed, but she has some kind of past, which bothers her more than it bothers the man who's devoted to her (at first, at least). When Johnny Mack Brown's Ben Blaine (a millionaire and former college football star) enters the picture, he falls for Diana and Anne decides that she will win his heart.

In one of her earliest roles, Crawford is amazing. If you've only seen her later performances (like her Oscar winning Mildred Pierce) or Faye Dunaway's impression of her in Mommie Dearest, it's possible to forget just how beautiful and lively she was. She's a marvelously liberated character, the type woman Hollywood frequently featured in the late silent period before forgetting about them for decades of regressive female characters. She is supported by her parents and feels strength in her independence. When she sees herself falling in love, she seems genuinely surprised and when Anne steps in, she seems genuinely heartbroken.

Our Dancing Daughters (lensed by George Barnes, who later shot several Hitchcock classics like Rebecca) is a rather joyous production when it isn't commenting on society and gender. The film had a jazzy original score written for it and the film comes alive during the several large party/dance scenes. Showing all of the freedom that late-silent films allowed, the camera is mobile and amidst the dancing. The film also features several moments of synchronized sound, mostly involving applause from the crowd.

Our Dancing Daughters is intellectually ahead of its time and it features excellent performances and fine writing. I'm telling you, look at it with Metropolitan. I bet it works well.

I'd give this one a solid and positive 7.5 out of 10.

This late silent film with synchronized music score and sound effects made Joan Crawford a star at MGM. The film was a huge hit at the box office.

Crawford stars as wild Diana Medford, a rich rich who is a leader in her set of young wealthy country club types. She's a real life-of-the-party type but is actually "good." Her rival is Ann (Anita Page), a beautiful blonde who has been raised as a mantrap. She's a deceitful liar just like her mother (Kathlyn Williams). There's also Bea (Dorothy Sebastian) who's made a few "mistakes" but is a decent young woman.

Into this swirl of country club dances and rivalries comes a handsome young millionaire (Johnny Mack Brown) who's taken with Crawford's high spirits, but as soon as she learns how rich he is, Page moves in on him.

Brown seems helpless against Page's simpering helpless act, and with the help of her grasping mother, they corner Brown into marrying Page. Crawford is devastated. Meanwhile, Sebastian's new husband (Nils Asther) is having trouble accepting his wife's "past."

A year later, the marriage between Page and Brown in rocky, especially since she's now dallying with Freddie (Edward Nugent). They show up drunk at a party where Crawford is, and the sparks fly. Brown discovers exactly how he was tricked by Page and admits if was really Crawford he loved ... and still does.

Things come to a violent climax.

Crawford and Page are excellent. Crawford does a couple of wild dances and Page excels in a drunken hysterics bit. Brown is suitably handsome. The film is also famous for its spectacular Art Deco sets and snappy jazz baby costumes.

This film established Joan Crawford as a star at MGM where she joined Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, and Greta Garbo as a queen of the lot. It also positioned Anita Page, Johnny Mack Brown, and Dorothy Sebastian at MGM as it transitioned to talkies.

This is one of the great surviving flapper films from the jazz era.

The Roaring Twenties has come down to us in history as an era of good times and continual partying until that stock market crashed and one could no longer afford to party. Joan Crawford got her first taste of first billing and stardom with Our Dancing Daughter where she does the ultimate Charleston of the Twenties.

Crawford at first glance is one wild child, but it's just a pose. Down deep she knows when to put on the brakes. She's got two friends she parties with, Dorothy Sebastian who's reticent now, but at one time was the wildest child of all. Sebastian knows that those loose morals of the past have irreparably damaged her reputation. She'd like to really settle down, but whomever she dates is expecting only one thing.

Then there's Anita Page who comes off to her friends as prim and proper, but is really the wildest child of all. She's got a nice image, but when she parties, she really parties.

Both are after young Johnny Mack Brown who is playing what he was in real life, a recently graduated All American halfback from the University of Alabama. He likes them both and wants a wife to settle down with, but he's not a good judge of character. In fact he's a bit of a dope. He rejects Crawford and marries Page and regrets it soon enough.

MGM was stepping into the age of sound ever so cautiously. Sound effects are heard and several songs of the era are interpolated into a soundtrack either sung or played instrumentally. All these players would be talking soon enough on screen.

Our Dancing Daughters is a must for Joan Crawford fans and it's a great look at the culture of the Twenties, the Flapper Culture.

If you have ever stumbled onto one of Joan Crawford's films from the 1950's such as Queen Bee or Sudden Fear, what you see is the caricature of Crawford that she herself seemed to endorse: tough, ballsy and no nonsense. She's inhumane, unreal and kind of scary. You have to wonder where this woman came from and why she is considered a Star. Check out "Our Dancing Daughters" to find out why. At the very least it showcases an appeal that Crawford had that was completely gone by 50s. In it she plays Diana Medford, a rich society girl who is also a great dancer. The plot is simply about a cat fight between Crawford and Anita Page over the rich Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown). Page disparages Crawford to Ben and ends up married to him but Ben never stops loving Diana. Thanks to a melodramatic ending (complete with a drunken confrontation and a fall down a stairs), Diana and Ben end up together (or so it is inferred). So plot wise, there's not much to it and for a lot of people, the film won't hold much appeal outside of seeing what Crawford was like very early in her career. I'm interested by the films of stars that "made" them famous. Too often the films that stars are remembered for aren't really the ones that show their appeal. Take Clark Gable. He's mostly remembered for "Gone With the Wind" but is he really that good in it? I don't think so. He's much better in "Red Dust" and "It Happened One Night". Those are the films where is appeal is very clear. For a somewhat more contemporary view, take someone like Tom Hanks. What is he known for today? "Forrest Gump"? What made Hanks initially appealing to audiences were his comedies like "The Money Pit" or "Turner & Hooch"" and "Splash". Getting back to Crawford and "Our Dancing Daughters" it's this early appealing side of Crawford that is so interesting. She's very attractive here. Not beautiful but very pretty and that's an important distinction: Crawford connected with her female fans (and supposedly her fan mail greatly increased after this movie) because she was accessible, not an aloof, above it all beauty like Garbo. You genuinely feel for her as the movie progresses and then there's a protectiveness that develops in the viewer. At the end, when she "triumphs", you feel like the order of things has been restored. These feelings are due entirely to Crawford. What is fascinating is how completely opposite her later films are. Some of them are grotesques and others just feel clueless like Crawford was trying anything to bring back success. Crawford was good in "Mildred Pierce" but after that each of her films became more strained and some (like "Torch Song") were truly odd and campy. Crawford's legacy would have been completely different had she simply faded away like so many stars of the late 20s and 30s did. Perhaps most are forgotten (does anyone outside of film buffs really talk about Norma Shearer?) but is being remembered now as a grotesque, campy figure any better than being forgotten?

The 1928 silent film OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is the story of three flappers and their efforts to marry the men of their dreams. Ann (Anita Page) is a conniving little tramp who passes herself off as a 'good girl' in order to win the affections of Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown), millionaire from Birmingham. Diana (Joan Crawford) is a good girl who passes herself off as a bad girl as she too pursues Ben's affections. Bea (Dorothy Sebastian) used to be a bad girl but is now a good girl and hopes to marry Norman (Nils Asther), who must live with the agony of knowing that Bea was once 'free with her love'. Ben doesn't seem to know what the hell he wants and doesn't seem to know very much about women either. Throughout the film, the girls' mothers dispense motherly advice and, inexplicably, share underwear with their daughters.

Ms Crawford was hitting her stride with MGM in '28 and OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is the best of seven Joan Crawford films released that year and the one that launched her to stardom. The scene in which she danced the Charleston was the highlight of this movie. Unfortunately the title is a bit misleading because there is in fact very little dancing in this film.

Claudia's Bottom Line: Rather boring and predictable, but check out Joan's Charleston.