Party Girl

That scene of the big old car rolling onto the penthouse party floor as though it's an everyday occurrence really grabbed me. Then too, the guests acting like it's an everyday occurrence surprised me even more. Seems as though building elevators were big enough to lift any such cargo in those days. Plot-wise, the flick's got plenty of innuendo and filmy dresses, but never goes beyond that suggestive stage. Looks like even pre-Code had its unwritten limits.

Anyway, the interweaving of sexual scheming and big business likely pleased Depression-era audiences already made cynical by the Wall Street crash of '29. Fairbanks is the hormonal pidgeon of sexy Barrie's plotting, even though he likes the virginal Lott more. Nonetheless, there's riches to be made once the party girls expedite big money deals. So guys and gals do party-on. Meanwhile, Fairbanks' movie dad, St. Polis, makes a fittingly imperious business kingpin, lording it over his listless son. How the various schemes play out makes up the often ragged storyline.

Anyhow, the party girls are all richly upholstered and do well, unlike Fairbanks Jr who appears too bland to score beyond his illustrious family name. Overall, it's a revealing flick at a time when the free-wheeling 1920's were coming to an inglorious end.

(In Passing - on a more somber note: too bad actresses Barrie and Prevost had such sad early ends, {IMDB}. Happily, their contributions live on.)

Dear Me! What a creaky talkie social shocker! Made really in 1929 with absolutely the most primitive sound recording, PARTY GIRL has all those Singin In The Rain sound recording problems (and solutions) evident: like the mic in the vase of flowers or on someone's shoulder or in a lampshade. Often one only one actor in a scene can be heard, or they turn their head out of range etc...all very funny etc. BUT this is otherwise a well staged sex expose made by the never heard of PERSONALITY PICTURES who really sound like a chorus girl racket itself. The film itself is a social morality play about a chorus girl racket and their high rise bed hopping antics ruining young mens lives and contorting business contracts from rightful owners. It also has all those great cliche scenes of tubby old fellers in tuxedos manhandling squealing 18 year old flappers at gin parties at the office. A good scene is a party in a wharehouse where guests actually drive into the goods lift and right up to the 11th floor and zoom directly into the room. Douglas Farbanks Jr is the handsome misled hero bedded by a floozie schemed by her conniving mother! The furniture and clothes alone are enough to watch this genuinely thoroughly modern 20s adult drama. I bought a dvd of this film for $5 in Sydney last week and the quality is quite good.

Vaguely hysterical exploitation pic in which wastrel rich kid Douglas Fairbanks Jr finds himself tricked into marriage by a prostitute after he and his mates crash a boozy party. Needless to say, Daddy isn't impressed, and neither is love interest Jeannette Loff who was once herself a "party girl." It's the kind of movie that disappeared from movie screens for a couple of decades once the Production Code came into force, but the worst you see is young women sitting on old men's laps.

Wild Women! Bootleg hooch! Hot jazz! Sequins and furs! Blackmail! Suicide! This pre-Code cautionary tale opens with a typical disclaimer stating "It is our earnest hope that this film may arouse you..." Of course, they mean arouse your indignation to help eliminate such vices as you view in this exposé. Or, do they?

Pleasant juvenile Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., headlines along with a bevy of largely talent-free "party girls". Judith Barrie has some especially embarrassing scenes, leading one to wonder whether she may have gotten her part by being a party girl. Almeda Fowler, making her film debut as Maude "Don't call me Madam" Lindsay, and veteran actor John St. Polis put in decent performances adding some humor. The well regarded Earl Burtnett and His Hotel Biltmore Orchestra from Los Angeles provides suitable jazz accompaniment.

The best scene is the party where guests arrive in their automobiles via a service elevator directly to the party. The much commented upon perfumed fountain scene seems to have been excised from the version available from Alpha Video. Altogether, this is a pleasant diversion that pushes the envelope even for pre-Code Hollywood.

In those days when Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was playing any kind of role other than costume swashbucklers, the better to establish his own identity separate from his father, Party Girl was a typical role for him. In Party Girl he plays a rich young playboy during that era of wonderful nonsense who gets himself tricked into a marriage to a gold digging flapper played by Judith Barrie. If Party Girl did anyone's career any good it should have been Barrie.

Almeeda Fowler plays the procurer for her escort service of which Barrie is part. Various businesses use her girls for 'entertainment' and the girls hope to land a rich husband one way or another.

Party Girl is one primitive talkie and it also bares no resemblance to Party Girl made a quarter of a century later with Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse. Fairbanks is pretty insipid and that doesn't wear well on him.

Lots of pre-Code double entendre in Party Girl. But overall it hasn't worn well over the decades.