Birichina del gran mondo

Minor but amusing comedy starring that little kewpie doll, Alice White.

For a few years in the late 20s and early 30s White was a big name and starred in a series of comedies and musicals.

In THE NAUGHTY FLIRT she plays a spoiled rich girl who travels in a fast set of country club kids. She runs across a staid lawyer in night court when the "gang" has been hauled in for disturbing the peace at a local dive. He works in her father's law firm.

Because he ignores her she floods him with invitations and finally lures him to a party where he continues to ignore her and pay attention to her rival, Myrna Loy. Of course this drive the little flirt crazy. The "Cinderella Dance" is interesting to say the least.

Myrna and her brother are almost broke (it's 1931) and they have a scheme for him to marry White with her $100,000/year income. So there are some more complications before the final clinch.

Alice White was the Goldie Hawn of her day, a delightful actress who could sing a little and dance a little. She was a rival to Clara Bow and was probably the last of the flappers. She's very good in this comedy. Myrna Loy has fun as the bitchy rival who schemes for money. Paul Page (looking like Fredric March) plays the lawyer. Robert Agnew is Wilbur, George Irving is the father, Douglas Gilmore is Jack, Fred Kelsey is the cop, and Lloyd Ingraham is the judge.

Cute film.

This was flapper Alice White's last starring role at Warner Brothers as the roaring twenties have ceased to roar and the Great Depression rolls in. This seems to be, in fact, the roaring twenties' last hurrah a year out from that decade.

Alice White plays rich spoiled party girl Kay Elliott who pals around with a likewise rich partying crowd. One night she and her friends are arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to night court. There young attorney Alan Ward is observing the proceedings of the night court as part of his own continuing education when Kay and her friends are brought in. The judge gives Kay a small fine, and then she is about to marry fellow idler Jack Gregory when Alan intervenes and whisks her away. This is partly because he is attracted to her and partly because he works for Kay's dad and doesn't want her to make a big mistake. Gregory is upset about this for more reason than just love - he and his sister (Myrna Loy) are broke, and they want to get their hands on the Gregory millions. Complications ensue.

The reason to watch this is not the plot, although it was better than I anticipated, or the acting - the only person in the cast who will have an acting career in three years will be Myrna Loy, and she is very much supporting cast here. It is all of the things that were so very Jazz Age or just plain obsolete that show up here - ink wells, dictaphones with cylinders, the ubiquitous fox stoles and cloche hats, and men wearing tuxedos at every public event.

This is also the death rattle of the Vitaphone sound on disc system. Cameras could not move when using Vitaphone, so everything is a series of still shots. But sometimes the director would want motion or want a distance shot. For example, at one point Alan Ward is retiring for the night and there is a long tracking shot that takes the camera from down the hall up to Ward. He is heard singing from a distance, but his lips are not moving! That was because, to get this shot, silent film had to be used and in that case it was improperly done. There are other such shots and those are made with peoples' heads turned so that you cannot see their mouths move out of sync with obviously dubbed conversation.

It's all a very light and airy confection and I'd recommend it, especially if you are a film history buff.

What a delightful little bit of pre-Code confectionery this is. Alice White is simply adorable, there are lots of playful moments, and Myrna Loy schemes in a supporting role. White plays the wild child of a rich lawyer, partying late and having romances with a lot of different men. When she's on the verge of marrying one of them on the spur of the moment, he has one of his employees (Paul Page) get her out of there. The two of them hit it off, but face challenges in not only her playgirl past, but also in a brother/sister duo (Douglas Gilmore and Myrna Loy) plotting to have Gilmore marry her for her money.

The innuendo in this film is pretty innocent, but as in other pre-Code films, I like the acknowledgement of women's sexuality. That has an honesty about that, even if it was also meant to sell tickets. The plot is simple and the run-time is a brisk 56 minutes, but to me that was a good thing. The flapper scenes - being hauled in by the police after a late night party, with playful defiance of authority in the dialogue - were entertaining. The party scenes - the 'Cinderella dance', and then later dancing the night away to forget heartache - were as well. The clothing, hats, and cars are all beautiful. It's White's movie, but the scene where Loy hatches a scheme to get Page up into her room and into a compromising position is a good one.

In a scene that may define whether you'll like or dislike this movie, White gets a spanking from Page when he discovers she'd made a bet that she could get him to go home with her before midnight, and that she has a history of doing that kind of thing. I found it an amusing little window into the period as the tone was light, then literally laughed out loud at the intertitle which followed, which said "A good old fashioned spanking was the turning point in the life of an ultra-modern girl." However, if that sort of thing is likely to bother you, I'd recommend skipping this film. On the other hand, if you like Alice White, or pre-Code silliness in general, you'll probably like it enough to warrant spending an hour.

.... that showcases her comedic skills and vibrant personality is eventually sunk by poor script and blah costar Paul Page (who resembles Fredric March). Miss White and Myrna Loy, however, are fun. White was saddled with lousy scripts in her brief starring career. She could have and should have been a rival to Clara Bow or Jean Harlow. She was terrific in Employees' Entrance but continued to slide anyway. Such is Hollywood. Catch her in Show Girl in Hollywood---she's good in that one too!!

Spoiled rich girl Kay Elliott (Alice White) can't settle down, or even settle on one guy. In Naughty Flirt, she battles with Alan Ward (Paul Page -only made a few films) and Linda Gregory (Myrna Loy, three years before the Thin Man series) Alice White made many films, but none seem to be well known. She had been in the original, silent "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" 1928. White appeared in more than her share of movies with suggestive names (Naughty Baby, Hot Stuff, Lingerie, Playing Around) This is a good story, but you can tell it was made just as sound was coming in play - they were heavy on the eye makeup, and they even use subtitle cards several times. Also a music track playing under most of the dialogue. Keep an eye out for Fred Kelsey as the cop at the beginning - made a career out of playing the policeman (the Man Who Came to Dinner, Larceny Inc, the Bride Walks Out)