Loose Ankles

Talkies introduced a new breed of cinematic female comedians that were quickly replacing such silent movies' light-hearted actresses as Mabel Norman and Mary Pickford. Teenager Loretta Young, 17, serves as a prime example of those young performers with silky voices ready to step into the shoes of the silent veterans. Her February 1930 comedy "Loose Ankles" demonstrates Young's ability to draw laughs from theater audiences. The film's premise showcases a pair of prudish spinster aunts to Ann Berry (Young), who stands to inherit a fortune from her late wealthy grandmother if she marries a man acceptable to her two guardians The plot, adapted from the 1925 Sam Janney play as well as the 1925 silent, 'Ladies At Play,' follows the manipulations of Young and her cousin, Betty (Inez Courtney) when they place an ad in the paper for a potential hubby. Ann Berry doesn't want the money and is looking for a scandal to break the inheritance. They pick one sucker, Gil Hayden (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who answered the ad.

The free-spirited movie fires at a near 'screwball comedy'-fashion pace in the hands of Ted Wilde's direction. An Academy Award nominee for Best Director of a Comedy Picture for his 1928 Harold Lloyd "Speedy," Wilde had the natural touch of making scenes hilarious by mixing full-to-medium framed shots with reactionary close-ups in the midst of a quickened pace. Wilde's imprint shows during the scene when Ann Berry arranges reporters to come to her apartment as a naked Gil is discovered in her bedroom. As a 'pre-code' era film, when the Hays' Production Code Office was more permissive with their censorship than later on, "Loose Ankles" was allowed to show a sequence of the two aunts, Aunt Sarah Harper (Louise Fazenda) and Aunt Katherine Harper (Ethel Wales), getting snookered at an illegal speakeasy by two of Gil's roommates acting as gigolos.

The film's snappy dialogue shows an advancement in suggestiveness from those silent movies where their inter-titles were restricted from displaying over-the-top innuendos. One exchange in "Loose Ankles": "You don't mean to say you've been in a compromising position?" Response: "Well, the positions weren't so bad, but the circumstances were." With scenes of illegal drinking, salty language and suggestive sequences, Hollywood was indeed heading in a new direction with the arrival of talkies.

Loretta Young fit snugly in this 'new woman-of-the-screen' category. Born Gretchen Young, her mother secured parts parts for her at the tender age three, beginning in 1916. Appearing in ten movies in the next 12 years, Young's big role during that span was as an extra as an Arab girl in the 1921 Rudolph Valentino's "The Sheik." Young's hired manager's wife, actress Colleen Moore, gave Gretchen her stage name, Loretta, after Moore's favorite doll. Young's first credited debut under her new name was in Lon Chaney's 1928 'Laugh, Clown, Laugh.' After filming "Loose Ankles," she eloped with actor Grant Withers, nine years her senior. A year later, her marriage was annulled. Even an emotional divorce couldn't stop Young from playing spritely roles in comedy, especially after she displayed her comedic chops in "Loose Ankles.".

This film is a little known entry from the early days of "talkies" that deserves better recognition. Not a masterpiece by any means, it is still a forerunner of the screwball comedies of the later 30s and 40s and, as such, is pleasant and delightful in its own way.

The cast is very good. It is hard to believe that Loretta Young, playing an heiress who wants to create a family scandal, was only sixteen or seventeen when this movie was made. She has a charm and sensuality that belies her years. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who was nearly as young, does a nice job as a bumbling wannabe gigolo who falls in love with Loretta. Also, as noted by other reviewers, Louise Fazenda, as Young's aunt, and Daphne Pollard, as the "helpful" maid, give very funny performances.

The next time that this movie is on TCM, try to catch it or tape it. There are a lot worse ways to spend an hour or so.

I enjoyed so many of the performances in this movie. The plots been summarized in other reviews, so let me just mention my favorites. Louise Fazenda as Aunt Sarah lets loose with some great physical comedy. According to IMDB she was 45 when this was made, but had performed in Mack Sennett comedies and her training shows in this. I also enjoyed the maid (Inez Courtney?) who responds to Loretta Young's comment that she "must have been in a comprising position at one time" -- "Oh, the position wasn't so bad....." The help she provides to the young and innocent Loretta as she tries to involve herself in scandal is quite funny.

A very enjoyable way to spend just over an hour.

This film, based on a 1926 stage play, is extremely funny and fun to watch. It is also somewhat hard to find. I was fortunate to see it screened at Cinevent 39.

The story concerns a group of society people hearing a will read to them. The deceased's niece (Loretta Young) has most of the luck when an estate is left to her under the condition that she find a husband and no scandal be brought to the family. Everyone else's inheritance depends on this clause, but Ann (Young) doesn't want her share. In fact, she's determined to force everyone out of theirs because she thinks the family is too greedy. Off she goes to put an ad in the paper for a boy to "compromise her." Andy (Edward Nugent) finds it in the paper and thinks he'd be perfect for the role, but instead thinks maybe his room mate Gil (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) would be better suited. In a very funny scene, Gil goes to Ann's home and is taken advantage of by the maid (Daphne Pollard).

Somehow, they all end up at a speakeasy where Ann's uptight aunts Katherine (Ethel Wales) and Sarah (Louise Fazenda) steal the show during a drunken spectacle where Andy tries to control his laughter.

This film is certainly a pre-code. Aside from outright illegal drunkenness, we see Andy taking a bath and women disrobing men, along with the generally racy storyline. Possibly the reason they got away with so much (besides being made during the pre-code era) is because this film is based on a play.

Thankfully, the camera-work does not make the film's roots evident. Of course, there are many shots that look like characters on a stage, but we also have a moving camera and many close-ups to take advantage of the beautiful stars. Young and Fairbanks struggle with their dialogue, but there are enough scenes with the character actors to make up for their scenes.

Based on a successful play and moderately pre-Code, this look at 1930 Flaming Youth has Loretta Young as a not-that-interesting heiress and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., looking younger than I've ever seen him, as the nice boy forced to pose as a gigolo by his roistering buddies. There's some amusing pre-Code clucking about overnight guests of the opposite gender, and a lot of footage given over to Louise Fazenda, as a too-prim aunt unwittingly given some liquor and turning into a loose woman; this was the era when alcohol was still automatically hilarious. Warners peddles its own contemporary hit songs in the background ("Am I Blue?", "Painting the Clouds With Sunshine") and there's some clunky choreography in the nightclub sequence, but the focus is mostly on Loretta and Doug, who are quite charming together. His lack of experience shows, but he's convincingly a young man in love, and what young man could wish for a lovelier conquest than Loretta. An undemanding time capsule, with sufficient spirit.