The Naughty Flirt

"The Naughty Flirt" is a delightful period piece that evokes the (relatively) care-free life many of the very rich maintained even in aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash.

Alice White plays the spoiled socialite Miss Katherine 'Kay' Elliott and does a very charming comic turn. This is a Pre-Code film in which the figures of all the female beauties are provocatively shown off in revealing attire in the party scenes. While the sex - including a somewhat surprising spanking scene - is played up, the prohibition age drinking is can only be suggested.

The film starts with a gay gang of young socialites in the back of a Police Paddy Wagon headed to the police station to be booked on creating a public nuisance. It seems pretty obvious they've all been drinking as well as dancing at a riotous rooftop party.

White as Kay is quite the unflappable flapper, a Daddy's girl with an income of $100,000 a year. Imagine what that could buy in 1931! She's been kicked out of every fine private school her father could get her into and is the dedicated decadent until her world is turned around by a straight-laced country-boy-turned lawyer who happens to work for her Dad's firm.

It's a classic case of opposites attract - with a dash of Taming of the Shrew. The two are instantly drawn to each other starting when the lawyer, Alan Ward (Paul Page), - studiously attending a session of night court at the police station - first lays eyes on the naughty platinum blonde.

Their romance is tested by a scheme masterminded by Linda Gregory (Myrna Loy) and her brother Jack (Douglas Gilmore) who wants to marry her for money. These dark characters hope to recover from the loss of their fortune in the stock market crash.

There are also trust issues as regular guy Alan attempts to gage the loyalty of this 'belle of the ball' while taking stock of her seemingly countless admirers.

I saw this on TCM which has a very high technical standard. I'm always impressed at how quickly sound movies progressed. Just four years into the sound era, there's a scene with a wax cylinder Dictaphone in which we listen in as White puts on headphones and hears the recording of Alan speaking for dictation and then get sidetracked into another far more personal conversation with a friend drops into his office unexpectedly. The sound is played back in the scratchy Dictaphone mode - differentiating it from the regular sound.

This is a fun and funny story, providing a glimpse into a fascinating age (especially if you were rich) where Jazz Age attitudes intersected with an elite American Anglophile culture.

Alice White was an adorable flapper, whose career was over before it started. She was First National's answer to Clara Bow but she didn't have the longevity of the red headed "It" girl. 1931 started with "The Naughty Flirt", one of her best films and ended with "Murder at Midnight", in which, although billed prominently, she was only given about two decent scenes.

The plot is 60 minutes of frivolous fun with White doing what she does best - being adorably flirty and making every man her slave. When Kay (Alice White) and her gang are hauled into night court for disorderly conduct, she meets Alan Ward (Paul Page) an associate with her father's law firm and it doesn't take him long to fall under her spell. She already has a persistent suitor in Jack Gregory (Douglas Gilmore) who is always asking Kay to marry him. He, along with his scheming sister, Linda (Myrna Loy) have ulterior motives - they have been wiped out in the stock market crash and hope that if Jack can marry Kay their financial worries will be at an end.

The "Cinderella Dance" is one of the film's highlights - all the girls take off one of their shoes, put it in the middle of the ballroom and then the boys have to pick one and dance with it's owner. White, who made her name with a couple of excellent musicals from the early talkie era ("Broadway Babies" (1929) and "Show Girl in Hollywood" (1930)) is not asked to sing or dance here which is a pity. She also gets a run for her money from Myrna Loy as the sultry Linda. Why it took so long for Loy to "make it" (1933's "Animal Kingdom" was her big break) is one of Hollywood's real mysteries. However White's cutie pie acting wins through - she is impossible to resist.

Although she had a very hectic private life, maybe what happened to Alice White were films like "The Naughty Flirt". 1931 was one of the worst years of the depression and with a title like "The Naughty Flirt", reminiscent of a jazzy, carefree past, the movie going public may have been turned off. In this year of unemployment and breadlines, if films started out with scenes of high living ("Bad Company" and "Dance Fools, Dance") audiences wanted to see stars really suffer before realising that the simple life was the best.

Highly Recommended.

I just wanted to see this film because of Myrna Loy. I love Myrna Loy. But Myrna doesn't have much to do in this film. Most of the spotlight is on little, vivacious, cute Alice White. I became a fan of her. She's the ultimate flapper. She reminds you of a Clara Bow or Toby Wing. She's very natural- even though many say she didn't like talkies and feel uncomfortable. She didn't seem like it. This is a pre-code picture about a flirtatious woman which is played by Alice White who makes bet too see which guys she can hook, line, and sinker. But with one of the guys she ends up falling in love. Myrna Loy in this picture is coming into her own trademark acting in this film. Her aloof, snotty, sophisticated comedy/acting would be noticed and loved not along after this picture. If you can find it, you'll treasure it.

While not a particularly good film, "The Naughty Flirt" does have some enjoyable moments. Traces of director Cline's comedy short background can be found in several scenes--most of the comedy being visual. Myrna Loy is good as the scheming one, with her best movie years still ahead. Alice White does well in a role more suited to her talents. The studio tried to turn her into this big song and dance star with the advent of talkies but she was much more comfortable in comic roles, as she displays in this movie and later ones. This was her last First-National film and by this time nobody cared. She did make a reasonably successful comeback a few years later, in comedy roles, which she should have been given from the start. The supporting players also do well but the film, as a whole, does not. The cast tries hard but is overcome by weak material. Still, it's worth a peek.

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.