Our Dancing Daughters

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.

OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1928), directed by Harry Beaumont, is memorable today mainly because it made an overnight star of an MGM contractee named Joan Crawford, a resident performer at MGM since 1925. In spite of Crawford's recognition with this particular silent melodrama focusing on three happy-go-lucky party girls out for a wild time finding men, Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page being the other two dames in question, it is Page, the third party of the trio, who practically gets the most attention due to her immorality and selfishness in her character. It is this, and Page's performance in MGM's first talkie, "The Broadway Melody" (1929) that will be most remembered by film historians for years to come, so long as this, and other films like these, continue to exist on television and appreciated by a new generation of classic movie lovers.

The story opens with three youthful girls getting themselves ready for another Saturday night on the town: Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian), a simple-minded girl; Ann (Anita Page), a cute, peppy blonde who's not only immoral and immature, but an out-and-out gold digger; and Diana Bedford (Joan Crawford), a fun-loving socialite noted for her love for fast cars, dancing and wild parties, trying to live her life according to her parental upbringing, on high moral principals. At the party, Diana amuses her friends by stripping off her dress and dancing step-ins. Later, she comes upon Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown), a handsome young man and an heir to millions. Diana becomes very much interested in him, but Ann decides to step in herself, giving Ben the impression that she is pure and innocent. She tricks Ben into marriage, which leaves Ben blind of the fact to what kind of girl Ann really is. As Beatrice finds a partner in marriage with Norman (Nils Asther), Diana remains single, keeping only to herself until sometime later, the unhappily married Ben comes back into her life again, causing friction between Diana and Ann.

As it appears, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is a routinely made silent drama that rises above similar stories made during the bygone roaring twenties era. Watching Joan Crawford as a "jazz age" baby in the vogue of Paramount's own Clara Bow, is interesting to see, but unlike Bow, who retired from the screen in 1933, Crawford adapted to the changing of times, presenting herself in costumes and headdress accordingly to the new era, and improving with each passing decade her skillfulness as an actress, which is why she remained in the public eye of motion pictures until 1970.

For quite some time, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS became the only known silent movie starring Crawford from the silent era to circulate either in revival movie houses or on commercial television before becoming part of cable television decades later, namely Turner Classic Movies. Interestingly, as in many silent movies of the late twenties, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is currently available two ways, in either 97 minutes (video cassette) or a shorter version (TCM) at 85 minutes. The video presentation from the late 1980s, labeled on its storage box "including original musical score," is, in actuality, consisting of orchestral score used for the public television 13-week film series 50th anniversary to MGM, MOVIES GREAT MOVIES (1973), where OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS premiered in on WNET, Channel 13, in New York City, October 19, 1973, as hosted by Richard Schickel. The 85 minute version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the one with the original 1928 soundtrack consisting of crowd noises, sound effects and off-screen singing by an unknown vocalist crooning to "I Love You Then as I Love You Now." A sharp ear will also hear Diana's name being yelled out amongst the crowd. Watching the movie currently available in both these versions with different underscoring is quite acceptable, but it's the original 1928 soundtrack that gives more of the feel, capturing the mood from that jazz age.

Also seen in the supporting cast are Eddie Nugent, Dorothy Cumming, Huntley Gordon, Evelyn Hall and Sam DeGrasse. Fans of Universal's SHERLOCK HOLMES film series of the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will take notice that the character actress who played their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, can be spotted as one of the three scrub women at the bottom of the stairs in one of the more memorable highlights involving the drunken Ann (Anita Page).

The success of OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS paved the way to sequels in name only, all featuring Crawford and Page: the silent OUR MODERN MAIDENS (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr; and the early talkie, OUR BLUSHING BRIDES (1930) with Robert Montgomery and Dorothy Sebastian. With all three being shown occasionally on TCM, the original, which started it all, remains the best known of the trio. (***)

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?

Our Dancing Daughters is a beautiful example of how far the silent cinema had come by 1928, the year it decisively decided to give itself up to talk. The medium had reached a point where the action was silent but synchronized to a score and embellished with occasional sound effects such as knocking on doors, ringing of phones or a spoken word here and there. It was the short-lived pinnacle of a dying art form. These feature films from the late silent period provide valuable insight for composers who are supplying music for previously unscored silents.

This solidly constructed and well-shot story follows the trajectories of three young females of differing temperaments living through various stages of being young and wild in the roaring twenties. We have Diana Medford (Joan Crawford), a straightforward, unashamedly pleasure-loving, self-absorbed but basically decent sort who lives to dance and generally party around. Then there is the more serious and experienced Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian), whose fiancé (Nils Asther) chooses to overlook her wayward past as long as she will marry him and retreat from the party circuit. Finally there is Ann (Anita Page), a coldhearted golddigger who lures the dashing millionaire Ben Blaine (John Mack Brown) away from Diana by pretending to be an innocent maiden simply yearning for marriage and motherhood. At first it seems as if Diana is a hellcat, but her splashy demeanor is merely the honest excess of youth. Life has its knocks prepared for her and she has to take them, which she does nobly and sportingly. Not Ann. She turns to drink, with disastrous results.

Each of the three main characters is introduced by shots of their legs and feet: Crawford's slipping into heels to shimmy in front of a mirror; Sebastian's planted firmly next to her fiancé's as they attentively listen to a pre-date lecture by her parents; Page's seen while seated on the floor, removing a pair of ripped silk stockings, preparatory to stealing a pair of from her mother.

The soundtrack is made up of a small number of musical compositions from the period, repeated throughout the film. There are up-tempo dance numbers for the party scenes and slow ballads for the one-on-one romantic clinches. The photography is uniformly beautiful with generous use of medium close-ups, all against the backdrop of sumptuous sets designed by Cedric Gibbons. Great looking costumes too.

Crawford and Page are both stunning embodiments of the light and dark sides of "the flapper." Sebastian's role is less flashy. None of the performances is dated.

Most documentaries that deal at any length with "roaring twenties," the Great Depression or the Golden Age of Hollywood inevitably include a bit from this film, usually the party where balloons fill the air as Crawford dances exuberantly on a table top.

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.