The Saturday Night Kid (1929)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

A. Edward Sutherland

Writers:

George Abbott (play)
Lloyd Corrigan (dialogue) (adaptation)

Release Date:

25 October 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Luscious Clara Bow --- TALKING! Every night's a big night when Paramount's bonfire is the life of the party!

Plot:

Jayme and sister Janie are salesgirls in Ginsberg's Department Store. Mayme is in love with store clerk Bill...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Based On Play

Cast

Clara Bow	...	Mayme
Jean Arthur	...	Janie
James Hall	...	Bill
Edna May Oliver	...	Miss Streeter
Hyman Meyer	...	Ginsberg
Charles Sellon	...	Lem Woodruff
Ethel Wales	...	Lily Woodruff

Also Known As:

Love 'Em and Leave 'Em

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The dress that Jean Harlow wears in the pageant scene was intended for 'Clara Bow', but Bow had gained too much weight to fit into it, so she convinced designer Edith Head to let the unknown actress to wear it. Harlow never forgot the favor.

Quotes:

Miss Streeter: [addressing actors in her pageant by their character names] Stupidity? Go find Pleasure!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell (1993) (TV)

Generally unexceptional but some sparkling Bow moments.

In THE SATURDAY NIGHT KID, Clara Bow plays Mayme, a salesgirl who's in love with a fellow clerk named Bill (James Hall). Her sister Janie (Jean Arthur) also has eyes for him and schemes to snare for herself. The scenario is ordinary and the resolution is both banal and predictable. Clara Bow's performance in her third talkie is good, proving she could easily handle sound. Unfortunately, her role is, for the most part, colorless and inhibited. Mayme lacks the free-spiritedness and boldness of such roles like Alverna in MANTRAP and Betty Lou in IT; she's just a blandly virtuous heroine searching for true love. It doesn't help that her leading man Hall is uncharismatic and dull.

Occasionally, however, Bow gets to shine. She displays her comedic flair in some funny sequences, particularly a scene where she tries to help the inexperienced Hall in a difficult task without making him look incompetent. Bow also exhibits a flash of her effervescent "It" persona in a flirtatious chasing sequence. And in her big dramatic moments, Clara is persuasive and invigorating, making one regret she rarely had the opportunity for substantial dramatic material.

Jean Arthur is delightfully perfidious as Janie. Among the supporting players, Edna May Oliver as Mayme's snooty, imperious supervisor Miss Streeter and Charles Sellon as Lem Woodruff, the fumbling proprietor of the boardinghouse Mayme, Janie, and Bill live in, stand out. In an early film appearance, Jean Harlow has too minute a role to create any impression.

Overall, THE SATURDAY NIGHT KID is a pedestrian movie that doesn't take full advantage of Bow's talents. Considering that many of Clara Bow's films are lost or deteriorating, however, one should be grateful that this film has been recently restored.