mmipyle Review of East Side - West Side

East Side - West Side (1923)

Eileen Percy's Wonderful to Watch; Fine Potboiler for a Cold Night

[7/10 · 28 September 2020]

"East Side - West Side" (1923) with Kenneth Harlan and Eileen Percy felt as if I were reading a late 19th century novel as I watched it. Though it takes place contemporaneously (1923) with the film's time, the plotting, even though it begins with a roaring twenties plot line, floods us with a Victorian morality almost from the get-go. We meet three room-mates, Eunice who is leaving to live in with her rich sugar daddy who'll give her jewelry, etc, sickly Kit who wants it all, too, but is still quite young and now very sickly (looks like TB or such) and who's pretty much under the watchful care of the third room-mate and the lead, Lory, who's willing to keep plugging along, but wonders how she's going to make it and keep paying for the room without having to give up her...virtue. Along comes the friendly doctor who knows Kenneth Harlan who may need a secretary... He's filthy rich, living under the roof of his mother, and his sister and a butler also are in attendance. Harlan's a writer...of essays...boring essays...including ones on poverty of which he knows nothing about... He hires Lory, falls in love. MEANWHILE... Kit gets sicker and sicker and stills holds on to the thought that an uncle somewhere in the world has promised that he's going to strike it rich and he'll share money with her... She finally dies, but not before making out a legal will on an envelope that gives her money to Lory if she ever comes into an inheritance... Do you think this will all come to a good end? Does Carter have pills? Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear...? Does a chicken have lips? Don't answer the last one... Very nice show! Sounds like a filler; it's cheaply made; Harlan's got the energy of a broken motor; but - Eileen Percy's a genuine pleasure to watch and the show's one of those that will make you smile in spite of yourself. Decent print from Alpha with a score that can be turned down to barely heard and thus - enjoyed. Directed by Irving Cummings. With Maxine Elliott Hicks, Lucille Ward, Lucille Hutton, Charles Hill Mailes, Betty May, and John T. Prince.