"When I can pay my own bills, men may come and men may go."
Another great vehicle for Norma Shearer, empowering in its own way, and emblematic of the freedom that female characters enjoyed in pre-Code films, at least to a point. Shearer is almost unrecognizable at the beginning of this film, not made up and in frumpy, homemade clothes, doting on her husband and children until she's devastated when she finds out he's been unfaithful. I loved seeing this side of her, and the transformation three years later into a fashionable, carefree woman who has no intentions of re-marrying, enjoying a different man each month or mischievously "borrowing" one for the weekend. She's simply delightful as she flirts with the men at the Long Island home of a socialite (Marie Dressler), doling out playful comments to those who know the task she's been assigned, which is to break up a budding romance by luring the man in it away.
Of course, it's damn improbable that the man in question happens to be her ex-husband, but I didn't mind. He's a combination of shocked and intrigued by her, and out of discomfort tells her he wishes she were like her old self. She replies, "Three years in Paris ought to improve any woman. Like you, I've been amusing myself with anything and everything that came my way. I know how a man feels about those things now." We know exactly what she means by that, and the sexual freedom is wonderful. It's a good example of a Norma Shearer role that upset religious conservatives. To them she was playing "loose and immoral women," and it was dangerous to show a woman not in the role of a submissive housewife, much less one being transformed into such a free and easy creature.
When men come on to her character, like the distinguished one played by Gilbert Emery or the awkward poet played by Tyrell Davis, she's in full control, charming them but not wilting under their advances. Even when her ex-husband throws himself at her, she sees right through him, saying his love for her is only because she's "new" and literally laughing in his face. I absolutely loved that, and how she smiles while looking back at how she and the bridesmaids at her wedding are all divorced now.
It's pretty clear that this was adapted from a play, but I found it full of life, especially for a film from 1930, when many others from this early year of talkies suffered from trying to incorporate sound and were quite creaky as a result. Hedda Hopper and Sally Eilers brighten things up as the other young women flirting with the men at the party, and Dressler is quite amusing with her blunt talk with everyone around her, servants included. It would have gotten an even higher rating from me, but unfortunately it bobbles things in literally the final ten seconds, though that was hardly a surprise. All in all though, very entertaining, and very enjoyable.
Another great vehicle for Norma Shearer, empowering in its own way, and emblematic of the freedom that female characters enjoyed in pre-Code films, at least to a point. Shearer is almost unrecognizable at the beginning of this film, not made up and in frumpy, homemade clothes, doting on her husband and children until she's devastated when she finds out he's been unfaithful. I loved seeing this side of her, and the transformation three years later into a fashionable, carefree woman who has no intentions of re-marrying, enjoying a different man each month or mischievously "borrowing" one for the weekend. She's simply delightful as she flirts with the men at the Long Island home of a socialite (Marie Dressler), doling out playful comments to those who know the task she's been assigned, which is to break up a budding romance by luring the man in it away.
Of course, it's damn improbable that the man in question happens to be her ex-husband, but I didn't mind. He's a combination of shocked and intrigued by her, and out of discomfort tells her he wishes she were like her old self. She replies, "Three years in Paris ought to improve any woman. Like you, I've been amusing myself with anything and everything that came my way. I know how a man feels about those things now." We know exactly what she means by that, and the sexual freedom is wonderful. It's a good example of a Norma Shearer role that upset religious conservatives. To them she was playing "loose and immoral women," and it was dangerous to show a woman not in the role of a submissive housewife, much less one being transformed into such a free and easy creature.
When men come on to her character, like the distinguished one played by Gilbert Emery or the awkward poet played by Tyrell Davis, she's in full control, charming them but not wilting under their advances. Even when her ex-husband throws himself at her, she sees right through him, saying his love for her is only because she's "new" and literally laughing in his face. I absolutely loved that, and how she smiles while looking back at how she and the bridesmaids at her wedding are all divorced now.
It's pretty clear that this was adapted from a play, but I found it full of life, especially for a film from 1930, when many others from this early year of talkies suffered from trying to incorporate sound and were quite creaky as a result. Hedda Hopper and Sally Eilers brighten things up as the other young women flirting with the men at the party, and Dressler is quite amusing with her blunt talk with everyone around her, servants included. It would have gotten an even higher rating from me, but unfortunately it bobbles things in literally the final ten seconds, though that was hardly a surprise. All in all though, very entertaining, and very enjoyable.