Irene

Colleen Moore plays Irene, the eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs O'Dare (Charles Murray and Kate Price), who is responsible for a good part of the family income. After fighting with her mother she goes off to New York and meets wealthy young Donald Marshall (Lloyd Hughes) who gets her a job with fashion designer 'Madame Lucy' (George K. Arthur). This film is a super cute Colleen Moore vehicle that works at all levels. Moore is funny and has great comic timing. She also has an extremely expressive face and body language - you forget this is a silent film; words are not needed because you know anyway what she is thinking and feeling. The supporting cast is great, too. While the plot is pretty generic ('Irene' belongs to the large genre of pictures about poor girls who find rich husbands), there are some scenes that are simply outstanding. Take for example the one where Moore stands on a kind of turntable and gets dressed by Arthur: this works well until the turntable spins out of control. It is also evident that First National Pictures spent a lot of money on the film. One scene was even done in colour, though on my copy this had faded to a uniform yellowish tinting. The upshot is, this is a picture that should be much better known - but for that, it would probably have to be carefully restored. It ought to be, really.