Our Modern Maidens (1929)

A flapper charms a diplomat to procure her fiancé a career opportunity, while the fiancé starts a relationship with her best friend.

Director:

Jack Conway

Writers:

Josephine Lovett (story and continuity by), Marian Ainslee (titles)

Stars:

Joan Crawford, Rod La Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Joan Crawford	...	Billie Brown
Rod La Rocque	...	Glenn Abbott
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.	...	Gil Jordan
Anita Page	...	Kentucky Strafford
Edward J. Nugent	...	Reg (as Edward Nugent)
Josephine Dunn	...	Ginger
Albert Gran	...	B. Bickering Brown

Storyline

Young vivacious Billie uses her charms on influential businessman Glenn Abbott in hopes of getting her secret fiancée Gil a diplomatic appointment. Meanwhile Gil's affections meander to beautiful ingenue Kentucky, Billie's best friend. After securing Gil's appointment, Abbott is crushed to learn of Billie's impending marriage. What Billie didn't count on was Gil getting Kentucky pregnant. This throws her wedding day into scandal and creates turmoil in the lives of the youthful quartet.

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Plot Keywords:

pregnancy | jazz age | wedding | scandal | diplomat | 

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Taglines:

Daughters of Today.Here is their thrilling story! (print ad - Lubbock Evening Journal -Lindsey Theatre - Lubbock, Texas - Jan. 23, 1930)

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Genres:

Drama | Comedy

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

Joan Crawford married co-star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in a well orchestrated publicity event for the film.

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Quotes

Billie Brown: I've been taught never to play with dynamite.
Abbott [aka, Dynamite]: Dynamite isn't dangerous... if you know how to handle it.
Billie Brown: Please, Mister... give the little girl a hand.

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Connections

Edited into Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America (1997)

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Soundtracks

Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
(1816) (uncredited))
Music by Gioachino Rossini
Played a bit on piccolo by Edward J. Nugent
Excerpts integrated into the music score

User Reviews

A Transition Film

To both cash in on the success of Joan Crawford's first big success Our Dancing Daughters and her first marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., MGM did Our Modern Maidens. The film came out just as the movie going public was realizing that sound was not a passing fad.

Our Modern Maidens had some sound effects overlaid into the film. We hear some laughter, a radio broadcast, other kinds of sound thrown in more as a gimmick than anything else. Still it was more to exploit than anything else.

The story concerns a group of young and wealthy party-goers, drinking bootleg hooch and dancing the Charleston like there would be no tomorrow. Leading the pack is Joan Crawford who's got her eye on Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. a young man looking to go into the diplomatic service and a post in Paris would be ideal. I mean if you're going to be a diplomat at least go to a place that's known as a party town.

Anita Page also has her eyes on Fairbanks and the older Rod LaRocque has his eyes on Crawford. It's the standard four sided triangle with Crawford working her wiles on LaRocque to use his influence for Fairbanks. In the meantime Page is expecting a blessed event courtesy of Fairbanks.

If Our Modern Maidens were made today any number of different endings are possible. In the Roaring Twenties though certain mores still held sway. I'll let you see the film to see how it all shakes out.

Fairbanks was borrowed from Warner Brothers for this film specifically for exploiting the publicity value surrounding his and Crawford's first marriages. They did give him a marvelous bit at a party scene where he gets to do imitations of John Barrymore, John Gilbert, and his father. Of course the imitation of Fairbanks, Sr. as Robin Hood was dead on.

Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed were just starting their careers as MGM's official songwriting team. One of their early successes Should I serves as the theme for Our Modern Maidens. Another song heard throughout the film is the Buddy DeSylva-Lew Brown-Ray Henderson hit My Sin is played whenever the action focuses on Page.

Our Modern Maidens is not a great film for any of the cast involved. But it is a great example of how the studios were hurriedly making the transition to sound.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 September 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Our Modern Maidens

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Silent Mono (Western Electric System) (musical score and sound effects)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1