Joan Crawford is doubtless the best example of the
flapper, the girl you see in smart night clubs, gowned to the apex of
sophistication, toying iced glasses with a remote, faintly bitter expression,
dancing deliciously, laughing a great deal, with wide, hurt eyes. Young things
with a talent for living.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
It’s been a long time since I last watched this film and, as
ever when viewing Joan Crawford through the lens of her later power roles, it’s
fascinating to see her strengths absolutely in place with this, her major break
out role. Whilst Crawford had worked her way in successful but slight comedies
like Spring Fever with William Haines, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp with
Harry Langdon and most memorably in Tod Browning's gonzo The Unknown
with Lon Chaney, Our Dancing Daughters was the film that turned her into
a major star. And it’s easy to see why.
In his introduction, Chris Bird quoted her co-star Anita
Page in highlighting how hard she worked and there’s not an ounce of effort
left off-screen as Joan wrenches every last drop of drama from what could have
been a routine exercise. Of course, we know now, but who knew at
the time, who really knew what magic she could create on screen with her
energies and almost subconscious emoting pulling the viewer in to those huge,
bright blue eyes and a face that could switch from triumph to disaster in the
flicker of her eyelids… and it’s heart-breaking to watch. Difficult to credit
that she was just 20 when this film was made or possibly 24… she updated the
year although not the date, 23rd March, of her birth.
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| Joan Crawford and Dorothy Sebastien |
With so many silent films under her belt before the advent
of sound, she is one of the major examples, along with Garbo and her nemesis
Norma Shearer, of silent stars who transitioned to sound but she enjoyed a
longer career than those two and her renaissance post war was reflected by
three Oscar nominations and a win for Mildred Pierce (1946). She wasn’t
done yet either, continuing to refine the talent she had and breaking down
barriers of age and preconceptions.
Here she plays Diana Medford an energetic jazz baby who is
running wild in a very Clara Bow fashion, in a hurry to have a good time
whatever her parents expect. The film starts with the camera focused on a pair
of feet dancing ferociously in front of three full-length mirrors, the feet
carry on their complex movement as, cheekily, a pair of pantyhose are pulled up
over them. The camera pulls back to show a full-clothed and party-ready Joan
dancing like the Charleston champion she had been on route to the movies.
“Dangerous” Di is a party animal but when asked to raise a
toast, toasts herself as she wants to be able to be able to like herself all of
her life and this is the key to a film that stresses the importance of being true
to yourself. Di’s best friend is Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastien) who is less
vivacious but steadfastly so and then there is Anni (Anita Page) a girl who is
anything but as innocent as she looks – she wants to marry well and more importantly,
so does her mother.
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| Anita Page and John Mack Brown |
They have variable relationships with the men in their
social group, the mischievous Freddie (Edward Nugent), the serious Norman (Nils
Asther) and the seriously loaded Ben (John Mack Brown). Di and Anni have a
competition for the millionaire’s affection which Ann wins through guile and
pretending to be the innocent girl that Di is not. Yet Di won’t compromise her
way into Ben’s affections and she suffers for it even though – red flag! – Ben is
clearly lacking instinct!
Meanwhile Beatrice marries the controlling Norman and they
struggle to balance their relationship. Even though Ben realises his mistake it
seems that only the amoral schemer has got what she wanted and things are set
for an almighty showdown and a dramatic climax.
There's a lovely moment when a drunken Anni looks down on
three washer women scrubbing the floor of the night club: "Women, women...
working!" – she finds them ridiculous and unreal but is this the future
calling? Written by Ruth Cummings, with titles by Marian Ainslee from a story
by Josephine Lovett, it’s a “woman’s film” in many respects and it was her
ability to connect with her sisters in the audience that would make Joan
Crawford an immortal star.
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| The Red Devils Jazz Band |
Crawford won competitions not just for the Charleston but
also the Black Bottom – so called after the Black Bottom area of Detroit where
it was invented in the early 1920s. During the first half of the show Chris
Bird treated us to some rare and probably unique films on 95mm including one which
he says was recorded in Paris featuring The
Red Devils Jazz Band and a couple dancing the BB. This featured a
slow-motion section so jazz babies could work out the moves ourselves although
it’s beyond me even with the annual Bioscope Silent Film Weekender in a few
days. I can reveal that it’s a more suggestive dance than the Charleston and
what it lacks in the latter’s delightful angularity it makes up for in more
frenetic limb throwing and the frequent grasping of the sides between your
torso and your legs. This is an important document and one we need to study
further.
DJ Bird also made a welcome return pre-show with a variety
of 78 rpm nuggets including - I'm guesssing - Jack Hylton and His Orchestra playing Do the
Black Bottom with Me (1927). He certainly played
the madly infectious Jollity Farm, later made famous by the Bonzo Dog
Doo-dah Band. Now, if you’ve ever wondered where Mr Vivian Stanshall got the
name from, we were about to find out with an episode of Bonzo the Dog an
anarchic canine created in 1922 by British comic strip artist George Studdy and
the subject of some 35 short cartoon films. Here he teams up with a fox to
evade the hunt a sure sign of the growing influence of the labour movement in Great
Britain at the time…
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| Our King of Jazz projected by Chris Bird |
Back to jazz and a world premiere of a nitrate short
featuring Jack Hylton, Britain’s King of Jazz, playing as part of the Playtime
at the Piccadilly cabaret at the Piccadilly Hotel that Chris had exchanged
for some cartoons with a collector in America. He asked big band expert Mark
Beresford about the dating and he estimated 1926-7 but it may be even earlier given
the songs featured. These included Vamp Me from 1922 and My Cretonne
Girl written by Earl Carroll for his Vanities of 1923 as a love song for a
young woman wearing the fabric in questions which, according to the online
Britannica, is a printed fabric usually made from cotton which was used to make
smocks for women.
This might be the only surviving record of this band line-up, which had played in Jack Hylton’s Cabaret Follies at the Queen’s Hall, Langham Place, from autumn 1922 to mid-1924, although Hylton gave up control at the end of 1923 (according to fabulous The Jazz Age Club website). So, this film could well be his next review at the Piccadilly Hotel.
Also on the bill were a dancing troupe of eight simply
called The Girls – probably the Dolly Girls, dressed by Dolly Tree and previously
featuring in Dolly’s Revels at the Piccadilly with Jack’s band. They are
four dressed as Cretonne clothed country girls and four in male drag, illustrating
the music in the manner of a prototypical Pan’s People. Dolly was a busy woman
and the Jazz Age Club website has her in London for ’24-’25 working on this
review, further evidence of its date.
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| We're all Pan's People really... (image from Chris Bird's film) |
They are followed by “Leo Bill”, a ventriloquist who has the
exact same M.O. as the Spanish vent, Senor Wences who had an extraordinary
career after joining the circus aged 15 and then starring on stage and screen, eventually featuring on the Ed
Sullivan Show and then The Muppets, living to 101 years of age. The trick was
to paint a face on his hand and use this as the head on top of a dummy’s body
– here Toto but later Johnny and variations of the same. The dates fit and
there’s a facial resemblance so I’m calling it, especially as there couldn’t be
two vents with this bizarre technique.
Next we have two gents from New York, Brooks and Ross who sing Wild,
Weak Warm and Willing which was a shortening of the full title: I Want 'Em Wild, Weak, Warm and Willing published in1923. And written by Sam Coslow and Eddie Cantor, yes, he of the wide-eyes
and Clara’s Kid Boots (1926), for the Ziegfield Follies.
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| You can download the sheet music here... |
The Girls return in one-legged costumes to dance to I’m
Just Wild Over Dancing, which they clearly are… in the manner of “jazz
agents” whilst Jack, facing away from his band, holds the rhythm in his hands.
Two “Bolsheviks” join the dance, throwing some vaguely Cossack steps but this
ain’t no history lesson… It’s murder on the dancefloor but next there are two
dancers in Hawaiian costumes and you wonder where the music is leading us? And
all the while, Jack is smiling and I’m sure the audience is too!
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| Zelia Raye takes to the floor with the band and The Girls watching (image courtesy of Chris Bird) |
Now for some culture with ballerina Zelia Raye who was a
pioneer of modern dance in the UK, eventually establishing the Modern Theatre
Faculty at the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. “Straight from Paris”, Josephine
Head and Albert Zapp follow and perform to Vamp Me! with the odd hint of
the Apache dancing to be found in many depictions of the City of Light at this
time. Finally, The Girls return to dance Hooting de Hoot which is as poignant
appraisal of the contemporary political situation as you’ll find…
John Sweeney put on his dancing shoes and accompanied the
variety with verve, stamina and distinction – it was a foot-tapping evening and we were
only lacking a rug to cut! This was probably for the best.
This film captures the dances in particular in clear detail
and it is so rare for this vintage. More than that it shows the spirit of the
jazz age in this country and is a significant discovery reflecting the entertainments and the style of our great grandparents!
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| Pictures from the Projectionist Chris Bird |
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| The film itself - you can see the different tinted sections (Chris Bird) |
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| Chris's projector: a Spectro with enhanced lighting |
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