The Clinging Vine

Quite amusing film about A.B. (Leatrice Joy), the ultra-masculine assistant to the President of a big paint company. A.B. is efficient, always one step ahead of the boss, and wears sensible shoes (not to mention a man's tie, vest, shirt, haircut - and a skirt). She's hired, wired, and fired men - but never kissed one. Well, when the boss has gout and work has to be done at his estate instead of the office, A.B. arrives for an overnight stay and is soon befriended by wise, youthful Grandma, the bosses wife. Grandma decides to give A.B. a makeover - permanent wave, feminine clothes, plucked eyebrows, and tips on batting her eyelashes and spouting sweet talk to get herself a man - basically turning A.B. into what Grandma says men want "a clinging vine" (and if that's what men want, I give up!). Soon A.B. is sporting a Little Bo Peep bonnet and dress, and even though she still looks pretty mannish to my eyes, has all the men flipping for her at that weekend's house party - especially grandson Jimmie, doltish inventor of this gigantic egg-beater contraption, recently fired by ruthless A.B. Luckily he doesn't know what A.B. looks like!

I found this film to be very enjoyable and funny, even found myself laughing out loud in several places. The female characters in this, A.B. and Grandma, are really the only ones with any brains at all - the men just seemed overwhelmed by a bit of ruffle, big bows, puffed sleeves and "Aren't you wonderful", the line A.B. uses in her flirtations with them. Leatrice Joy is great in this, and certainly well cast playing the masculine looking A.B. - in fact, she literally looks like a man in the first scenes she is in, you can't really even tell she is a woman until they show the skirt. Snitz Edwards appears here as company VP, just one look at him makes me laugh - I love the expressions he gets on his face. The version of this I saw featured a lively/peppy piano score that really suited the story. A fun film, well worth seeing.