Miss Bluebeard

As the film world lurched through the 1920s a new genre, the screwball comedy, was emerging. Miss Bluebeard is one of those nascent efforts. A tale of mistaken identity, a mistake wedding, and too many women on hand make for a pleasant romp. Despite the poster shown here, this film is set in Paris and London, not the mysterious East. Bebe Daniels is quite delightful as a famous french actress. The male characters are all POSH British gentlemen with more ladies than they know what to do with. Martha Madison as Lulu has an amazing supporting role as one of those women., She can apparently bend in any direction! Quite fun.

Daniels is perhaps better known for her tour de force in 42nd Street and her radio work in London with husband Ben Lyon during WW II, but her silent films are usually a treat. All in all this film is worth a look and can be found on YouTube Premium.

Publicity for this bit of fluff confused Bluebeard, the legendary Turkish polygamist (who was accustomed to murdering all his wives) with the famous pirate Blackbeard, a documented historical character.

Polygamy having been established as the theme, it's actually polyandry we get, and the premise is decidedly thin, since Bebe doesn't knowingly marry more than one man, only one standing in for another so that she's sort of technically married to the same man twice.

Thus our tale builds upon this fragile foundation to arrive at a fairly slim bit of comedy, but if you're a fan of the lovely Bebe, who the year before had played opposite Valentino, you'll be glad to see her. Everyone agrees that Raymond Griffith livens up the proceedings.

During the twenties, Paramount made a lot of sophisticated comedies, which meant people, supposedly living in Europe in varying states of undress, coming to no good. This would prove that Middle America knew how to live. Many of them, alas, were not particularly funny. Except for Raymond Griffith, this is one of them.

Bebe Daniels is talented and gorgeous, but this movie is largely a series of of title cards... about the equivalent of reading a tersely-written play with a lot of photos from the New York production, which opened and closed in one night. However, when Raymond Griffith walks in, everything busts loose. The men are staring moony-eyed at the talented Miss Daniels -- we know she is talented, because we've seen her shine in Harold Lloyd comedies and in 42ND STREET -- as Raymond Griffith tries, unsuccessfully, to take a nap. He tries to get to bed -- only to find Bebe Daniels in bed with him, whereupon everyone rushes in to find her hiding under the bed and him cowering under the blankets. He wanders about in pajamas and a top hat. He collapses under the weight of fainting fiancées. Raymond Griffith is alive in this movie, while everyone else is, at best, posing. He is the one pleasure in this cardboard cutout of a movie and makes it worth seeing. If you are fanatic about seeing everything surviving with Mr. Griffith in in -- and his performance here, as in the handful of his starring Paramount vehicles that survive have made me anxious to -- then you'll want to see this, at least once. The rest of the movie, however, will stop you from seeing it again.

If you want to see a sharply-turned farce with plenty of slamming doors, go see Peter Bogdanovitch's movie version of NOISES OFF! or one of Charley Chase's brilliantly-timed silent shorts. If you want to see Mr. Griffith to advantage, track down a copy of HANDS UP! And do look for Miss Daniels with Harold Lloyd. Despite the evidence of MISS BLUEBEARD, she really can be funny.