The Patsy

This film shows Marion Davies to her best advantage - not merely the beautiful girlfriend of William Randolph Hearst who got into the movies due to his pull, as I'd always assumed before viewing this film. She is truly hilarious and touching in this, and shows a great talent for mimicry. My only complaint is the music - a man named Vivek Maddala did the music for the 2003 re-release and I find it completely inappropriate to the film. I know silent-film scores quite well and this one just doesn't cut it, as far as I'm concerned. It didn't fit the mood of the movie at all - I've seen this movie at a repertory theater and the score used then (by who, I don't know) was vastly superior and lent much to my enjoyment of the film. Overall, however, this movie is worth seeing.

Marion Davies is a bundle of energy and this film has a lot of cute moments, many of which are forerunners of later screwball and romantic comedies. The story has her running around trying to get her big sister's boyfriend to notice her instead. She moons over him somewhat dementedly, which made the film take a while to grow on me, but it got there. Meanwhile, her sister (Jane Winton) looks to upgrade from the boyfriend (Orville Caldwell) to a more affluent man from the yacht club (Lawrence Gray), cracking the door open a bit for her.

It's an interesting family dynamic; Davies' character is bullied by her sister and not favored by her mother (Marie Dressler), but has a special relationship with her father (Dell Henderson). Her parents fall into the old trope of overbearing wife and henpecked husband, you know, that is until he's had enough. However, watching their relationship and the two sisters spar with little comments and gestures throughout the film is endearing. "If it wasn't for you, our family tree would die," says Davies. "What do you mean by that?," her sister asks. "You're the sap!" she answers. Director King Vidor opens with a clever overhead shot of the family all eating soup in sync with one another, and later has them scrambling around to get ready for an evening out, with the ladies jostling for position in front of the mirror. It's in these manic moments and Davies' hopeless love that the film has its charm. Vidor keeps things light, even though some of the little ways the characters manipulate one another venture from relative innocence (pretending someone else is interested to stoke jealousy) to what might otherwise be decidedly unfunny (faking the scene of an assault, and threatening divorce).

I didn't find any of the comedic elements to be laugh out loud funny, but I was often amused. At one point Davies gets a book on anecdotes (in order to "develop a personality"), and then begins rattling off one-liners (e.g. "A caterpillar is nothing but an upholstered worm.") They're quirky and offbeat, and more interesting for their window into the 1920's than anything else. To bother her sister who is with a man, she parades across a doorway wearing a succession of silly hats. However, easily the biggest highlight was her impressions of Mae Murray, Lillian Gish, and Pola Negri, which are fantastic. Each of them is preceded by a photo of the actress, and then we see Davies developing the impression, starting with expressions with her mouth, and then adding from there. It's a pretty simple little film, but watch it for moments like that.

Judging by most other reviews on this site I'm not going out on much of a limb when I say The Patsy is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I don't mean just funniest silent films. I mean funniest movies, period.

The plot is simple enough: younger sister (Marion Davies) moons over older sister's boyfriend. That's all anybody needs to know.

After that, it's one hilarious set piece after another. Dinner at the yacht club. Davies spouting gibberish out of a book of inane aphorisms. Davies mimicking her Hollywood contemporaries.

The intertitles are sharply funny. The physical comedy is pure gold.

Yes, Davies has charm and comedic gifts that have been overshadowed by her portrayal on the ponderously dull Citizen Kane. If you can't fall in love with her here, you're colder than New Hampshire granite.

As for Marie Dressler, what a force. It's not an exaggeration to say she might have been the funniest film actress of all time. I'm not sure she even needed dialogue to be funny. On the other hand, if you're familiar with her speaking voice from having watched one of her talkies (e.g., Min and Bill) it makes this performance that much better.

Unless you have some kind of disease that prevents you from watching silent movies, I unreservedly recommend The Patsy.

I had never seen Marion Davies in a movie until now.What a treat.Such a pretty,talented,funny,expressive ability she had.Charisma with a capital "C",a doll for sure.No wonder Hearst loved her so.Marie Dressler I have seen before,and she usually is the dominant mother,head of the household.She is stern, but comes through as caring in the end.I love everything about silents,the quirky,shaky movements,the old phones,the hairdo's and clothes.This movie transported me back in time to the twenties.I also liked marion's sister jane in this movie.She had a sexuality and charm that was rather advanced.Very flirtatious and fickle.Loved the scene where marion show's off different hats and those faces,priceless.

Davies stars as the put upon sister in this delightful comedy with a soul. The first screwball comedienne, Davies reinvented herself in 1928 in this and her other comic gem, Show People. Davies then launched into sound with Marianne (also excellent). Freed from the stagy costume dramas Hearst loved, Davies found her own voice in these late silent comedies. Davies stars here with Marie Dressler (in a comeback vehicle) as well as Lawrence Gray, Jane Winton, Dell Henderson and the rather dull Orville Caldwell. The family bickering is fun, with Dame Marie lording it over the household and favoring the beautiful daughter (Winton) to make a good marriage.

When Davies, as the Patsy, decides to "get some personality," the house comes down in laughter. As stated elsewhere here, her impressions of Mae Murray, Lillian Gish, and Pola Negri are dead on funny and amazingly accurate. You have GOT to see Marion Davies transform herself into Lillian Gish! Amazing. Her impressions of Murray and Negri are hilarious. Davies was well known for her acid impressions of Hollywood's grand ladies. One wonders what this trio of stars thought about Davies' take on them.

Fun all the way and interesting to see handsome Lawrence Gray in a secondary role as the rich playboy. He was Davies' singing co-star in Marianne in 1929, her starring talkie debut. You gotta see this and Show People.......