Party Girl

Dear Me! What a creaky talkie social shocker! Made really in 1929 with absolutely the most primitive sound recording, PARTY GIRL has all those Singin In The Rain sound recording problems (and solutions) evident: like the mic in the vase of flowers or on someone's shoulder or in a lampshade. Often one only one actor in a scene can be heard, or they turn their head out of range etc...all very funny etc. BUT this is otherwise a well staged sex expose made by the never heard of PERSONALITY PICTURES who really sound like a chorus girl racket itself. The film itself is a social morality play about a chorus girl racket and their high rise bed hopping antics ruining young mens lives and contorting business contracts from rightful owners. It also has all those great cliche scenes of tubby old fellers in tuxedos manhandling squealing 18 year old flappers at gin parties at the office. A good scene is a party in a wharehouse where guests actually drive into the goods lift and right up to the 11th floor and zoom directly into the room. Douglas Farbanks Jr is the handsome misled hero bedded by a floozie schemed by her conniving mother! The furniture and clothes alone are enough to watch this genuinely thoroughly modern 20s adult drama. I bought a dvd of this film for $5 in Sydney last week and the quality is quite good.

Party Girl (1930)

** (out of 4)

Jay Rountree (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) is the son of a wealthy banker who spends most of his time borrowing money from dad so that he and his friends can drink and have a good time. Jay ends up at a party and meets Leeda (Judith Barrie) and the next morning she cries that he "ruined" her good girl quality so the weak Jay marries her with no questions asked. This here breaks his heart because he wanted to marry his dad's secretary (Jeanette Loff) but before long he realizes that Leeda is a prostitute who is used at business parties to lure suckers.

Victor Halperin would make a name for himself two years from this film when he directed the Bela Lugosi film WHITE ZOMBIE so it's interesting getting to see something earlier. This film here starts off like a lot of the exploitation pictures of the era with a "warning" telling people that a party girl is a prostitute who tries to get her nails into men and ruin their lives with various scams. I did find it funny that this was warning people against these leech hookers yet they never bothered to tell men to just stay away from them!

With that said, I must admit that I was really shocked to see Fairbanks, Jr. in this role. This was obviously done when he was a struggling actor but it's still strange to see a name like his attached to what's basically a very low-budget exploitation movie. What's even more shocking is that he managed to go on and become a fine actor because his performance here is quite awful. Just check out the scenes where he's pouting about having to get married. Yikes. Loff isn't much better as the prostitute but Barie is good in her small role.

PARTY GIRL is certainly worth watching if you're a fan of exploitation movies or if you want to see an early film from Fairbanks where he's not all that good. Overall the film runs just over a hour so it's decent enough to make it worth watching.

This lurid pre-coder is about the use of "party girls" in big business. The idea is that business men are wined and dined at wild parties where there are available girls.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. stars as a college boy who attends a party and is picked up by evil Leeda (Judith Barrie). Next morning she pretends she has been "wronged" and what's he gonna do about it? The sap marries her only to discover that she wants a business deal for her real boy friend in order to Fairbanks to divorce her. What a tramp! His dad's secretary (Jeanette Loff, who sings a couple songs), a reformed "party girl," is heartbroken and so returns to the party circuit only to get caught in a police raid.

This is a pretty racy film even for 1930. There's once scene where the girls fill a fountain with perfume and then the guys grab Marie Prevost (who does NOT get billing in this film for some reason), strip here and bathe her in the fountain while everyone watches.

The acting is just awful, with Fairbanks and Barrie turning in hideous performances, but the film is so suggestive and trampy, it's impossible not to watch.

John St. Polis the father, Almeda Fowler (don't call me madam!) is the madam, Louise Carver is the masseuse, and Lucien Prival is Newcast.

On the plus side, the music is quite good, and there that freight elevator that keeps delivering cars into the party living room!

This tight little programmer (clocking in at just over 1 hour) is a real curio, Pre-Code of course. The film is designed to 'expose' the sordid underbelly of escort services who are only too happy to entertain men in high places(quite literally in this flick) for a fee. Like most movies of this genre, we are treated to a written prologue attesting to the scourge of the subject matter and how these sordid goings-on could be happening in our own town. This frequent framing device at the time would justify the seedy plot, in this case depicting between men of prestige and prosperity with call girls.

Marie Prevost is hot to trot in a secondary role as one of the 'ladies in waiting.' Miss Prevost did make the transition to sound almost seamlessly as an appealing blend between Betty Boop and Clara Bow. Yet, her fluctuating weight would unfortunately relegate her casting to this caliber of portrayals for the rest of her career.

Judith Barrie is the lead 'party girl' here who leads Douglas Fairbanks Jr. character, scion to millions of dollars, down that reckless road to potential ruin. Miss Barrie handles her role with zest and a very contemporary feel. It's a shame she would abandon Hollywood (or vice versa) in two years.

Then there's Doug Fairbanks Jr. who always adds a note of prestige to any frame he appears in. On the threshold of stardom ('LITTLE CAESAR' would be beckoning soon) the swashbuckler's son is treating this role of a young bon vivant who is caught up in Miss Barrie's web of deceit and degradation like a walk in the park. Well, this is a Personality Pictures production, after all. This would be equivalent to summer stock for an A list actor waiting for that phone call from his agent with that really plum role at a 'major' studio.

Of course, there is an obvious moral to our story which is hastened after an on screen tragedy which is quite jolting.

Yet, when the lights come back on, it's still hard to forget those vehicles, packed with eager customers, transported by elevator directly to the 'party girls' living room, the ultimate drive-in escort service.

That scene of the big old car rolling onto the penthouse party floor as though it's an everyday occurrence really grabbed me. Then too, the guests acting like it's an everyday occurrence surprised me even more. Seems as though building elevators were big enough to lift any such cargo in those days. Plot-wise, the flick's got plenty of innuendo and filmy dresses, but never goes beyond that suggestive stage. Looks like even pre-Code had its unwritten limits.

Anyway, the interweaving of sexual scheming and big business likely pleased Depression-era audiences already made cynical by the Wall Street crash of '29. Fairbanks is the hormonal pidgeon of sexy Barrie's plotting, even though he likes the virginal Lott more. Nonetheless, there's riches to be made once the party girls expedite big money deals. So guys and gals do party-on. Meanwhile, Fairbanks' movie dad, St. Polis, makes a fittingly imperious business kingpin, lording it over his listless son. How the various schemes play out makes up the often ragged storyline.

Anyhow, the party girls are all richly upholstered and do well, unlike Fairbanks Jr who appears too bland to score beyond his illustrious family name. Overall, it's a revealing flick at a time when the free-wheeling 1920's were coming to an inglorious end.

(In Passing - on a more somber note: too bad actresses Barrie and Prevost had such sad early ends, {IMDB}. Happily, their contributions live on.)