Page Miss Glory

One of Hollywood's persistent myths is that Marion Davies was a dismal actress who received starring roles only because her longtime lover was Charles Randolph Hearst. Page Miss Glory disproves that notion. She was an adroit comedienne -- and here, she breathes life into a screwball plot that would have been pretty lame without her. She's a naive newcomer to New York working as a chambermaid at a hotel where con artists Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh haven't paid the tab for a month. How they turn her into the mythical temptress, Dawn Glory, and her romance with flier Dick Powell -- who's just as delightfully dopey as she is -- take up most of the film. You can probably chalk up the negative comments about Miss Davies to Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" in which Dorothy Commingore played Kane's mistress, a Davies-like actress known for her wooden performances. But catch "Page Miss Glory" -- or any one of several other movies she made before she quit the screen to look after Hearst -- and you'll discover just how much fun she was.

Pat O'Brien once said, "I don't just want to be a fast-talking Charlie all my life." That's exactly what he is in "Page Miss Glory"--a flimflam man who is always looking for an angle. As Click Wiley, he pairs up with Eddie Olson (Frank McHugh), a photographer whose lens is in hock. They are about to be ejected from the hotel where they have been squatting when a new scheme falls into their laps.

Marion Davies plays a naive rube (Loretta) who comes to New York City. Her search for the perfect guy mostly centers around celebrity crushes, like the daring self-promoting stunt pilot, Bingo Nelson (Dick Powell). Davies' performance is the highlight of the film, but it is worth seeing the film just for the bevy of talented supporting actors.

This light-weight comedy clocks in at 93 minutes, and it feels like an adaptation of a play (which it is), but its screwball story serves up plenty of fun and feels like a cultural artifact from the mid- thirties.

While my first impression of the movie was that it was corny, I soon saw the excessive exaggeration made for a fun movie. The country girl was the ultimate hick, the hero was the absolute best flier in the world, and Barton MacLane was at his evil best.

Enjoyed it.

With a great cast and nice idea, 'Page Miss Glory' sparked my interest straight away. It was further interesting seeing silent film star Marion Davies, whose films took a while to be re-discovered and even in her day her personal life and relationships tended to overshadow her career (or at least thought to be), in a talkie role that was one of her last.

'Page Miss Glory' was a decent film if not a great one. It is not one that will appeal to everybody, and hasn't done, very understandably. The same, as in not appealing to everybody, can be said for Davies herself, not hard to see why again. Won't consider myself a fan of her but she has her charms. There are however a fair amount of good things while with elements that are easy to criticise.

Davies does carry the film very well, showing herself to be a charmer, a good comedienne and the ability to command the screen. The cast in fact are the reason to see the film. Dashing Dick Powell, razor sharp Pat O'Brien (very funny too) and equally funny Allen Jenkins are the standouts in support. Patsy Kelly and Barton MacLane are also good.

Further good things are a snappy script that has its fair share of hugely enjoyable moments and a lively pace. The film is never dull, is competently directed and has some decent production values. The title song is a lovely one.

Less good is the rather thin story, in terms of the basics, that does try to do too much at points, some of it and the characters don't serve much point.

Was also disappointed that Mary Astor had too little to do and Joseph Cawthorn and Al Shean are on the annoying side.

Overall, decent but not quite enough glory. 7/10 Bethany Cox

"PAGE MISS GLORY" A pleasant surprise viewing, we stumbled over this movie this morning on TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Our Satellite Service (DISH) provided its very brief introduction; noting that Marion Davies was in the Cast, we stayed on and viewed the entire show.

I was raised in a family that did not admire Marion Davies nor, for that matter, W.R. (William Randolph Hearst). In fact, our family took its orders from the Legion of Decency listings; watching a condemned film could book you a ticket to H*E*L*L. Thus, I was amply supplied with bias and prejudice against the STAR of this movie. SURPRISE! Hey, I think she is acting! Just this week, I had read about the Production Code that governed what we the public could see - for example, the principals in a bedroom scene needed to keep at least one foot on the floor at all times. The article discussed the effect of the code upon how women were to be portrayed - before 1934, when the Code went into effect, women could be "sultry", "naughty", or whatever. After, however, the woman had to be relegated to unimportant and uninspiring roles; a rule, per the article, that led to popular male roles and the rise of male stars.

MARION DAVIES was relatively unknown to me for the aforesaid reasons - for once, my "Videohound" was mute on the movie but did show that she had two other movies released on Video.

So, we watched. We were seeing a CODE movie. A Cinderella story, she played an overly dumb blonde hotel room maid who (unwittingly)influenced a couple of promoters' efforts to create a pinup of the "the perfect" candidate for a beauty contest. The pinup is a composite of attractive parts of attractive women. Guess who looked like the imaginary pinup? We enjoyed the movie from start to finish and got a lot of good laughs - you would enjoy it. The only problem I had was the role played by Mary Astor - perhaps her sympathetic support lent stature to the movie but Astor's female role acted depressed and confused - not too dangerous to the men's silly schemes.

I was sure that W.R. had meddled with the whole thing until I looked up "Page Miss Glory" in IMDb. From there, came most of the facts quoted above. It turns out that Davies' accomplishments included Movie Scripts and she produced a dozen movies. In all she acted in 48 movies from 1917 to 1937. Since "Page Miss Glory" was her 45th, it is a mature effort.