Cheap Our Modern Maidens (Video) (Jack Conway) Price

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Customer Reviews of Our Modern Maidens

Prohibition Era partying as it really looked...
Joan Crawford in her final silent film, before she became the Joan Crawford, elegant and mannered, that we know and love today. Her she plays a free-thinking Jazz Age hottie, a flirty flapper of a college gal whose refusal to take life seriously, or to settle down with the right man, has serious repercussions. One one hand, the ultimate slant of the movie is conventional and moralistic, on the other, keep in mind that the moral conventions of the time were very well established, and by just presenting her wild and crazy lifestyle, the filmmakers were making a strong artistic statement. A cool chance to see the swinging '20s lifestyle pretty much as it was happening... And some of Hollywood's most luminous young stars as American film was really coming into its own.

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Joan Crawford becomes a star in her last silent picture
Joan Crawford finally became a star in this 1929 film, which was her last silent picture. "Our Modern Maidens" was a follow-up to her big hit of 1928, "Our Dancing Daughters" (which is actually the better picture). Both were written by Josephine Lovett, who provide Jazz Age audiences with modern tales of sexy flappers who toyed with the emotions of their boyfriends, which is either a progressive idea or merely a slip of the conventional stereotype. To make things even more interesting, Crawford and her co-star Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. had just announced their engagement prior to the film starting production. So the happy couple were cast as flapper Billie Brown and her fiancee Gil Jordan. He wants to be a diplomat, but she is the fun loving daughter of some tycoon, so the relationship is strained, especially because Fairbanks worked for a studio other than MGM and Louis B. Mayer decreed that two Metro stars needed to live happily ever after at the end of this one. So Billie figures out she really is in love with Glen Abbott (Rod La Rocque), and Gil gets drunk at one of their wild parties and ends up getting a wild young girl named Kentucky (Anita Page) pregnant. So I was rather surprised when Billie and Glen go through with the wedding, but, of course, this is not the end of the story. Jack Conway does a competent job of directing this tale of reckless youth, but it is the art-deco sets by Cedric Gibbons and the lavish gown from Adrian that really catch you eye when watching "Our Modern Maidens." There is even a final film in the "trilogy," the 1930 "Our Blushign Brides," which is decidely more somber. However, it is not available in video to the best of my knowledge.

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pretty racy stuff
Back before the Production Code, Joan Crawford became a star by being the 20's equivalent of Madonna. She was just as shockingly sexual to the 20's as the Material Girl was to us in the 80's. (F. Scott Fitzgerald even wrote about her as "the perfect example of the flapper" one of the "Young things with a talent for living") To people who have only seen the axe-wielding Crawford of the 60's (or the battle-axe Crawford of the 50's), get a copy of this movie. You'll be surprised.