Our Dancing Daughters

A search of the blog suggests that I haven't done a full-length post on Our Dancing Daughters before. It's part of a series of three Joan Crawford films with similar titles, and I've done a post on the third of them, Our Blushing Brides, which is part of why I wasn't certain whether I'd done Our Dancing Daughters. All three aired not too long ago, but only Our Dancing Daughters received an Oscar nomination so it can be run during 31 Days of Oscar. That airing comes tomorrow, Feb. 16, at 6:00 AM.

Joan Crawford plays Diana Medford, who runs in a circle of fairly well-to-do friends who seem to be able to live the high life, although at heart Diana is a good girl. Also in the same circle is Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian), along with Bea's mutual friend Ann (Anita Page), nicknamed Annikins. Ann doesn't seem to be quite so well off, and is really interested in finding a man with a fair bit of money, even being encouraged by her mother to do so.

Another mutual friend, Freddie (Edward Nugent, no known relation to actor-turned-director Elliott), organizes a party for the lot of them at a private ballroom at one of the night spots in the city. Showing up at the spot, although not originally part of the party, is Alabama college football star Ben Blaine (John Mack Brown), who has parlayed his college success into a lucrative career doing something, although the something is less important than the fact that he has money now. Ben gets brought in to the party, which is where he meets Diana. The two like each other, although Diana comfortable dancing with all the young men at the party, which sort of puts Ben off. Ann, however, is calculating, and put her attention solely on Ben even though she's just as attracted to Freddie. She's able to snag Ben.

Meanwhile, Bea has gotten married to the decent if slightly stuffy Norman (Nils Asther), and has kind of drifted away from the party scene. She invites Diana to come visit, and the meet a bunch of the guys from the old scene, although that's really no longer Bea's thing either. However, Diana, having lost the man she really wanted, decides she's going to go off to Europe to get away from it all and salve her wounds.

Bea organizes a big bon voyage party, and Ann is hoping to go with Freddie, since the two of them are carrying on an affair. Ben is having none of that, and is no dummy, so Ann lies and claims her mom is ill. Ben calls Ann's bluff and, having done so, decides to go to the bon voyage party where everyone finds.... well, let's say that the good people are going to have a happy ending and the not-so-good people are going to get what's coming to them.

Our Dancing Daughters is a well-enough made movie, having been done so at the end of the silent era when a lot of films now had synchronized scores and sound effects if not spoken dialog. Our Dancing Daughters is the sort of film that would have benefited from the dialog actually being spoken instead of in intertitles, although at the time the movie was made that would have screwed up the camerawork which, having not having to worry about the placement of the microphone, is fairly fluid.

Our Dancing Daughters may also be of interest to those with curiosity as to what Hollywood's view of late 1920s social values was. That too makes the movie worth a watch, even if the ending may be a bit far-fetched.