Eve Southern had a small but very pivotal role in the movie - she was
the nasty chorus girl who wanted to make trouble for the innocent Midge
so invited her home town visitor, bullying Elmer to Cherry's party knowing
he would cause a scene. But those eyes of hers were wonders!! Midge has
already encountered Jack Chalvey, a pathetic figure in the rain - he is
under the spell of Cherry Blow and has lost all his money trying to keep
her happy. Now Midge is just in time to keep him from suicide as he sees
all the gaiety from Cherry's party!!
Interesting thing - all the chorus girls look very hardened, especially
Juanita Hansen whose career, so soon afterwards, was to end in tatters due
to her drug addiction. She plays hard boiled Cherry who while initially
taking the young Midge under her wing, eventually finds the other girl's
goodness rubbing off onto her.
As played by the even here masterful Lon Chaney, Elmer, far from a rustic
comic, is a bullying small town hick who while shocked at Midge's low cut
dress is not above ogling the other girls. The story becomes complicated when the party's playboy Rockwell overhears Cherry complimenting Midge
on her sophisticated tactics and thinks she will be an easy conquest. He
tries some cave man tactics on the cab ride home and is appalled when she
jumps from the moving car!! While recuperating in hospital Midge brings
about a change in the playboy and he strives to be all that would make
him worthy in her eyes. She is still pining for Jack - even though he hasn't
given her another thought. At a beach resort where Midge is sent to
recuperate she runs into Jack and her flame still burns for him - but he isn't half the man Rockwell is!! While Rockwell decides to step aside so Midge
can pursue Jack - Jack and Cherry, tired of "broadway love" have decided to elope and leave the city behind!! Meanwhile Elmer is back in the picture -
he has married Rockwell's sister and his gross behaviour at the beach ends
in a fight, with Rockwell taking his sister and Midge (who finally realises
he is her ideal) back to Arizona!!
This was Juanita Hansen's first feature after serving her apprenticeship in
shorts but after only a couple of years in some solid roles she was in the
grip of addiction that she couldn't break free from. William Stowell who
played Rockwell died in 1919 when he was critically injured in a train
crash en route to Cape Town. Dorothy Phillips was grand as the innocent
Midge even though at 36 she was hardly an ingenue. She and her husband
where mainstays of the Universal studios.
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