I began "Wine of Youth" (1924) thinking that it was going to be a 20's flapper movie, and it began at a wild, wild, wild party with every kind of Fitzgeraldian occurrence happening before my eyes. Starring Eleanor Boardman, William Haines, Ben Lyon, Pauline Garon, William Collier Jr., Eulalie Jensen, E. J. Ratcliffe, and many others, this seemingly wild, but well done bit of fluff directed by King Vidor turned into anything but a piece of fluff! After having watched in the last few months most of the rather cynical marriage comedy/satire/dramas of Cecil B. DeMille from 1918 to 1922, it was still surprising to find, not a satire at all, and not really a comedy as such, but actually a most serious flapper era drama about the generation gap of three generations of the same family, all the ladies - grandmother, mother, and daughter - named Mary. Based on a play by Rachel Crothers called "Mary the Third", this shows what love and marriage proposals supposedly would have been in Eleanor Boardman's grandmother's day; then what it was in Boardman's mother's day; and now what it's like in 1924. Boardman is courted by Ben Lyon and William Haines, while Pauline Garon is courted by William Collier, Jr. Boardman is very uncertain if she wishes to be married, and both men propose to her. The proposals both sound like the proposals that Boardman's mother and grandmother received, though Haines is very aggressive and Lyon far more sedate, if not cerebral, and their proposals reflect the manner of the man. Eventually, the very long and wild and drunken dancing party comes to a close, but Garon, Collier, Jr., Boardman, Lyon, and Haines come up with a plan. They're going to go to Collier, Jr.'s "camp", evidently a family owned area where camping is done, and they'll all live in tents for a time - without "kissing and love-making" (as Boardman puts it) - and see if living together before being married will prove anything to all of them, and whether or not marriage looks as if it's necessary in the future. When Boardman tells her mother and her grandmother about the scheme, they're fogged and numb. The grandmother explodes; the mother sees herself possibly doing something like that if she had the chance all over again; but both are struck with the idea and know it can't be. How will they tell Boardman's father? Well, of course the plan goes ahead. When things don't work out so well, Boardman comes home, only to discover her parents in a loud and nasty verbal war against each other, something she's never seen before. The parents express how disappointed they both are with their marriage. The argument lasts for a very long time, and it compensates for the long party seen at the beginning of the film. All the sides of marriage and love and lack of love and love after years of being together and the wear and tear of marriage and, and, and...are shown in rather graphic detail. I don't dare give the ending, but suffice it to say that Boardman calls up one of the two boys to please come over: she's ready to settle for - you...
All of this rang very true in some fashion or other, though it's cynical while trying to be ultra-truthful - which makes it somewhat exploitative, if not wholly so. Nevertheless, it's a riveting piece. The only thing I found problematic was that this was 1924; WWI had only ended six years before. Another kind of thinking layer was upon the youth from 18-25. These kids look as if that psychological gauze had never been put upon them. They were simply the rebellious kids that Fitzgerald heralded in This Side of Paradise. They were the exempla of the Roaring 20's.
A truly interesting piece of drama. Don't be surprised by anything. It probably WILL occur.
