Our Modern Maidens (1929) User Reviews (23)

Despite flaws in it projection, lovely young Joan Crawford and Anita Page in this silent jazz age melodrama is fun to watch.

[Art-22 · 6/10 · 19 November 1998]

This was one of those films caught during the transition to sound and issued in a silent and sound version. Unfortunately, MGM didn't make separate continuity versions - they simply added a soundtrack (music and sound effects) to the silent version. But the silent film could be run at the proper speed - anywhere from 16 to 22 frames a second at the discretion of the projectionist - whereas the sound version had to be shown at 24 frames a second, the fixed speed to have the sound come out right. So you see the action faster than you are supposed to, making some of it seem rushed, quite noticeable and often annoying.

The plot is your basic love quadrangle with Crawford in love with and getting secretly engaged to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., while Page is in love with him. It's secret so Crawford can play up to influential Rod La Rocque, who can get Fairbanks a diplomatic job. She cruelly lies to La Rocque, who falls in love with her, saying Fairbanks is a friend, only a boy. While Crawford is getting to La Rocque, Fairbanks and Page have an affair, which he regrets, finally telling her of his engagement. Page simply says she will never tell Crawford, her best friend. After La Rocque gets Fairbanks the job, the engagement is announced, enraging La Rocque to the point he almost rapes Crawford. I was really surprised when they were alone in his cabin and he grabs Crawford, that he yanks her hair back violently so he could kiss her passionately. He finally leaves in disgust, after telling her he stopped not because of decency, but because he didn't want her. Crawford marries Fairbanks, but all four are in for some big surprises.

The love scenes are punctuated with a lot of jazz age fun. We see Crawford doing a nice interpretive dance at a party, and Fairbanks imitate John Barrymore doing his facial changes made in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), and then imitate John Gilbert passionately kissing a woman. Those two are mentioned by name, but then someone yells "Do Robin Hood," an amusing "in" joke because it referred to his real life father, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in Robin Hood (1922). And he does it very well, leaping and posturing just as his father did, a reason why he was able to make some swashbuckling films himself later on.

Excellent vehicle for Crawford and Anita Page

[morrisonhimself · 7/10 · 9 December 2004]

It's kind of a soap opera plot, rather daring, perhaps, for its time, but tame by today's standards.

Joan Crawford probably never looked better and, in my not very humble opinion, probably never, or at least seldom, gave a better performance. Her character Billie is in turn kittenish and seductive and cautious, ultimately doing what was the right thing for everyone.

Anita Page, who also never looked lovelier, is everyone's charming girl-next-door, pretty, cute, decent. She gives a superlative performance as the intriguingly named Kentucky.

This is not, probably, anybody's idea of a classic movie, but it is well worth seeing if only for the look at Joan Crawford in an early -- silent -- role. She looks great, gives a controlled performance, and is sans the harsh, overdone makeup of later years -- and padded shoulders.

Anita Page, who pioneered some of the early musicals, displays loveliness and talent and is, to be blunt, adorable.

Oh, there are some good male actors, too, but Crawford and Page are the real reasons to watch.

Typical 1920s love story

[nickenchuggets · 7/10 · 19 August 2021]

For me, this movie felt like little more than an advertising vehicle for Joan Crawford and Anita Page. While not being a well known movie by today's standards, Our Modern Maidens still has some important reasons for viewing. It depicts a young Joan Crawford in one of her many influential roles, and was also the last silent movie she made. The movie itself is strange because it is silent but contains some sound effects, making it what I consider a "hybrid movie." I can't really think of any other films that are like this, off the top of my head anyway. The movie as a whole is not really that impressive, and is pretty short too. It's about Billie Brown (Crawford) wanting to marry someone named Gil (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), but she starts to take a liking to another guy named Glenn. Billie has to see Glenn is order to make sure Gil, a diplomat, is assigned activities that pay well. Meanwhile, Gil himself is not attracted to Billie, and likes the blonde Kentucky Strafford (Page) instead. Still, he ends up marrying Billie, which turns out to be a mistake after Billie discovers Kentucky is the mother of Gil's child. This movie's storyline is the typical love drama that tries to pair people who don't really love each other together in order to create some kind of confrontation, so by my standards at least, it felt pretty tiring. I've seen this almost exact formula used in tons of other movies, and it's nothing special. Still, Anita Page is probably more iconic in this movie than Crawford is. As Kentucky, she has the the appearance of the typical 1920s girl: short hair, a short skirt, and a rivalry with another woman (Billie) that only gets more and more obvious as the movie goes on. They are both vying for the affection of certain men, but this in turn leads to the movie's main problem: the story is very, very simplistic. It's cute to see the characters interact with each other, and eventually get angry at each other once their secret relationships are revealed, but other than this, the movie doesn't offer much other than love stories. For this reason, I only cautiously recommend it to people, since the time period it depicts is long gone, and it is quite hard to relate to it in any way. If you're like me, you will enjoy it simply for the fact that it is not new, and this makes it stand out as a movie that embodies the 1920s. It's mostly uneventful, but it does do a good job at depicting a time period full of optimistic times and parties.

Well on the way to being the ultimate expression of the Jazz Age.

[Mozjoukine · 18 January 2003]

Well, at least there's a decent copy of this late silent, which show cases Joan Crawford at her peak - even if it does run too fast in order to accommodate the awful music track. The original audiences saw it this way but they were used to the problem and hadn't heard better film music.

OUR MODERN MAIDENS must be the only good film Jack Conway ever directed, possibly because the things that are enjoyable-preposterous in it seem to be a good fit with the idea we have of the so called "Jazz Age." The cast are just right - lively, sexy, authoritative star numbers with a distant connection to reality. It's a pity so little of La Roque's work is about. He's spot on in this and FIGHTING EAGLE. Doug jnr. does impressions, like Marion Davies or Gloria Swanson, and they are clever.

The Metro house style is pretty much the author of this one, as with the enormous, un-motivated track back to reveal Gibbons' auditorium size living room in magnate Gran's house, where Crawford does her skimpy Adrian outfit dance for the assembled jazz babies. We even get some zoom shots, done presumably with the old mechanical lens that was hardly ever used.

There's also MGM pre-code daring with the glimpse of the doctor card that refers to Stewart as "Mrs.", the clue, like Elizabeth Allen taking her Nurse's cap off in MEN IN WHITE or all the shock horror of Fairbanks' secret in WOMAN OF AFFAIRS (in the book it was V.D.). These films were made for grown ups - though possibly not the brightest grown ups.

This one still has the ability to catch our imagination. It's as close to living in the twenties as most of us will ever experience. I really enjoyed it.

The Young and the Foolish

[lugonian · 7/10 · 23 February 2020]

OUR MODERN MAIDENS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1929), directed by Jack Conway, is not a sequel to Joan Crawford's earlier success, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1928). It is more of either a companion piece or sequel in name only with basically the same co-stars (Anita Page and Edward Nugent), and scenario by Josephine Lovett, who also scripted DAUGHTERS. With male co-stars of Rod LaRocque and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in place of John Mack Brown and Nils Asther, there's also blonde Josephine Dunn as the third girl member filling in for Dorothy Sebastian. Being a late silent movie release during the popularity of talkies, OUR MODERN MAIDENS consists of original orchestral repetitive soundtrack to tune, "Should I?" along with crowd noises, talking sequences of radio announcer and choir singing "Here Comes the Bride," as opposed of being a part-talkie with spoken voices provided by its leading actors.

Opening title: "The night after the Stearns School Commencement prom - all roads led to roam." The story opens with a group of young couples in cars drive down the road during the way after midnight hours stopping briefly to dance while listening to music on the radio. Billie Brown (Joan Crawford), daughter of B. Bickering Brown (Albert Gran), business tycoon and manufacturer of Brown Deluxe Motor Cars, receives an engagement ring from Gilbert "Gil" Jordan (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr,), her escort and sweetheart. Aside from keeping her engagement a secret, she intends on making him a business success in Paris before becoming his wife. On a seven-eleven train back home with her friends the following early morning, Billie encounters Glenn Abbott (Rod LaRocque), who's picture she's seen in the newspaper, being a well-noted diplomat millionaire. She uses his influence to help Gil. After inviting him to her 4th of July party, her attention moves more towards Glenn than the jealous Gil. He soon seeks comfort with Billie's best friend, "Kentucky" Strafford (Anita Page), who not only secretly loves Gil, but becomes romantically involved with him. After Glenn, who has fallen in love with Billie, reads about her engagement in the newspapers, he leaves her for his estate in Argentine. Billie, in turn, goes on with her upcoming marriage to Gil, unaware that Kentucky holds more secrets inside herself other than losing the man she loves. Josephine Dunn (The gossiping Ginger) and Edward Nugent (Ginger's beau, Reg) complete the major cast in secondary roles.

While not in the same league as OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS, OUR MODERN MAIDENS is agreeable entertainment, more for its underscoring than its routine plot. Another bonus includes Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (then married to Joan Crawford in real life), during a party sequence, imitating popular silent actors of the day, including John Barrymore (as Jekyll and Hyde); John Gilbert kissing a Greta Garbo imitator, and his very own father, Douglas Fairbanks, as Robin Hood. There's also interesting camera shots, slant angles, pan-back of party guests of the dance floor of lavish art-deco sets. OUR MODERN MAIDENS has the distinction of being a rare silent movie available to contemporary audiences of Rod LaRocque, a once famous but now long forgotten leading man of the 1920s. Unlike her appearance in her talking debut of THE BROADWAY MELODY (1929) where Anita Page looks a bit overweight, here she's both slim and beautiful.

When first shown on Turner Classic Movies dating back to the 1990s, prints to OUR MODERN MAIDENS clocked at only one hour. After 2000, circulating prints have been extended to 75 minutes, with possibly Fairbanks' actor imitation among the missing scenes now restored. Distributed on video cassette, OUR MODERN MAIDENS is also available intact on DVD. It also led to another similar titled production, OUR BLUSHING BRIDES (1930), Joan Crawford reunited with Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page once more, and Robert Montgomery as the new male co-star. Again, no sequel nor recurring characters returning from previous film(s), but another love triangle in full sound and longer length. (**)

An okay Pre-Code "silent-ish" film

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 12 January 2007]

This is what's considered a "Pre-Code" film, in that the behavior of its characters would probably not have been allowed in films less than a decade later. That's because the tougher new Production Code outlawed common things in films up until about 1935--nudity, adult topics and violence. While this film is pretty mild compared to many of them, it DOES concern a woman (Joan Crawford) that kisses up to a man and pretends to love him to help her fiancé! In addition, the young people in this film spend most of their time getting drunk, chasing the opposite sex and gambling! Apparently, Grandma was quite the party animal back in 1929! This is also an interesting film because it's transitional between silent and talking films. While technically some might consider it a silent since all dialog is on inter-title cards, sound effects and music were later added to make it almost seem like a sound film. THIS WAS A PROBLEM, THOUGH, as to make a silent film with sound effects, the movie was actually run at a slightly higher than normal speed (silent films were cranked at between 16 and 22 frames per second, sound was 24). So, the film looks a tad too fast! While this isn't always noticeable, when the people are dancing, they appear to be hyperactive, amphetamine-pumping gerbils!!! This doesn't really harm the film much, though.

As for the story itself, the production values are good BUT the plot seems a bit slow and dull. In addition to Crawford trying to romance Rod La Rocque for the sake of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (who was her husband in real life at the time), their mutual friend, "Kentucky" (Anita Page), was desperately in love with Douglas! And so the audience is left wondering who will live happily ever after--and we really are led to feel sorry for La Rocque and Page. Well, see for yourself what happens, but don't expect any magic. It's a decent film, but that's really about all.

An okay silent romance...

[cbryce59 · 6/10 · 17 July 2012]

Nothing special in this one...but not bad either. Except to me, Joan looks older than she is (even older than she pretends to be, as she was already lying about her age, since Fairbanks was younger). That hairstyle does not flatter her, even though I know it was the popular look. She looks to be in her thirties in this movie, to me. And Doug Jr. is not appealing at all to me. Much better-looking leading men than him. Or maybe it is just that he looks so young and has such a babyface.

Joan does not overact too terribly, which is always a plus with her. I like Anita Page in this film and think she looks prettier and fresher than Joan. What happened to her career anyway? Guess I will have to investigate...

Doug & Joan & Rod & Anita

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 24 July 2012]

The night of her prom, wealthy man-hungry Joan Crawford (as Billie Brown) agrees to marry childhood sweetheart Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (as Gilbert "Gil" Jordan). The partying couple decide to keep their engagement a secret and continue to play the field, however. In order to secure her fiancé an enviable Paris appointment, Ms. Crawford get cozy with suave diplomat Rod La Rocque (as Glenn "Dynamite" Abbott). Meanwhile, Mr. Fairbanks is getting close enough with pretty Anita Page (as Kentucky Strafford) to produce a child. The four lovers must find out where true love lies...

MGM's follow-up to "flapper"-era Joan Crawford's hit "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928) helped secure her position as a #1 box office star. The film is lively, richly-produced and thankfully available with its original "synchronized sound effects" soundtrack. "Our Modern Maidens" corresponded perfectly with the short, real-life marriage of Crawford and Fairbanks. He has a great scene, at the 4th of July party doing impressions of John Barrymore (in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"), John Gilbert (with a Garbo double, in "Flesh and the Devil") and father Douglas Fairbanks (in "Robin Hood").

****** Our Modern Maidens (9/6/29) Jack Conway ~ Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rod La Rocque, Anita Page

A Transition Film

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 12 March 2008]

To both cash in on the success of Joan Crawford's first big success Our Dancing Daughters and her first marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., MGM did Our Modern Maidens. The film came out just as the movie going public was realizing that sound was not a passing fad.

Our Modern Maidens had some sound effects overlaid into the film. We hear some laughter, a radio broadcast, other kinds of sound thrown in more as a gimmick than anything else. Still it was more to exploit than anything else.

The story concerns a group of young and wealthy party-goers, drinking bootleg hooch and dancing the Charleston like there would be no tomorrow. Leading the pack is Joan Crawford who's got her eye on Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. a young man looking to go into the diplomatic service and a post in Paris would be ideal. I mean if you're going to be a diplomat at least go to a place that's known as a party town.

Anita Page also has her eyes on Fairbanks and the older Rod LaRocque has his eyes on Crawford. It's the standard four sided triangle with Crawford working her wiles on LaRocque to use his influence for Fairbanks. In the meantime Page is expecting a blessed event courtesy of Fairbanks.

If Our Modern Maidens were made today any number of different endings are possible. In the Roaring Twenties though certain mores still held sway. I'll let you see the film to see how it all shakes out.

Fairbanks was borrowed from Warner Brothers for this film specifically for exploiting the publicity value surrounding his and Crawford's first marriages. They did give him a marvelous bit at a party scene where he gets to do imitations of John Barrymore, John Gilbert, and his father. Of course the imitation of Fairbanks, Sr. as Robin Hood was dead on.

Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed were just starting their careers as MGM's official songwriting team. One of their early successes Should I serves as the theme for Our Modern Maidens. Another song heard throughout the film is the Buddy DeSylva-Lew Brown-Ray Henderson hit My Sin is played whenever the action focuses on Page.

Our Modern Maidens is not a great film for any of the cast involved. But it is a great example of how the studios were hurriedly making the transition to sound.

How the flaming youth mixed drama and fun, and no social media involved.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 1 March 2017]

It's Joan Crawford who will get and keep your attention in this silent drama with sound effects, music and talking sequences from the radio. A light and gay story of a romantic quadrangle between Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Anita Page and Rod la Roque, intermingling party girl Crawford with Fairbanks, the man she loves, and a messy reaction to her decision to hold off from marrying him. He takes up with her pal (Page) and she turns to the older la Roque, a dashing scoundrel whose pencil thin mustache identifies him as a cad.

Perhaps one of the easiest silent films I've managed to watch, this is extravagant, decadent and sinfully delicious. It is a festival for the eyes, with Crawford's feathery flapper outfits, an outrageous party with ostentatious sets that are a sight to behold, as well as some situations that only seemed to work in silent films, and an obvious reason that some considered a production code necessary.

It's romantic, funny, and filled with the gaiety of youth that cannot be fathomed by the overly sensitive snowflakes of today. It's easy to see why Crawford was such a big star. She's got a vitality unsurpassed, even by "It girl" Clara Bow. Fairbanks, Page and la Roque all deliver emotional performances as well. The lavish wedding sequence (complete with a chorus of "Here Comes the Bride") is a campy delight. There's also a nice camaraderie between Crawford and Page even though they are allegedly rivals. For a silent film, this passes by pretty fast.

There's something in my pocket

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 4 January 2014]

Joan Crawford silent film with music and sound effects, including crowd noises. Joan plays a girl named Billie who is in love with Gil (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.). Billie uses her feminine charms on a diplomat named Abbott (Rod La Rocque) to get Gil a job. Meanwhile, Gil cheats on Billie with another girl named Kentucky (Anita Page). This is the second in Crawford's flapper trilogy, following Our Dancing Daughters and followed by Our Blushing Brides. Crawford is fine. Page is lovely to look at. Fairbanks is pretty good. This will mainly be of interest to Joan Crawford fans or those who are especially fond of jazz age stories. Otherwise, it's pretty forgettable.

"Is this a modern moral...or just another immoral modern?"

[rogerskarsten · 9/10 · 4 March 2005]

This gem is one of my favorite silent movies. No, it would never be considered a "classic", yet there's something about the characters, the actors, and the atmosphere that holds such appeal for me that I have watched this film several times without ever tiring of it.

What's there to love? For starters, how about a young Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in their only on-screen appearance together (they were a couple in real life at the time this picture was produced and were married the same year it was released). Crawford's vivid pantomime is over-the-top at times, but you must see Doug Jr.'s impersonations of his father. Then there are the second-string leads: Anita Page delivers sweet naiveté, while Rod La Rocque's suave intensity is pitch-perfect. And I must also mention the third-string leads--Eddie Nugent and Josephine Dunn--both of whom are scene stealers extraordinaire.

Fast cars, jazz parties, a love quadrangle, great art deco sets--this little film provides a glimpse of the roaring 1920s just on the eve of its collapse.

transitional period

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 28 September 2020]

Billie Brown (Joan Crawford) parties it up sometimes with aspiring diplomat boyfriend Gil Jordan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). She uses her charms on senior diplomat Glenn Abbott to get Gil a prestigious assignment. Meanwhile, Gil is starting a fling with her best friend Kentucky Strafford.

This is a transitional semi-silent movie. Sound was not recorded during filming but the film does have a synchronized soundtrack. In addition to the constant music, the soundtrack has various sound effects and additional lines inserted in post production. It's Crawford's last silent film and at the time, she's newly married to Fairbanks Jr. There is no appealing couple in the group. One gets the sense that nobody is staying together for that long despite the relationships having happy endings. Nevertheless, it's fun to see these stars in this transitional period.

fine follow up to Our Dancing Daughters

[mukava991 · 8/10 · 4 December 2008]

Our Modern Maidens was MGM's follow-up to the previous year's Our Dancing Daughters. Key personnel were the same: cast members included rising star Joan Crawford and second lead Anita Page, as well as supporting actor Edward Nugent. Josephine Lovett again wrote the story and "continuity," Cedric Gibbons again designed the sets in art deco fashion, and William Axt had a central role in music supervision which again consisted of popular tunes of the day matched carefully to the emotion or tone of the scene. It's almost like watching an opera without sung words. In this film the audio bits are more numerous and painstakingly crafted than in Our Dancing Daughters. Ambient sound is used as often as possible. If we are watching cars speed down a road we hear the engines. If a radio is playing, we hear the announcer as well as the music. When a crowd is shown we hear the hubbub of voices, the clapping of hands, etc.

The theme of both movies seems to be old morals vs new or good, straight-arrow behavior vs devious badness, topics not uncommon in American popular culture during the 20s. In both films Joan Crawford is the wealthy, spirited heroine who goes after what she wants without a second thought to the consequences; she makes mistakes and pays for them but gets her well-earned rewards in the end. She is again opposed to Anita Page who hankers after the same man. Crawford does a lot of gesturing with her fingers in both Daughters and Maidens and seems to have developed a tight repertoire of definite facial expressions, often involving motion of the lips. Page acts with her whole body and is more natural and convincing. But neither is unwatchable.

Both films examine "flaming youth," perpetually in motion, laughing uproariously about one thing or another, jumping into jalopies to go on midnight joy rides, swilling bootleg booze with gleeful abandon, encountering pitfalls and bouncing back in the endless, desperate quest to have fun and embody modernity, which in its essence seems to mean accommodation to a female equality. When the characters in this scenario talk about being "modern" they are referring to the notion that a newlywed bride can go her own way if she chooses, rather than accompany her husband on the honeymoon.

As for leading men, we get a very young Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as the fought-over fiancé. He comes across splendidly in the silence, looking much older than the 19- or 20-year-old he actually was when he made this. His early talkie performances were often stilted but here he seems a master of the craft. Rod LaRoque is perfect as the more mature and sophisticated love interest to the Crawford character. Edward Nugent returns as the perennial happy-go- lucky boy-man.

Joan is radiant as a "modern maiden"!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 17 May 2008]

"All roads lead to roam"!!!! So says the first title of this hectic flapper movie.

The film starts off with a mad automobile race and the pace is kept up throughout the film. It is not as good as "Our Dancing Daughters" but it is still a slice of riotous jazz age fun. Were the 20s really that exuberant - who knows???? The film studios wanted you to think they were!!

Billie Brown (Joan Crawford) and Gil (Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.) become engaged but keep their engagement a secret until Gil's appointment at the Paris embassy comes through.

Kentucky (Anita Page), Billie's best friend also loves Gil, but from afar. Meanwhile Billie starts to romance Glenn Abbott (the very dashing Rod La Roque) in the hope that she may be able to influence him to help Gil.

On the night of Billies' big party Billie decides to stay with Glenn, leaving Kentucky and Gil alone on the lake. When Glenn, who is now in love with Billie finds out about the "secret engagement" - he goes to her and tells her he wants nothing more to do with her. On her wedding day Billie learns that Kentucky is having Gil's baby (he doesn't know of course). She leaves them to it and honeymoons on her own - "I'll start a new modern trend". Of course Glenn tracks her down in Paris and they embrace at the fade out.

The art deco sets are stunning and the stylish Adrian gowns are gorgeous. The "theme" song throughout the film is "Should I" from "Lord Byron of Broadway". It was a huge song hit in 1929. "My Sin" was probably Kentucky's theme song. Other popular songs in the film were "If I Had You" and "My Kind of Love".

Again another top performance by Anita Page. It isn't a big part but she makes the most of it with tons of emotion. I have read that she felt her career was sabotaged because she would not succumb to L.B. Mayer's advances. There seems to be some truth in that judging by the strength of her performances. Dorothy Sebastian was replaced by Josephine Dunn as "Ginger". She is the bad girl and her part isn't big. Eddie Nugent again plays one of Billie's pals.

Decent follow-up to Our Dancing Daughters

[nickandrew · 4 September 2000]

Popular follow-up to Our Dancing Daughters. Crawford and Fairbanks (who were married in real life) play an engaged couple who fall for different people. He falls for her best friend (Page) and she falls for diplomat (LaRoque). Was considered a risqué jazz age love quadrangle at the time. Crawford's final silent film.

Joan Crawford is positively adorable!

[HotToastyRag · 9/10 · 5 June 2019]

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd rave about a Joan Crawford performance and use words like "adorable" to describe her. When she grew older, I found her unattractive and mannish, but as it turned out, all I needed to do was watch her in the 1920s! She's a doll!

In this silent movie, Joan stars as a lively flapper. Parts of the "roaring" scenes are similar to the previous year's Our Dancing Daughters, but the difference is in Joan's character. In the first film, she was a party animal who was secretly innocent, but in this movie, she's wild through and through. Even though she's engaged to Douglas Fairbanks Jr., she still flirts with other men and even pursues an affair with Rod La Rocque. Anita Paige, also adorable and also a party girl, is the one who has a secret inner purity. She's in love with Doug Jr. but doesn't want to get in the way of her friend Joan's happiness.

As the title suggests, there's quite a bit of discussion in the film about "modernity" with regards to women's behavior. Anita is tormented by her feelings because she's too decent to wreck Joan's home, but when Joan wrecks her own home, she also has to live with the consequences. There's are plenty of heavy dramatic scenes for Joan and Anita to show off their stylized acting chops, but there are also plenty of fun, frivolous scenes to balance the film out. This isn't a melodrama, but instead feels like a slice of life for a flapper in the 1920s. In real life, Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. were married at the time, and they make a beautiful onscreen couple. For all Joan's giggling, dancing, strip-teasing, partying, and cuteness, she also aces the dramatic acting of a silent screen goddess. Watching her gimmicks, which are dated now but were perfect at the time, it feels like you're watching Berenice Bejo in The Artist. Every time a more modern actress imitates a silent film star, audiences have the tendency to think she's overdoing it. After watching Joan Crawford, it's clear they're not, and it's quite cute to watch the original. She's lively and brings a contagious energy to the screen, and had talkies not been invented, I might have continued to like her throughout her career.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. About fifteen minutes in, there's a scene change to a lively party, and the montage includes spinning images that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Straddling the silent and sound eras

[jimjo1216 · 15 September 2013]

OUR MODERN MAIDENS (1929) comes with a synchronized audio track (music and sound effects) but is still a "silent" film, with dialogue conveyed via intertitle cards. The story concerns carefree young people, out of college and into society, the world in the palms of their hands. Joan Crawford hams it up to a ridiculous extent with her jazz baby routine. Although she was the star of the picture, Crawford is the least appealing character in the film. Her look here isn't very feminine. By contrast Anita Page is awfully cute as the sweet and naive friend.

Page loves dashing young Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who is pretty serious about Crawford, his longtime sweetheart. Meanwhile, Crawford is playing around with Rod La Rocque, a big shot diplomat of some kind. Melodrama ensues. Joan Crawford finds herself mixed up in two love triangles and, heroine that she is, must make noble decisions.

There's an interesting scene where Douglas Fairbanks Jr. does celebrity impressions at a party. His character impersonates silent-screen actors John Barrymore, John Gilbert, and then -- in the role of "Robin Hood" -- his own father Douglas Fairbanks Sr. It's a nice little treat for astute film buffs.

Starring together in a feature for the first and only time, Crawford and Fairbanks were married that same year in real life.

6.5/10

Crawford's final silent is lots of fun

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 10 July 2021]

Released a few months before the stock market crashed and Joan Crawford's final silent, this film definitely has the feel of the roaring 20's, and in the sexual freedom of its female characters, some pre-Code elements as well. Anita Page is dreamy, Joan Crawford is full of life, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. And Rod La Rocque hold up their ends as the guys in the middle of love triangles. The film has a mix of playfulness, liberation, scandal, and melodrama, the combination of which was entertaining.

It opens with a group of raucous college kids driving along the road side by side in two cars, nearly colliding with another coming in the other direction. They talk gaily for a bit and then one says "Come on...let's dance!" and they pile out and do just that. When they're on a train later, the porter says "Lunch is poured," and they all clamor for a drink. The women have a healthy interest in the opposite sex. One asks, "All together, children...what are our thoughts on leaving school?" and the response is "Men! Men! Men! Men!! MEN!!" When pondering the future one asks "Love! Beautiful love! Will it sweep me away in a cloud of glory or steal upon me...gently?" and the answer is "If you think there's anything gentle about love...you've never been necked by a Freshman!" Later we see Crawford frenetically playing drums at a lavish party, Page on the ukulele, and Fairbanks, Jr. At the piano, hey, my kind of band.

There are so many cute little moments here: Crawford dancing around in a bare midriff outfit courtesy Adrian, Fairbanks, Jr. Imitating John Barrymore, John Gilbert, and his father, and Crawford making him take a bow while he pretends he's a ventriloquist's dummy. The art deco adorned house has a wild curved staircase and ridged entryways stretching up to a very high ceiling, and the zoom out and in shots from afar that director Jack Conway feel modern, as does the first person point of view shot that comes later down the wedding aisle.

Things get considerably heavier when Fairbanks, Jr. Cheats on his fiancée (Crawford) with her friend (Page), and it's clear that they've had sex. "Don't be unhappy Gil...I'm not," says Page the next day when he feels guilty. Meanwhile, Crawford is using her charms with a guy with influence in political spheres (La Rocque) to get Fairbanks, Jr. A post in Paris, though it gets awkward when he responds by falling for her, and dangerous when he's angered upon discovering she's actually engaged. After getting to his house and out of a storm, her dress is soaking wet. She changes into a dry robe in the next room, but he enters menacingly, and with one thing on his mind. As it continues to pour outside (reminding me of Crawford's 'Rain' from a few years later), he snarls "What's the matter? I thought you were a 'modern'." Crawford's distress looks real and when he then flings her head back by the hair and looks down into her face, it's a shocking and powerful moment.

Crawford gives a great performance has several other great scenes, such as when she looks dolefully out at his house in the distance at night. Page is fine too, showing real grief over how her entanglement plays out, shock when she's discovered crying over it, and shame over being pregnant. Yes, pregnant, and I believe considering an abortion. The film shows the perils of being 'modern' but it doesn't come down on these two women in a heavy-handed way at all, and it's fantastic that Crawford holds her head up high and has complete freedom over her fate, something I loved. This one is lots of fun, a great vehicle for its cast, and a nice, uncensored window into the Jazz Age.

Our Dull Dollies

[Kieran_Kenney · 7 July 2004]

This film, the sequel to Our Dancing Daughters, is better than the first, but not by much. It's story drags and the characters are very flat and uninteresting.

A few positive things that can be said: While Joan Crawford is not very pretty in the role of Billie Brown, she shows that she can carry a film.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. isn't that bad as an actor. The jerkiness of his scenes has to be forgiven; he still didn't have much experience with acting in pictures. He does a lot less posing than his father, which is nice. He also imitates his father in a party scene, and also does amusing and effective impressions of Lon Cheney and John Gilbert.

Anita Page, so hateful in the first film, is delightful here. Her character is so much more likable here, and it really gives her a chance to let her real personality shine through. Miss Page just recently started acting in films again, after years off the screen, and is one of the oldest of the original Hollywood line up.

The sets and costumes are great. The cinematography is also very nice.

Our Modern Maidens falters in several places. It's poorly paced, with long scenes that feel padded and unnecessarily slow. The last fifteen minutes progress slowest of all, with too must emoting on sofas and rushing from room to room. The use of sound is interesting, and reflects a time when Hollywood was frantic to market any film they could as a talkie. This is a silent film, with intertitles, and sound effects. For instance: when Joan asks her girlfriends what their thoughts are on leaving school, they chant "MEN! MEN! MEN!" both in an intertitle and on the sound track.

Typical commercial fare at the time, Our Modern Maidens is made watchable by it's visual design and by Joan Crawford and Anita Page. I recommend it to fans of either, but the average viewer will probably find it laborsome and slow.

A gem of a film for Crawford

[sdave7596 · 28 July 2012]

I discovered this nice little film thanks to Turner Classic Movies. "Our Modern Maiden" released in 1929, was presumably a follow-up to the successful "Our Dancing Daughters" made the year before, which made Joan Crawford a star. In this film, Crawford is engaged to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (whom she married in real life too around this time). The two have a "modern" relationship, where they seem to flirt with others and party a lot with the country club set. Crawford wants to secure her boyfriend a job in Paris, so she puts the make on a wealthy businessman (Rod La Roque) who has all the right connections. While this is going on, Anita Page (who was also in "Our Dancing Daughters" with Crawford) is madly in love with Fairbanks. The two flirt, go places together, and we find out at the end the two have produced a child; this right after Fairbanks and Crawford get married! Crawford gets to be the self-sacrificing one, something that would be a common theme throughout her long film career.

The best thing about this film is Crawford herself; she is so young and pretty here, and her vivacious eyes light up the screen. Fairbanks is young and handsome, as is the entire cast. The film hearkens back to a different time and place in Hollywood. This film is silent with some sound effects, but sound films were already being made. Just a year later, silent pictures would be dead. But thank God for film, and Turner Classic Movies for bringing them to us.

Rather Hard To See Why Crawford Became A Star.

[tjonasgreen · 24 March 2004]

After four years of slogging, Joan Crawford had finally become a star, but this followup to her breakthrough role in OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is a puzzlement. Her face, while strong, is not exactly beautiful and certainly not pretty. And F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous comments about her limitations as an actress have never been bettered: she is capable of showing only one emotion at a time, and those are telegraphed and italicized so that the dimmest audience member will know what her character is supposed to be feeling. Yes, the plot is nominally risque, but what did people see in Crawford at this period, since there is nothing extraordinary about her? Perhaps her aggressiveness, decisiveness and athleticism seemed modern. There is really nothing conventionally feminine about her, and maybe this was refreshing. Pretty Anita Page, playing the rather bovine 'nice' girl shows what Crawford might have seemed to be rebelling against.

Because the film was shot as a silent but had a music and sound-effects track added along with minimal titles, OUR MODERN MAIDENS moves quickly and is much less static than many early talkies. There are also some wonderful art deco sets here. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is good-looking but he gives as over-scaled a performance as Crawford does, Rod La Rocque seems epicene and old-fashioned, but there is bright support from blonde, slender Josephine Dunn as a droll bitch, and some camping from handsome Edward Nugent as her consort.

Pretty Good Follow Up

[Michael_Elliott · 30 September 2009]

Our Modern Maidens (1929)

*** (out of 4)

After the success of OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS, MGM cashed in and come up with a similarly titled film that doesn't have anything to do with the original. To make sure headlines were grabbed, co-stars Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. were married. In the film the two play a happy couple who are engaged with their whole lives in front of them. Crawford decides to gave a fling with an important government man (Rod La Rocque) so that her fiancé can get his career off the ground. This morality play isn't overly strong in terms of drama but all the pre-code elements make up for that. The first thirty-minutes of the movie are quite naughty as our young ladies do nothing but want sex, men, drinks and gambling. These jazz-age images are certainly rather fresh considering how many classic movies didn't feature any of this stuff. I would have loved to have been in the leg casting room as there are countless shots of beautiful legs that I'm sure had men smiling back in 1929. We even get Crawford in a rather revealing, bikini-like outfit showing off her curves. The story itself really isn't anything overly great as it's rather predictable and I'm sure you'll see the ending coming from a mile away. Crawford is very good in the role making for a nice little character that she can play without any trouble. Fairbanks is also pretty good but his highlight is the sequence where he mocks John Barrymore's Jekyll and Hyde and spoofs his own father's image. Anita Page has a brief part of bad girl Kentucky and La Rocque is good in his scenes as well. As with the previous film, this one here has a synced music score, which features the typical cheering, brief dialogue and even a radio broadcast. I feel this early "silent to sound" stuff doesn't work too well but again, we must remember this was 1929.