Both this drama and 'The Murder
' are movies directed by Shyer, produced by W. Kent, and released in the spring of '34.
Shyer was the classiest of the directors who made movies produced by W. Kent; in that whirlpool of careers, the director has been given these humbler assignments, but he gave them dignity. One can identify his leisurely style, his predilection for showing people partying and for contrasting the parties of the young people with those of their irresponsible parents, the misguided joy of the young and the disgraceful hedonism of the aged. As in other vice movies, the adults are blamed for their carelessness. The parties he filmed have an overtone of sadness, perhaps foreboding trends in the '50s, '60s, and even an Italian master, yes, him to, in the dizziness of the parties he featured.
Here, the protagonist, Ann, has a much more emancipated friend, the vixen Eve, played by Nell O'Day. Paul Page plays the unscrupulous seducer, the lead's 2nd lover. Ann has something enigmatic, as symbolized by Helen Foster's silent movie style rendering, which was already anachronistic by then; the actress' style has a symbolic and inner liveliness, as required by the silent cinema, and comes across as effective in its own way, nowadays her emoting may seem anachronistic to some, but it testifies to an acting style shaped by the '20s, when the silent had other requirements, and one can often see in early '30s movies such casts, in which some of the players' emoting suits the silent's needs, while others' suits already the sound cinema. The satire has been entrusted mostly to the neighbors who are scandalized by the swimming party and to R. Tucker, Ann's neglectful father.
I enjoyed it very much.
Shyer was the classiest of the directors who made movies produced by W. Kent; in that whirlpool of careers, the director has been given these humbler assignments, but he gave them dignity. One can identify his leisurely style, his predilection for showing people partying and for contrasting the parties of the young people with those of their irresponsible parents, the misguided joy of the young and the disgraceful hedonism of the aged. As in other vice movies, the adults are blamed for their carelessness. The parties he filmed have an overtone of sadness, perhaps foreboding trends in the '50s, '60s, and even an Italian master, yes, him to, in the dizziness of the parties he featured.
Here, the protagonist, Ann, has a much more emancipated friend, the vixen Eve, played by Nell O'Day. Paul Page plays the unscrupulous seducer, the lead's 2nd lover. Ann has something enigmatic, as symbolized by Helen Foster's silent movie style rendering, which was already anachronistic by then; the actress' style has a symbolic and inner liveliness, as required by the silent cinema, and comes across as effective in its own way, nowadays her emoting may seem anachronistic to some, but it testifies to an acting style shaped by the '20s, when the silent had other requirements, and one can often see in early '30s movies such casts, in which some of the players' emoting suits the silent's needs, while others' suits already the sound cinema. The satire has been entrusted mostly to the neighbors who are scandalized by the swimming party and to R. Tucker, Ann's neglectful father.
I enjoyed it very much.