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 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.