7/10
Alice White is adorable
18 August 2018
What a delightful little bit of pre-Code confectionery this is. Alice White is simply adorable, there are lots of playful moments, and Myrna Loy schemes in a supporting role. White plays the wild child of a rich lawyer, partying late and having romances with a lot of different men. When she's on the verge of marrying one of them on the spur of the moment, he has one of his employees (Paul Page) get her out of there. The two of them hit it off, but face challenges in not only her playgirl past, but also in a brother/sister duo (Douglas Gilmore and Myrna Loy) plotting to have Gilmore marry her for her money.

The innuendo in this film is pretty innocent, but as in other pre-Code films, I like the acknowledgement of women's sexuality. That has an honesty about that, even if it was also meant to sell tickets. The plot is simple and the run-time is a brisk 56 minutes, but to me that was a good thing. The flapper scenes - being hauled in by the police after a late night party, with playful defiance of authority in the dialogue - were entertaining. The party scenes - the 'Cinderella dance', and then later dancing the night away to forget heartache - were as well. The clothing, hats, and cars are all beautiful. It's White's movie, but the scene where Loy hatches a scheme to get Page up into her room and into a compromising position is a good one.

In a scene that may define whether you'll like or dislike this movie, White gets a spanking from Page when he discovers she'd made a bet that she could get him to go home with her before midnight, and that she has a history of doing that kind of thing. I found it an amusing little window into the period as the tone was light, then literally laughed out loud at the intertitle which followed, which said "A good old fashioned spanking was the turning point in the life of an ultra-modern girl." However, if that sort of thing is likely to bother you, I'd recommend skipping this film. On the other hand, if you like Alice White, or pre-Code silliness in general, you'll probably like it enough to warrant spending an hour.
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