39 East
- 1920
- 50m
The eldest daughter of a poor preacher, Penelope Penn leaves her country home to seek her fortune in the big city. Taking a room in a boarding-house at 39 East, Penelope futilely searches fo... Read allThe eldest daughter of a poor preacher, Penelope Penn leaves her country home to seek her fortune in the big city. Taking a room in a boarding-house at 39 East, Penelope futilely searches for work as an actress until she secretly accepts a minor part in the chorus. Napoleon Gibbs... Read allThe eldest daughter of a poor preacher, Penelope Penn leaves her country home to seek her fortune in the big city. Taking a room in a boarding-house at 39 East, Penelope futilely searches for work as an actress until she secretly accepts a minor part in the chorus. Napoleon Gibbs, Jr., Penelope's fellow boarder, defends her good name against the criticism of other boa... Read all
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- Miss McMasters
- (as Blanche Frederici)
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Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia39 East (1920) is a lost silent film.
'39 East' is a more typical Crothers comedy, with the misfortune to possess a premise very similar to that of the later 'Stage Door', a much better comedy. The title refers to a Manhattan boarding-house, a few blocks east of the Broadway theatre district. Penelope Penn is an ingenue from the sticks, the daughter of a country vicar; she sang in his choir, and her voice is so good that she's come to New York City in the hope of getting a job in some big-city choir that will pay her enough money to put her younger brothers through college. Can anyone actually be *that* naive? Anyway, Penelope Penn (inevitably nicknamed 'Penny') soon learns that big-paying chorister jobs are a bit thin on the ground. Conveniently, this goodie-good girl is also a helluva dancer, and she soon gets a job in the chorus line of a Broadway musical, produced by hotshot showman Timothy O'Brien ... not enough to put her brothers through college, but enough to pay the rent at 39 East.
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. The boarding-house is packed to the gills with curtain-twitching old biddies, who have nothing better to do than sit in the lobby and gossip about other people. Penelope is an attractive young maiden who works as a chorus girl, so the biddies make up their minds she must be a slut. (The intertitles phrase this delicately but make the implications clear.) Meanwhile, Penny crosses paths with a suave young man who rejoices in the name Napoleon Gibbs. He's the son of a wealthy and socially prominent family, and he's blazed a trail through all the sweet young things in Manhattan. Penny is attracted to Napoleon Gibbs (possibly failing to notice his peculiar name because his wallet is blocking the view), so she agrees to meet him in Central Park. There's some amusing slapstick between Penny and Napoleon on a park bench. But some Hollywood set designer did a bad job here: the exterior sequences, supposedly filmed in Central Park in New York, look a lot more like Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Despite his family's wealth, Gibbs wants to collect another Penny: he gets a bit physical with our heroine, who flees in disgust, causing a faintly amusing run-in with a policeman.
Meanwhile, the biddies at 39 East are planning their own amateur concert: this might have been funny in the original stage play, but in a silent film (where we can't hear how bad they are) it doesn't work. On the rebound from Napoleon's attempt to seduce her, Penny seeks comfort from O'Brien ... who promptly makes his OWN attempt to seduce her, even though he's married. Just when Penny realises she can't trust ANY man, young Napoleon realises that he genuinely loves Penny, and she's more than just another notch on his bedpost. Happy ending, I guess.
There are some good performances here, notably by Alison Skipworth as the droll landlady of 39 East, and by Luis Alberni (bereft of his usual funny-foreigner accent in this silent movie). The plot is dull, unconvincing and clichéd, with two major problems that are never addressed. Firstly: even in 1920, it's difficult to believe that any adult woman could be quite so naive and sheltered as Penelope Penn. (The fact that her father is a preacher is no excuse: clergymen are familiar with sin, because they encounter it all the time.) Secondly, because Napoleon Gibbs comes from a wealthy and prominent family, we can't help wondering if Penny's attraction to him mightn't be entirely romantic. The first problem worsens the second: as Penny is just *too* innocent to be plausible, I kept expecting her to turn out to be a gold-digger who is merely coming the raw prawn (acting naive) to snatch Napoleon's money. This turns out not to be true: she's the genuine article, which makes this movie very fake. I'll rate '39 East' 3 points out of 10.
- F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
- Oct 24, 2004
Details
- Runtime50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1