Our Dancing Daughters (1928) User Reviews

The Young and the Restless

[lugonian · 8/10 · 15 June 2002]

OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1928), directed by Harry Beaumont, is memorable today mainly because it made an overnight star of an MGM contractee named Joan Crawford, a resident performer at MGM since 1925. In spite of Crawford's recognition with this particular silent melodrama focusing on three happy-go-lucky party girls out for a wild time finding men, Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page being the other two dames in question, it is Page, the third party of the trio, who practically gets the most attention due to her immorality and selfishness in her character. It is this, and Page's performance in MGM's first talkie, "The Broadway Melody" (1929) that will be most remembered by film historians for years to come, so long as this, and other films like these, continue to exist on television and appreciated by a new generation of classic movie lovers.

The story opens with three youthful girls getting themselves ready for another Saturday night on the town: Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian), a simple-minded girl; Ann (Anita Page), a cute, peppy blonde who's not only immoral and immature, but an out-and-out gold digger; and Diana Bedford (Joan Crawford), a fun-loving socialite noted for her love for fast cars, dancing and wild parties, trying to live her life according to her parental upbringing, on high moral principals. At the party, Diana amuses her friends by stripping off her dress and dancing step-ins. Later, she comes upon Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown), a handsome young man and an heir to millions. Diana becomes very much interested in him, but Ann decides to step in herself, giving Ben the impression that she is pure and innocent. She tricks Ben into marriage, which leaves Ben blind of the fact to what kind of girl Ann really is. As Beatrice finds a partner in marriage with Norman (Nils Asther), Diana remains single, keeping only to herself until sometime later, the unhappily married Ben comes back into her life again, causing friction between Diana and Ann.

As it appears, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is a routinely made silent drama that rises above similar stories made during the bygone roaring twenties era. Watching Joan Crawford as a "jazz age" baby in the vogue of Paramount's own Clara Bow, is interesting to see, but unlike Bow, who retired from the screen in 1933, Crawford adapted to the changing of times, presenting herself in costumes and headdress accordingly to the new era, and improving with each passing decade her skillfulness as an actress, which is why she remained in the public eye of motion pictures until 1970.

For quite some time, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS became the only known silent movie starring Crawford from the silent era to circulate either in revival movie houses or on commercial television before becoming part of cable television decades later, namely Turner Classic Movies. Interestingly, as in many silent movies of the late twenties, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is currently available two ways, in either 97 minutes (video cassette) or a shorter version (TCM) at 85 minutes. The video presentation from the late 1980s, labeled on its storage box "including original musical score," is, in actuality, consisting of orchestral score used for the public television 13-week film series 50th anniversary to MGM, MOVIES GREAT MOVIES (1973), where OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS premiered in on WNET, Channel 13, in New York City, October 19, 1973, as hosted by Richard Schickel. The 85 minute version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the one with the original 1928 soundtrack consisting of crowd noises, sound effects and off-screen singing by an unknown vocalist crooning to "I Love You Then as I Love You Now." A sharp ear will also hear Diana's name being yelled out amongst the crowd. Watching the movie currently available in both these versions with different underscoring is quite acceptable, but it's the original 1928 soundtrack that gives more of the feel, capturing the mood from that jazz age.

Also seen in the supporting cast are Eddie Nugent, Dorothy Cumming, Huntley Gordon, Evelyn Hall and Sam DeGrasse. Fans of Universal's SHERLOCK HOLMES film series of the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will take notice that the character actress who played their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, can be spotted as one of the three scrub women at the bottom of the stairs in one of the more memorable highlights involving the drunken Ann (Anita Page).

The success of OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS paved the way to sequels in name only, all featuring Crawford and Page: the silent OUR MODERN MAIDENS (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr; and the early talkie, OUR BLUSHING BRIDES (1930) with Robert Montgomery and Dorothy Sebastian. With all three being shown occasionally on TCM, the original, which started it all, remains the best known of the trio. (***)

history in a capsule

[mukava991 · 8/10 · 3 December 2008]

Our Dancing Daughters is a beautiful example of how far the silent cinema had come by 1928, the year it decisively decided to give itself up to talk. The medium had reached a point where the action was silent but synchronized to a score and embellished with occasional sound effects such as knocking on doors, ringing of phones or a spoken word here and there. It was the short-lived pinnacle of a dying art form. These feature films from the late silent period provide valuable insight for composers who are supplying music for previously unscored silents.

This solidly constructed and well-shot story follows the trajectories of three young females of differing temperaments living through various stages of being young and wild in the roaring twenties. We have Diana Medford (Joan Crawford), a straightforward, unashamedly pleasure-loving, self-absorbed but basically decent sort who lives to dance and generally party around. Then there is the more serious and experienced Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian), whose fiancé (Nils Asther) chooses to overlook her wayward past as long as she will marry him and retreat from the party circuit. Finally there is Ann (Anita Page), a coldhearted golddigger who lures the dashing millionaire Ben Blaine (John Mack Brown) away from Diana by pretending to be an innocent maiden simply yearning for marriage and motherhood. At first it seems as if Diana is a hellcat, but her splashy demeanor is merely the honest excess of youth. Life has its knocks prepared for her and she has to take them, which she does nobly and sportingly. Not Ann. She turns to drink, with disastrous results.

Each of the three main characters is introduced by shots of their legs and feet: Crawford's slipping into heels to shimmy in front of a mirror; Sebastian's planted firmly next to her fiancé's as they attentively listen to a pre-date lecture by her parents; Page's seen while seated on the floor, removing a pair of ripped silk stockings, preparatory to stealing a pair of from her mother.

The soundtrack is made up of a small number of musical compositions from the period, repeated throughout the film. There are up-tempo dance numbers for the party scenes and slow ballads for the one-on-one romantic clinches. The photography is uniformly beautiful with generous use of medium close-ups, all against the backdrop of sumptuous sets designed by Cedric Gibbons. Great looking costumes too.

Crawford and Page are both stunning embodiments of the light and dark sides of "the flapper." Sebastian's role is less flashy. None of the performances is dated.

Most documentaries that deal at any length with "roaring twenties," the Great Depression or the Golden Age of Hollywood inevitably include a bit from this film, usually the party where balloons fill the air as Crawford dances exuberantly on a table top.

Joan Crawford's First Cinematic Hurrah

[gftbiloxi · 7/10 · 11 June 2007]

Wealthy and flashy Diana falls hard for Ben Blaine--who unjustly interprets her vivacity as looseness and in turn falls hard for prim and proper Anne--who is in fact a vicious gold digger with a heart of stone. Will Ben ever see through Anne's facade and realize Diana's true worth? Directed by Harry Beaumont with sets by the legendary Cederick Gibbons, OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS was bright, sharp, pretty to look at, and just sexy enough to make the censors fume--the type of film that MGM seemed to produce by the bushel during the late silent era. The studio expected it to perform well, but there was no reason for anyone to think it would generate more than passing interest, much less a legendary star. But it did.

Born in 1904, Lucille Le Sueur endured a hardknocks childhood to become a popular chorus girl in New York night spots before signing with MGM in 1925--and renamed Joan Crawford she churned out some two dozen films in three years without setting the world on fire. Until, that is, MGM allowed her dance on table tops and despair of winning her true love in this slickly produced, well acted, but essentially formula melodrama. And even today it is still possible to see what all the fuss was about: not only was she bursting with youthful energy and appeal, it was the first film in which Joan Crawford really LOOKED like Joan Crawford, and although still limited her acting chops weren't half bad either.

The overall cast is particularly strong, with Anita Page turning in a memorable performance as the pretty but wicked Anne and Dorothy Sebastian as Bea, a good girl with a few missed steps in her past; male leads Johnny Mack Brown, Nils Aster, and Edward J. Nugent provide solid support as various love interests; and Kathlyn Williams proves memorable as Anne's manipulative mother. While OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS will never rival the truly great films of the late silent era, it is still a lot of fun, and those who want to see Crawford's first cinematic hurrah will not be disappointed.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A surprisingly provocative late-Silent Era Gem

[d_fienberg · 2 November 2000]

It sounds absurd, but I would suggest that Harry Beaumont's 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters would make an amusing double bill with Whit Stillman's 1990 film Metropolitan. Both films are rather sophisticated critiques of life among society's elite, the gala balls, the flippant attitudes, and crushing realities of romance, treachery and friendship. Written by three women, Our Dancing Daughters is an interesting example of early female empowerment, teaching women that being true to yourself is better than letting others shape you to their ends.

A young Joan Crawford, Anita Page, and Dorothy Sebastian play three wild girls in the early Jazz age who are coming to terms with their place in society and the repercussions of their "flapper" ways. Crawford is "dangerous" Diana, wild, intelligent, and sexual beyond her years. She's unapologetically flirtatious and provocative. Page is Anne, saucy and flirtatious as well. Anne is also poorer than her friends and her mother is counting on her to marry into wealth, urging her to use her virtue as a tool. Sebastian's Beatrice is largely reformed, but she has some kind of past, which bothers her more than it bothers the man who's devoted to her (at first, at least). When Johnny Mack Brown's Ben Blaine (a millionaire and former college football star) enters the picture, he falls for Diana and Anne decides that she will win his heart.

In one of her earliest roles, Crawford is amazing. If you've only seen her later performances (like her Oscar winning Mildred Pierce) or Faye Dunaway's impression of her in Mommie Dearest, it's possible to forget just how beautiful and lively she was. She's a marvelously liberated character, the type woman Hollywood frequently featured in the late silent period before forgetting about them for decades of regressive female characters. She is supported by her parents and feels strength in her independence. When she sees herself falling in love, she seems genuinely surprised and when Anne steps in, she seems genuinely heartbroken.

Our Dancing Daughters (lensed by George Barnes, who later shot several Hitchcock classics like Rebecca) is a rather joyous production when it isn't commenting on society and gender. The film had a jazzy original score written for it and the film comes alive during the several large party/dance scenes. Showing all of the freedom that late-silent films allowed, the camera is mobile and amidst the dancing. The film also features several moments of synchronized sound, mostly involving applause from the crowd.

Our Dancing Daughters is intellectually ahead of its time and it features excellent performances and fine writing. I'm telling you, look at it with Metropolitan. I bet it works well.

I'd give this one a solid and positive 7.5 out of 10.

The Flapper Culture

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 2 January 2014]

The Roaring Twenties has come down to us in history as an era of good times and continual partying until that stock market crashed and one could no longer afford to party. Joan Crawford got her first taste of first billing and stardom with Our Dancing Daughter where she does the ultimate Charleston of the Twenties.

Crawford at first glance is one wild child, but it's just a pose. Down deep she knows when to put on the brakes. She's got two friends she parties with, Dorothy Sebastian who's reticent now, but at one time was the wildest child of all. Sebastian knows that those loose morals of the past have irreparably damaged her reputation. She'd like to really settle down, but whomever she dates is expecting only one thing.

Then there's Anita Page who comes off to her friends as prim and proper, but is really the wildest child of all. She's got a nice image, but when she parties, she really parties.

Both are after young Johnny Mack Brown who is playing what he was in real life, a recently graduated All American halfback from the University of Alabama. He likes them both and wants a wife to settle down with, but he's not a good judge of character. In fact he's a bit of a dope. He rejects Crawford and marries Page and regrets it soon enough.

MGM was stepping into the age of sound ever so cautiously. Sound effects are heard and several songs of the era are interpolated into a soundtrack either sung or played instrumentally. All these players would be talking soon enough on screen.

Our Dancing Daughters is a must for Joan Crawford fans and it's a great look at the culture of the Twenties, the Flapper Culture.

Joan Crawford dances the Charleston

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 30 March 2016]

The movie that launched Joan Crawford's career, and which so nicely captured some of the spirit of the flappers in the late 1920's. The scenes of her cutting loose with the Charleston amidst art deco furnishings are certainly the highlight. The plot itself is a pretty thin morality tale. Crawford and Anita Page pursue the same newly minted millionaire, who confuses who is "the pure one" and of course gets it wrong. Perhaps it's understandable, since there is a lot of dancing, legs, and playful kissing of guy friends to go around. There is an undercurrent of the double standard common for the time (how interesting this was made in the same year Woolf gave her 'A Room of One's Own' speeches); Dorothy Sebastian plays another character who must live down her past, and convince her husband to forgive her for it.

The movie is silent and not in the greatest shape anymore, but that might have added a little to its charm. It's also interesting to see the short hairstyles, cloche hats, and the dialog:

Offering a drink: "Li'l hot baby want a cool li'l sip?"

After a big kiss: "What a service station *you* turned out to be!"

By the shoreline, to a pretty song; ah youth: "It's such a pleasant thing – just to be alive!" "You want to taste all of life – don't you?" "Yes – all! I want to hold out my hands and catch it – like the sunlight."

Our Dancing Daughters is jazz fueled ode to the roaring 20s

[prettycleverfilmgal · 8/10 · 31 May 2012]

For me, there are two alternating pleasures in watching silent movies. The first is the opportunity to watch a fledgling medium, one that is still so much with us today, being born. Silent movies showcase the intuitive genius of a lot of early filmmakers who seemed to just know what to do with these moving images. This is the pleasure of watching Chaplin, Keaton, Murnau, Griffith. But even when a silent movie is not so innovative or culturally fresh or technically groundbreaking, it can still offer up a window into a moment in time. Movies are, after all, a reflection of both what we actually are (sometimes, unintentionally so) and a projection of what we wish to be. Our Dancing Daughters (1928) falls firmly within the second category. Simply put, Our Dancing Daughters is a visual ode to The Jazz Age. Full of flappers, flasks, and slangy intertitles, the interiors are gorgeous art deco museum pieces and all the gals have adorable bobs and fringed dresses. They are young, wealthy, beautiful, and navigating a tangled web of evolving sexual politics. Our Dancing Daughters was pretty risqué for 1928. It had the censors fuming, and kudos to director Harry Beaumont and writer Josephine Lovett for even trying to tackle that rat's nest. Or at least kudos to them for trying to exploit the public hysteria that simmered around the loose morals of 1920′s youth in America. But does the movie hold up to scrutiny when viewed through the old sexual politics lens? Not really.

In her first true star turn, a lovely and young Joan Crawford is "Dangerous" Diana Medford, a wealthy socialite who runs with a jazzy crowd. She's vivacious, flirty, full of a lust for life, and not at all opposed to doing the Charleston on a table top. Anita Page plays Diana's friend Ann, a venal little gold digger backed my a money grubbing mom. Diana falls hard for Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown), a super wealthy playboy who's just looking for a nice gal to settle down with. Ann falls hard for Ben's cash and we have a good old-fashioned cat fight on our hands. There's a nifty little side plot concerning Diana's gal pal Bea (Dorothy Sebastian), who will be eternally tormented for her bad girl indiscretions prior to marrying Norman (Nils Ashter).

So here's what happens Ben is drawn to Diana but mistakes her vivacity and verve as loose morals. Diana is not the kind of girl you marry. Ann offers him an alternative, with a phony little-miss-innocent act, and the damn fool falls for it. Diana is heart broken and Ann goes about her boozing and catting ways, rewarding herself with diamonds for serving out the sentence of her marriage. Ben is unhappy, realizes he's made a HUGE mistake, but *spoiler alert* Ann gets her Karmic comeuppance when she falls down the stairs and breaks her pretty little neck, leaving Ben and Diana to be happy together forever. The moral of the story: hussies always lose and good girls always win, even in these crazy modern times when it's at first hard to tell which girl is the tart and which one is virtuous. As progressive and daring as Our Dancing Daughters pretended to be, it ultimately reinforced traditional sexual mores without really celebrating the liberation of women. Even while pulses raced at the saucy script and semi-shocking visuals, the movie also puts a reassuring hand on the viewer's shoulder and says, "See, they only seem wild, but they're still nice girls. And if they aren't, they'll eventually get theirs." It's not at all unlike Sex and the City, where even after 6 seasons of free-wheeling sexual independence, the only satisfying conclusion could be Carrie Bradshaw's marriage to Mr. Big. Some things never change, I suppose.

With all that said, if you watch movies made in 1928 to explore sexual politics, you're most likely a fool. It's a testament to the complexity of Our Dancing Daughters that it provokes the same kind of head-scratching discussion of where women really fit into society that we still engage in today. But that's not the reason to watch this movie. Watch it because it is a sheer delight to watch. It's fast, fun, and Joan Crawford is a revelation. I personally love the crazy eyebrows, line-backer shoulder pads version of Joan, but to see her young, fresh, and really shaking a tail feather is a pure joy. And despite the confused social messaging of the movie, Our Dancing Daughters is a pretty little time capsule of 1928. The clothes are perfect and the art deco sets are stunning – the sort of thing that might make girls from small Southern towns move to New York City (you know, I have a friend of a friend, or something). The slangy title cards ("Mother – how vicious!") are pure fun.

With the benefit of hindsight, Our Dancing Daughters also has a little taste of the bittersweet. The theatrical release date of September 1, 1928 puts this little gem almost exactly one year after the release of The Jazz Singer and almost exactly one year prior to the Wall Street Crash of 1929- two events that will be cataclysmic to the industry and the world that made Our Dancing Daughters possible. That makes the movie feel like a fragile thing – like a butterfly wing or a fire-fly in a jar – beautiful, but doomed. As ever, I remain grateful that the camera were rolling.

Wouldst fling a hoof with me?

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 4 January 2014]

Silent movie with music soundtrack is best known today for being the movie that made Joan Crawford a star. She's good here but shown up by Anita Page, whose drunken histrionics provide the movie with its life. The lack of vocal dialogue greatly helps the presence of Johnny Mack Brown, possessor of one of the worst Southern accents the big screen ever saw. First half hour is a little tedious. It's a series of scattered scenes showing flappers hoofing it up and bickering with their mothers who don't want them to be tramps. The rest of the film deals with love triangle between Crawford, Mack, and Page. The over-the-top ending is the best part. Good for curiosity's sake.

Joan radiant but Anita steals the picture

[kidboots · 10/10 · 18 October 2007]

If anyone ever doubted Joan Crawford's beauty - I would recommend this film. It is pure soap opera but I LOVE it.

This film transports you to the "jazz age" from the opening scene. A snappy charleston sets the scene as as energetic Joan dresses up for a big party. Joan Crawford, Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page star as three very different types of flapper.

Joan is absolutely radiant as Diana Medford, a wealthy, fun-loving flapper with understanding parents. She is a good, moralistic girl who would never do anything mean or under-handed. Dorothy Sebastian is Bea, a girl with a past and is the quietest of the group. Her parents are strict and over- protective.

If there were Academy Awards given back then, in my opinion, Anita Page would have been sure to win one as the scheming Ann. She acts everyone off the screen as the girl who is being coached by her mercenary mother to marry a wealthy man using any means at her disposal. Johnny Mack Brown is the wealthy southern gentleman, who is instantly smitten with the lovely Diana. Ann and her mother (Kathlyn Williams, an early serial queen) are determined to "land" him and do, using the "you have kept me out all night, you must make an honest woman of me" excuse. Diana tries to forget him. Bea has meanwhile married Norman (Nils Asther). He is eaten up with jealousy, knowing he wasn't the first and is becoming too controlling, not approving of her old friends and often walking out on her.

The story reaches a dramatic conclusion at a going away party given to Diana by Bea.

The film I saw had an original musical soundtrack and was full of very peppy music - although "I Loved You Then and I Love You Now" and "Here Am I, Brokenhearted" were pretty dreary songs. There is so much more to "Our Dancing Daughters". There are the beautiful art-deco sets, the huge staircases, the mad parties, Joan's frenzied dances, the elegant Adrian dresses and the mad, glorious whirl that was the twenties ( or the way MGM thought the 20s should be.)

"Our Dancing Daughters" had a massive influence on girls at the time. Apart from seeing the movie in droves (there was often only standing room only), a survey done in the early thirties found that Diana's character, that of a party girl who has morals and decency made other "party girls" realise that they could have a good time but still retain a "play fair" attitude.

The Forgotten Appeal of Crawford

[ConDeuce · 6/10 · 19 February 2010]

If you have ever stumbled onto one of Joan Crawford's films from the 1950's such as Queen Bee or Sudden Fear, what you see is the caricature of Crawford that she herself seemed to endorse: tough, ballsy and no nonsense. She's inhumane, unreal and kind of scary. You have to wonder where this woman came from and why she is considered a Star. Check out "Our Dancing Daughters" to find out why. At the very least it showcases an appeal that Crawford had that was completely gone by 50s. In it she plays Diana Medford, a rich society girl who is also a great dancer. The plot is simply about a cat fight between Crawford and Anita Page over the rich Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown). Page disparages Crawford to Ben and ends up married to him but Ben never stops loving Diana. Thanks to a melodramatic ending (complete with a drunken confrontation and a fall down a stairs), Diana and Ben end up together (or so it is inferred). So plot wise, there's not much to it and for a lot of people, the film won't hold much appeal outside of seeing what Crawford was like very early in her career. I'm interested by the films of stars that "made" them famous. Too often the films that stars are remembered for aren't really the ones that show their appeal. Take Clark Gable. He's mostly remembered for "Gone With the Wind" but is he really that good in it? I don't think so. He's much better in "Red Dust" and "It Happened One Night". Those are the films where is appeal is very clear. For a somewhat more contemporary view, take someone like Tom Hanks. What is he known for today? "Forrest Gump"? What made Hanks initially appealing to audiences were his comedies like "The Money Pit" or "Turner & Hooch"" and "Splash". Getting back to Crawford and "Our Dancing Daughters" it's this early appealing side of Crawford that is so interesting. She's very attractive here. Not beautiful but very pretty and that's an important distinction: Crawford connected with her female fans (and supposedly her fan mail greatly increased after this movie) because she was accessible, not an aloof, above it all beauty like Garbo. You genuinely feel for her as the movie progresses and then there's a protectiveness that develops in the viewer. At the end, when she "triumphs", you feel like the order of things has been restored. These feelings are due entirely to Crawford. What is fascinating is how completely opposite her later films are. Some of them are grotesques and others just feel clueless like Crawford was trying anything to bring back success. Crawford was good in "Mildred Pierce" but after that each of her films became more strained and some (like "Torch Song") were truly odd and campy. Crawford's legacy would have been completely different had she simply faded away like so many stars of the late 20s and 30s did. Perhaps most are forgotten (does anyone outside of film buffs really talk about Norma Shearer?) but is being remembered now as a grotesque, campy figure any better than being forgotten?

Flapper fluff

[MissSimonetta · 5/10 · 4 December 2014]

Our Dancing Daughters (1928) is routine melodrama at best and hypocritical tripe at worst.

This film is famous for supposedly celebrating the liberated youth of the Roaring Twenties, but if anything, it's espousing a more conservative views in terms of romance and sexuality. Joan Crawford plays a flapper who's really a virginal innocent underneath it all. All shine, no substance.

The plot itself is predictable, with little to distinguish it. The way the romantic triangle is resolved at the end is beyond convenient and almost laughable.

Joan Crawford is fun and the underrated Anita Page does well with her role, but they cannot save this ship. Cool party scenes do not a great movie make. ODD is a great time capsule, but that is the most I can say.

Joan Crawford's star making role

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 10 February 2010]

This film was the first in a trilogy - Our Dancing Daughters/Our Modern Maidens (1929)/Our Blushing Brides (1930). The first two were silent with Vitaphone sound effects, the last was a talkie. Joan Crawford had gotten good reviews and got noticed in her earlier MGM roles from 1925 to 1928, giving good performances even in some of the dog pictures MGM starred her in. This film is what made her a star. She literally steps into the role of Diana and makes it her own. From the first scene she IS this energetic and honest flapper.

The story centers around three flappers - Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian), Ann (Anita Page), and Diana (Joan Crawford). Bea is in love with Norman (Nils Asther), but she has a past with other men that she tells Norman about when he proposes. He says it doesn't matter, but then after their marriage Norman insists that the couple live in virtual isolation as Norman is so sure that one of the men in Bea's past is part of "their crowd" and is laughing at him. Diana meets the wealthy and handsome Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown) at a party and they hit it off and fall in love. However, Ben has second thoughts about marrying Diana because she is so upfront about her love of the nightlife. It gets Ben's wheels turning, wondering if Diana admits to A - her love of the nightlife, she has to be guilty of A + B, with B being, of course, wild sexual values. All of this waffling has Ben turning to Ann, a girl whose mother has taught her a maxim to live by - "A rich man wants his money's worth - beauty and purity". Ann is a master saleswoman and sells Ben on her having both virtues, and thus he picks her as a bride. This is a decision that breaks Diana's heart and that Ben comes to regret, because Ann has her own maxim about how to behave once she's married - "Once I'm married, boy am I going to have a fling". That she does.

Joan Crawford takes center stage here of course, but I couldn't help be captivated by Anita Page's performance too. At the time this film was made, Page had just turned eighteen, yet she seems to grasp all the hypocrisy and sophistication her role demands. Crawford's career was rightfully long. In contrast, Page's career was woefully cut short by MGM studio politics. A highly recommended film from the late silent era.

Late silent drama - not outstanding but interesting to see

[JimTK · 7/10 · 30 June 2014]

Silent drama, released with a synchronized soundtrack that included music — including a few songs — and sound effects. J. Crawford stars as a flapper who deep down had a good heart, whereas A. Page is a conniving, hypocritical gold-digger who poses as a virtuous girl. While both compete for the love of wealthy Mack Brown (long before his western days). A third character (Dorothy Sebastian) is a virtuous 'aurea mediocritas', a girl who had a dark past but found redemption through repentance and honesty about her earlier life toward her new fiancé. The conclusion is not unlike the pattern that would later be established in Production-Code days: the adulteress dies so that the good girl can marry the man — and the final title makes clear that a decent two-year interval was observed. The plot is thus simplistic and formulaic, but it was very well handled by director and cast. By 1928 silent films had developed their art and language to such a refinement that even average productions like this are rich in expression and highly interesting to see. Cast is tops and J. Crawford already displays a captivating screen personality; the very first shot in the picture is a close-up on her legs doing her famous Charleston.

The film that made Joan Crawford a star!

[Pat-54 · 5/10 · 8 October 1998]

When Joan Crawford signed with M-G-M studios, her name was Lucille LaSeur. Feeling the name was too long for the marquees, M-G-M held a contest in Photoplay Magazine to find their starlet a new name. "Joan Crawford" was the winning choice. Now with a new identity, the studio cast her in various "flapper roles," with the most famous vehichle; "Our Dancing Daughters." It made her a star and she remained so until her death in 1977.

See Joan Dance

[claudiacasswell · 30 July 2002]

The 1928 silent film OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is the story of three flappers and their efforts to marry the men of their dreams. Ann (Anita Page) is a conniving little tramp who passes herself off as a 'good girl' in order to win the affections of Ben Blaine (Johnny Mack Brown), millionaire from Birmingham. Diana (Joan Crawford) is a good girl who passes herself off as a bad girl as she too pursues Ben's affections. Bea (Dorothy Sebastian) used to be a bad girl but is now a good girl and hopes to marry Norman (Nils Asther), who must live with the agony of knowing that Bea was once 'free with her love'. Ben doesn't seem to know what the hell he wants and doesn't seem to know very much about women either. Throughout the film, the girls' mothers dispense motherly advice and, inexplicably, share underwear with their daughters.

Ms Crawford was hitting her stride with MGM in '28 and OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS is the best of seven Joan Crawford films released that year and the one that launched her to stardom. The scene in which she danced the Charleston was the highlight of this movie. Unfortunately the title is a bit misleading because there is in fact very little dancing in this film.

Claudia's Bottom Line: Rather boring and predictable, but check out Joan's Charleston.

Should be shown in history class

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 4 June 2019]

Rather than take a class studying the 1920s, flappers, silent films, and all the roar of the decade, you can save yourself some time and rent Our Dancing Daughters instead. Starring Joan Crawford, it follows a group of young men and women who go out on the town and party like it's 1928. Everything you've ever seen in old 1920s footage can also be seen in this movie.

A hilarious education in silent films, the opening shot is Joan Crawford's legs as she puts on her underwear. She prances around a full-length mirror in her chemise and panties, then selects a darling ensemble for the evening, complete with new perfume and a fur. Then, rattling off the latest jargon to her parents, she tumbles into the car with her other friends, and dances the night away. If you love Joan Crawford and have never seen her as a flapper, doing the Charleston, and tossing her curls as she laughs and flirts with a crowd of men, you've got to rent one of her silent films. She's so adorable! It's no wonder she was such a big star in the 1930s, since she was so cute in the tail end of the 1920s. Give this cute flick a chance, or rent Our Modern Maidens for an even greater treat.

A wild riot with a breezy amoral plot...fun stuff great dancing

[secondtake · 7/10 · 23 September 2014]

Our Dancing Daughters (1928)

Listed as a "silent" movie but actually an early synched-score movie with intertitles, and it's a really good one. If you think a dance and music movie can't be silent, check this out. Yes, it's 1928, less than a year after "The Jazz Singer," but we see a full blown plot about infidelity, some pretty terrific photography, and dancing like only 1928 can offer.

The star is the ever self-aware Joan Crawford.

But there is a whole slew of beautiful "girls" on hand here, daughters all of them, and parents with different kinds of acceptance and worry. All these young women are going out to party hard, and some disguise their intentions and others just let loose. There are lots of scenes for the men in the audience—women dressed in as little as possible for the times (which was quite little, before the 1934 Code) and lots of legs and bright faces and big eyes.

That of course is also the downfall of what is a pretty amazing movie, filled with crazy fun dancing. Crawford was famous for her dancing (she won lots of trophies going out to local competitions—and I mean Crawford, not any character). We see it here. She's the wildest of the women (she tells one suitor she is "Diana the Dangerous"), and one parent even bemoans that their sweet girl is cavorting with the likes of such a wild one.

But what else does this movie offer? Great question. I think it might be about courtship, or falling into superficial love, or maybe just how to snake a rich due with some lifted gauzy skirts. The men don't have much to offer, or show—they are fully clad in expensive tux-like suits. Alas.

It's worth saying, as a photographer, that the visuals are really nice even if the camera is often stuck to a tripod. The use of very shallow focus (allowing for great soft backgrounds behind the sharp foreground figures), and the atmospherics of the place (the rocky coast, or the rainy day) are great. This is no German Expressionist film— nothing that remarkable—but George Barnes does what the film needs really nicely. (He did Hitchcock's "Rebecca," to give you an idea of his talent.) You have to see it with this in mind to get it, and then you'll see what I mean, especially the very very careful shallow focus.

In the end this is all about boy meets girl…and the matchmaking and the engagements and the cheating. It's a fast ride, and if not especially deep or complex, it's fun and wonderfully immoral. I'll say, if you don't like silent movies you should skip this, I think. There are too many silent movie qualities here (like some of the exaggerated reactions, and the stiff over-telling of the story) to keep you going unless you are used to it. But there is a lot of the fun 1920s stuff here if you are prepared for the style. I liked it more than I expected, and some of it even made me wistful and appreciative.

Very dated and very provocative

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 16 March 2008]

When I give this movie a score of 8, it is relative to other silents of the era. Seen today, viewers might be a little less charitable, though it is still a good and involving film.

The first portion frankly did not impress me. You had lots of party animals dancing about and the wildest among these was the flapper, Joan Crawford. She was uninhibited and not exactly the girl you'd take home to meet your folks--although deep down she really was a nice girl. She and the other two ladies featured in the film were trying to balance having a good time with finding a good husband. Unfortunately, Joan didn't play the game so well--convincing the man of her dreams that she wasn't exactly pure and innocent.

After Joan's love is taken, the movie moves into high gear. Up until then, the movie looked more like somewhat random film footage of flappers partying--with very little in the way of plot. However, the second half is much more plot driven and interesting. Some of this was because of how frankly the film dealt with sex for 1928 and some was because the overall messages were quite interesting. Joan, while a wild flirt, was a basically honest and decent flirt. Her rival was much more coy and "nice" but a liar through and through--leading to a dandy and rather amazing conclusion scene on the stairs (you have to see it to believe it).

An excellent silent Pre-Code film, though you may notice that the film moves too fast and jerky. While this isn't always noticeable, when the people are dancing, they appear to be hyperactive, amphetamine-pumping gerbils!!! This is because someone forgot to adjust the film speed to compensate for the differing frame rates for silents (between 16 and 22 frames per second) and talkies (always 24 frames per second). If the film were restored, the film could be slowed slightly and the occasionally dirty print could be cleaned (there are some hairs stuck on the print in a couple scenes, for instance). TCM or some film archive, I hope you are reading this!!

Great cast can't save predictable script

[morrisonhimself · 6/10 · 14 April 2009]

Joan Crawford was THE flapper.

People who know her from her padded-shoulder days might not know she was well known as a dancer in the early days of her career and of motion pictures.

She was very watchable, usually, and certainly so in "Our Dancing Daughters." Anita Page was paired with Crawford often, but here she is a not very likable character. Too bad, but she is very good in the role.

In a more agreeable part, Dorothy Sebastian is very likable, and very pretty.

Nils Asther is cast in a not too sympathetic role, too, and Johnny Mack Brown, still better known for his cowboy roles, also plays a dumb man and the two of them make us wonder what women see in us anyway.

Frankly, the film is predictable in its plotting, but the people are worth watching.

The version I saw was on Turner Classic Movies, and the soundtrack was rather annoying. One particular vocal recording was played again and again and again and became very intrusive.

I recommend watching it for its historical value, but can't imagine wanting to see it more than once.

Art Deco Dreamland!

[McL-Cassandra · 8/10 · 8 October 2017]

Art Director Cedric Gibbons surpassed himself on this sumptuous set... wow! Crawford and the gang spill from one stunning Art-Deco room to another. From the wallpaper and murals, to furniture and fittings, this movie is a riot of cool sleek decor. The screwball inter-title lingo alone is worth a gander.

The films portrays an era when young people first began asserting themselves through fashion. I'll bet not many viewers know where the term "FLAPPER" comes from? Well, back in the 1920's, the VERY FIRST fashion "craze" began to spread across the youth of America. Suddenly young ladies displayed unbridled zest while energetically dancing to the hip new sounds of jumping jazz music. They sported stylish short bobbed hair cuts and donned their brothers galoshes. If you're unfamiliar with galoshes, ...they are rubberized ankle boots that usually fit OVER the shoe with a zipper or buckles in front to hold them in place. Well these gals decided to wear their brothers galoshes DELIBERATELY unzipped so that when swinging the Charleston, (and other aberrant dance steps), their open boots would FLAP around!

They also wore dropped waist dresses to appear more vertical while binding their breasts to be as flat chested as possible. The whole idea was to shock society and scandalizing parents by trying to look like a boy. It must have seemed OUTRAGEOUS at the time, given that the Edwardian period was still clinging to the decade. Of course boys egged on this behaviour and swooned over these fun "new" girls who seemed far more approachable and therefore touchable... not surprising.

Anyway the fad of flapping boots rather quickly faded away but the "FLAPPER" label stuck. Our Dancing Daughters is a somewhat forced time capsule of the era but Joan Crawford certainly dishes up some frantic flapper moves for the ages.

Introducing Joan Crawford

[evanston_dad · 6/10 · 12 September 2019]

"Our Dancing Daughters" is the film that made a star out of Joan Crawford.

Released in 1928, the film was slightly behind the curve. Sound had arrived, and filmmakers were scrambling to produce product that took advantage of the new technology. "Our Dancing Daughters" is primarily a silent film, though there are the occasional sound effects and at one point you hear the voice of a bandleader. Crawford plays a fun-loving flapper, while Anita Page plays a more traditional "good" girl. Both are vying for the affections of a rich playboy. He picks the safe, wholesome one, only to be surprised when she turns out to be a bit of a mess and he realizes he should have gone with Crawford, who may seem like a good time gal but who's actually a girl with her head squarely on her shoulders.

It was hard for me from the vantage point of 2019 to find anything to care much about in this film. It's about a bunch of rich people and their not very pressing problems, and about which girl gets rewarded at the end with a man. But taken in context of its time, "Our Dancing Daughters" is cool for the peek it gives modern day audiences into the roaring 20s and the flapper age right before it all went south because of the stock market crash. It's also an interesting look into the gender dynamics of the time, and the extent to which women's futures were determined by men. The men could act any way they wanted, but a woman's actions defined whether or not she was marriage worthy, and God forbid a woman do something with her life that wasn't getting married.

"Our Dancing Daughters" was directed by Harry Beaumont, the man who was nominated for an Oscar in the same year for directing "The Broadway Melody," which won the second Academy Award ever given for Best Picture. Beaumont doesn't have a recognizable style, but his direction of this is much better than that of his Best Picture winner, which sits like a lump on the screen. I have to believe he was simply cowed by the task of directing a sound film and didn't have a clue what to do with it. The editing of "Our Dancing Daughters" is what really needed some work. For such a simple story, it's at times ridiculously hard to follow, since the editing jerks abruptly from one location to another without any transition, and doesn't give us an adequate sense of time passing.

The movie was nominated for a couple of Oscars of its own, one for Best Writing before there was any such thing as a screenplay award, and the other for George Barnes's cinematography. There isn't anything very special about the cinematography in this film, but there are a few scenes set against a picturesque oceanscape filmed in blurry, gauzy light, and I wonder if this was significantly artsy enough to impress Oscar voters.

Grade: B

Joan Crawford dazzles as a Fun Beauty, but the Film Trips over Itself

[theanarchistclubhouse · 5/10 · 4 December 2020]

Here we have a silent film sin: lots of inter title interruptions. Jazz is a free flowing art form that oftentimes includes improvisation. To call 'Our Dancing Daughters' a testament to jazz doesn't do the term justice.

A triumph for Anita Page!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 9 January 2018]

Copyright 1 September 1928 by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at the Capitol: 7 October 1928. U.S. release: 1 September 1928. 9 reels. 7,652 feet. 85 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Diana Medford, a vivacious, high-spirited girl, falls in love with a young, handsome millionaire. Unfortunately, she has competition.

COMMENT: Oddly, this one is a triumph for Anita Page. She just creams the rest of the cast. True, Joan Crawford is absolutely delightful as the dancing Diana, but acting-wise she has little to do other than look vampish or soulful. Miss Page has by far the showiest role and she makes the most of it. Wise girl! She had another great opportunity to show what she was made of in Broadway Melody, but then she fell foul of Hollywood politics and was pushed aside. Dorothy Sebastian also registers strongly here as the appealing Beatrice, but the men are a complete wash-out. The worst are surly Asther, overly exuberant Nugent and two-expressions Brown (smile on, smile off). Production values, fortunately, are agreeably lavish.

As with Our Blushing Brides, the DVD is currently only available from Warner. A silent film, the movie was originally issued with a continuous music sound track and occasional sound effects.

Engaging melodrama

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 7/10 · 6 May 2019]

Sure, there's a lot of girl-meets-boy, girl-loses-boy, girl-gets-boy carrying on. But it holds up as a story even nearly a hundred !! years later. But let's not beat around the bush, the women in this movie are smoking gorgeous, and the guys all look sharp too. Wait, that wasn't the point I was going to make, which is that it should surprise nobody this film made Joan Crawford a star. She dances, she laughs, she cries, she looks so alluring with those big eyes and slight hint of baby fat in her face. My heart melted when she was crying to her parents after losing Richie Rich to her friend. It's almost hard to believe this is the same Joan Crawford as the one who looked and acted like the starting tight end of the Cleveland Browns for much of her career. This movie made me wish I was a rich young man in the 1920s. Maybe one who had his money parked on the sidelines by October 1929, mind you.

Fabulous Joan Crawford and Art Deco sets

[drednm · 22 March 2018]

This late silent film with synchronized music score and sound effects made Joan Crawford a star at MGM. The film was a huge hit at the box office.

Crawford stars as wild Diana Medford, a rich rich who is a leader in her set of young wealthy country club types. She's a real life-of-the-party type but is actually "good." Her rival is Ann (Anita Page), a beautiful blonde who has been raised as a mantrap. She's a deceitful liar just like her mother (Kathlyn Williams). There's also Bea (Dorothy Sebastian) who's made a few "mistakes" but is a decent young woman.

Into this swirl of country club dances and rivalries comes a handsome young millionaire (Johnny Mack Brown) who's taken with Crawford's high spirits, but as soon as she learns how rich he is, Page moves in on him.

Brown seems helpless against Page's simpering helpless act, and with the help of her grasping mother, they corner Brown into marrying Page. Crawford is devastated. Meanwhile, Sebastian's new husband (Nils Asther) is having trouble accepting his wife's "past."

A year later, the marriage between Page and Brown in rocky, especially since she's now dallying with Freddie (Edward Nugent). They show up drunk at a party where Crawford is, and the sparks fly. Brown discovers exactly how he was tricked by Page and admits if was really Crawford he loved ... and still does.

Things come to a violent climax.

Crawford and Page are excellent. Crawford does a couple of wild dances and Page excels in a drunken hysterics bit. Brown is suitably handsome. The film is also famous for its spectacular Art Deco sets and snappy jazz baby costumes.

This film established Joan Crawford as a star at MGM where she joined Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, and Greta Garbo as a queen of the lot. It also positioned Anita Page, Johnny Mack Brown, and Dorothy Sebastian at MGM as it transitioned to talkies.

This is one of the great surviving flapper films from the jazz era.