After all this time, this is my first look at Norma Shearer, just before she and MGM took the plunge into talking films. Very curiously, Turner Classics Movie host Robert Osborne introduced this picture the other night, stating that in one sense, this was Shearer's first 'talkie', but she didn't actually speak in it, having her voice dubbed in afterward when MGM realized that movie fans actually DID want to see them in preference to silent films. So the entire picture I'm waiting for her or any of the other characters to speak, but it never happened. So I don't know what happened there.
I was rather surprised by an early reference in the story to Dolly Morgan's (Shearer) character, after a title card mentioned that she provided businessman T. Roger Hammond with ten thousand dollars worth of experience! That could have been taken any number of ways and I'm wondering if my initial response was justified. You know what I'm talking about, what do YOU think?
Perhaps the bigger surprise for me in this picture was the appearance of Johnny Mack Brown (here billed as John Mack Brown). I'm more used to seeing him in cowboy gear atop a horse in any number of B Westerns, so he looked a bit out of his element here. He was actually quite the handsome leading man in this flick, but apparently with limited range as an actor, his career path brought him to the Western genre in which he became quite popular for almost three decades.
After 'trapping' Steve Crandall (Brown) into marriage, Angel Face Dolly undergoes a couple changes of heart before she realizes where her true feelings lie. I don't know if some of the situations were meant to be intentionally funny or not, but the mention of a 'tile and cement' convention in Atlantic City managed to crack me up considerably. Later on, the idea that Steve Crandall would offer to 'take custody' of Dolly after appearing before the parole board for past violations really made me think about how society dealt with these issues in the Twenties. There's also that uncomfortable reminder of race relations that existed almost a century ago, a repeated reference to 'darkies' that sounds rather jarring when you hear or read about it today.
I was rather surprised by an early reference in the story to Dolly Morgan's (Shearer) character, after a title card mentioned that she provided businessman T. Roger Hammond with ten thousand dollars worth of experience! That could have been taken any number of ways and I'm wondering if my initial response was justified. You know what I'm talking about, what do YOU think?
Perhaps the bigger surprise for me in this picture was the appearance of Johnny Mack Brown (here billed as John Mack Brown). I'm more used to seeing him in cowboy gear atop a horse in any number of B Westerns, so he looked a bit out of his element here. He was actually quite the handsome leading man in this flick, but apparently with limited range as an actor, his career path brought him to the Western genre in which he became quite popular for almost three decades.
After 'trapping' Steve Crandall (Brown) into marriage, Angel Face Dolly undergoes a couple changes of heart before she realizes where her true feelings lie. I don't know if some of the situations were meant to be intentionally funny or not, but the mention of a 'tile and cement' convention in Atlantic City managed to crack me up considerably. Later on, the idea that Steve Crandall would offer to 'take custody' of Dolly after appearing before the parole board for past violations really made me think about how society dealt with these issues in the Twenties. There's also that uncomfortable reminder of race relations that existed almost a century ago, a repeated reference to 'darkies' that sounds rather jarring when you hear or read about it today.