User Reviews

What a charming little movie this is. Bebe Daniels plays a young woman trying to resist her aunt pushing her into marriage with a man (Jack Holt) she doesn't love. Instead she likes doing naughty things: reading salacious books, ordering lingerie, and in some incredibly cute scenes, call random men on the phone and talk to them, without revealing her identity. At one point she's talking to an old guy who exclaims, "Oh, I'm a handsome young fellow, full of pep and crazy about the girls." Shades of the internet, 100 years ago. In another cute scene, Daniels is in a tub built-in to the floor, playfully splashing her aunt. When a couple of Daniels' would-be suitors find out about each other, they resolve to teach her a lesson. From here you can probably guess where the film is heading, and it's too bad that it's a morality tale illustrating the double standard ("Moral: Don't go to weird places with strange men"). I would prefer the spunky young woman being allowed to continue to be herself and to be free, but this was the state of things in 1921. I liked it for what it was, and for zipping right along at 58 minutes.

Darling Bebe Daniels was Harold Lloyd's first leading lady and the only one to use the comedies as a spring board to fabulous movie success. "Ducks and Drakes" came at the end of a series of roles in some prestigious Cecil B. DeMille films and just before she was caught in a publicity bonanza due to a gaol sentence (10 days) incurred for a speeding offence. It also established her screen persona as a mad cap, sometimes an heiress - always a flapper!!

In this movie she plays Teddy Simpson a gay young girl who has been banished to her room on account of her frivolous ways!! She devises a new game - ringing up strange men, flirting with them and arranging romantic rendezvous!! Yes, she has a fiancé Rob Winslow (Jack Holt, looking younger than you have ever seen him) - she thinks he's a goose and "as annoying as a wart"!!

But when one of her telephone conquests, Tom Hazzard (W.E. Lawrence) secretly enchanted by her "dulcet tones" wants to meet her in earnest

• there's trouble with a capital T!! He's a literary man passing himself off

as an anarchist, wanting to study her for an article on "free love". There's also hijinks at the club when Rob, amused by his friend's flirty phone calls suddenly realises that the number they are all calling is his fiancé's number!! and yes, there is another, a Mr. X, an old gentleman who is passing himself off to Teddy as a dashing young blade!! Rather than causing an upset, the three chums put their heads together to see if they can teach her a lesson!!

They concoct a scheme wherein "Hazzie" lures Teddie to a remote houseboat and after a suitable amount of time Rob rushes in acting the role of the shocked fiancée!! But wait, there's more - an escaped lunatic is using the house boat as a hideout and as he tells Teddy "I've been in the pen for 15 years and gee, you're pretty"!!

It's a very funny movie and at just under an hour really moves along and does Bebe have some gorgeous gowns to wear - I'll say she does!! The latest in flapper fashion - 1921 style!! Young girls would have made her movies very popular!! And there is a bath scene (even though not a DeMille production!!) with a gorgeous sunken bath and Bebe doing a Gloria Swanson but using her bath for splashing fun!!

W.E. Lawrence was one of those dashing young stars of the early silent whose career had almost petered out by the early 1920s. He was terrific as "Hazzie", the ardent suitor!!

Very Recommended!!