#Our Dancing Daughters

[normasshearer]

JOAN CRAWFORD as Diana Medford in OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1929) dir. Harry Beaumont

[silvestriste]

[emmieswildside]

Dorothy Sebastian, Joan Crawford and Anita Page in Our Dancing Daughters.

[redhairclara]

Our Dancing Daughters (1928)

[letterboxd-loggd]

Our Dancing Daughters (1928) Harry Beaumont

December 5th 2022

[byneddiedingo]

Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters (Harry Beaumont, 1928)

Cast: Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Nils Asther, Dorothy Sebastian, Anita Page, Kathlyn Williams, Edward R. Nugent, Dorothy Cumming, Huntley Gordon, Evelyn Hall, Sam De Grasse. Screenplay: Josephine Lovett; Marian Ainslee, Ruth Cummings (titles). Cinematography: George Barnes. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons. Film editing: William Hamilton. Music: William Axt.  Diana (Joan Crawford) is a Good Girl who people think is a Bad Girl because she likes to dance the Charleston on tabletops. Ann (Anita Page) is a Bad Girl posing as a Good Girl to try to land a rich husband. Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian) is a Good Girl trying to hide the fact that she used to be a Bad Girl from Norman (Nils Asther), the man she has fallen in love with. And so it goes, as Ann steals Ben (Johnny Mack Brown) away from Diana, and Beatrice confesses her past sins to Norman, who marries her but doesn't really trust her. This romantic melodrama was a big hit that established Crawford as a star. She's lively and funny and dances a mean Charleston -- a far cry from the long-suffering shoulder-padded Crawford of Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945) and the melodramas of her middle age, though we can see a hint of the Crawford to come when she squares off against Page, using her big eyes and lipsticked mouth as formidable weapons. The movie is semi-silent: It has a synchronized music track with some forgettable songs and occasional sound effects like the ring of a telephone and the knock on a door, and once there's a spoken line from a bandleader: "Come on, Miss Diane, strut your stuff." But most of the dialogue is confined to intertitles that tell us Diana has asked a boy to dance ("Wouldst fling a hoof with me?") or that Freddie (Edward J. Nugent) has asked Ann if she wants a drink ("Lí'l hot baby want a cool li'l sip?"). The Jazz Age was probably never like this, even at its height, which was several years earlier, but there is fun to be had here. The story, such as it is, was by Josephine Lovett, and those title cards were the work of Marian Ainslee and Ruth Cummings, who give it a mildly feminist spin: Despite the slut-shaming, the film is solidly on the side of the rights of women to have a good time. Lovett's story and George Barnes's cinematography were considered for Oscars -- there were no official nominations this year -- but lost out. 

[byneddiedingo]

Diana (Joan Crawford) is a Good Girl who people think is a Bad Girl because she likes to dance the Charleston on tabletops. Ann (Anita Page) is a Bad Girl posing as a Good Girl to try to land a rich husband. Beatrice (Dorothy Sebastian) is a Good Girl trying to hide the fact that she used to be a Bad Girl from Norman (Nils Asther), the man she has fallen in love with. And so it goes, as Ann steals Ben (Johnny Mack Brown) away from Diana, and Beatrice confesses her past sins to Norman, who marries her but doesn’t really trust her. This romantic melodrama was a big hit that established Crawford as a star. She’s lively and funny and dances a mean Charleston – a far cry from the long-suffering shoulder-padded Crawford of Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945) and the melodramas of her middle age, though we can see a hint of the Crawford to come when she squares off against Page, using her big eyes and lipsticked mouth as formidable weapons. The movie is semi-silent: It has a synchronized music track with some forgettable songs and occasional sound effects like the ring of a telephone and the knock on a door, and once there’s a spoken line from a bandleader: “Come on, Miss Diane, strut your stuff.” But most of the dialogue is confined to intertitles that tell us Diana has asked a boy to dance (“Wouldst fling a hoof with me?”) or that Freddie (Edward J. Nugent) has asked Ann if she wants a drink (“Lí'l hot baby want a cool li'l sip?”). The Jazz Age was probably never like this, even at its height, which was several years earlier, but there is fun to be had here. The story, such as it is, was by Josephine Lovett, and those title cards were the work of Marian Ainslee and Ruth Cummings, who give it a mildly feminist spin: Despite the slut-shaming, the film is solidly on the side of the rights of women to have a good time. Lovett’s story and George Barnes’s cinematography were considered for Oscars – there were no official nominations this year – but lost out. 

Joan Crawford in the opening moments of Our Dancing Daughters, 1928

[thewaytheywore]

[bornaftermytime]

JOAN CRAWFORD in a gorgeous vividly-colorized photo from Crawford's breakthrough film "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928)

(Courtesy of JM Cage)

[rainbowpopeworld]

This song goes through my head every time I hear this line, but of course changed to be angsty. 😓

[enha-stars]

for wedding season last year, i learned a total of 47 different dances (albeit their were 1-2 minutes) and this is not including the actual wedding dances (from the mehndi) and wedding szn has started again and now i need to learn 4 more THREE DAYS AFTER MY EXAMS FINISH 😃❕

[c0rpsedemon]

ok fr last one but there's actually a bootleg of my school's anastasia and i'm linking it bc you all NEED to understand that my infatuation with this one girl's voice which started when i was in the 6th grade and still hasn't really worn off isn't based on nothing

[freddieandersen]

just did a “huh. wonder what she’s up to” fb search of one of my dance friends from high school and yup another win for lesbians. [redacted] school of irish dance absolutely churning out future gays. of the six of us who danced into hs at least four are gay and/or nb now which is. statistically anomalous

[caliblorn]

No one speaks to my soul like Son Lux and M83

[rupertholmes]

i think if you grew up in my household you would have put a gun to my mom and dad's heads already