Our Blushing Brides

Joan Crawford (Jerry March), Anita Page (Connie Blair), Dorothy Sebastian (Frankie Daniels), Robert Montgomery (Tony Jardine), Raymond Hackett (David Jardine), John Miljan (Martin Sanderson), Hedda Hopper (Mrs Lansing Ross-Weaver), Albert Conti (Monsieur Pantoise), Edward Brophy (Joe Munsey), Robert Emmett O'Connor (sneering detective), Martha Sleeper (Evelyn Woodforth), Claire Dodd, Gwen Lee, Mary Doran, Catherine Moylan, Norma Drew, Wilda Mansfield (mannequins), Mary Gordon (Mrs Mannix), Fernand Gravet (Emile), Jacques Lory (Andre), Leo White (Gaston), Oscar Apfel (floorwalker), Ernie Alexander (elevator operator), Louise Beavers (Amelia), Ann Dvorak (model with Tony), Maude Turner Gordon (Mrs Jardine), Wilbur Mack (flirting customer), Sarah Padden (Mrs Hinkle, the landlady), Albertina Rasch. Director: HARRY BEAUMONT. Screenplay: Bess Meredyth, John Howard Lawson. Additional dialogue: Edwin Justus Mayer. Titles for silent version: Helen Meinardi. Film editors: George Hively, Harold Palmer. Photography: Merritt B. Gerstad. Art director: Cedric Gibbons. Costumes designed by Adrian. Ballet staged by Albertina Rasch. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Sound recording engineer: Russell Franks. Producer: Harry Beaumont. Copyright 7 July 1930 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation. U.S. release: 19 July 1930. 9,138 feet. 101 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The love affairs of three shop-girls. COMMENT: What we have here is a "B" movie on an "A" budget. When Joan Crawford scored a big hit in Our Dancing Daughters (1928), the studio rushed her into Our Modern Maidens (1929). This also proved an outstanding success, so this third movie was inevitable. In all three movies, Joan was supported by Anita Page, and in the first by Dorothy Sebastian as well. Unfortunately, the formula has now done its dash. Despite Joan's fine performance and the addition of heaps of Metro gloss in the form of elaborate fashion shows choreographed in the midst of shimmering, never-never land sets, the movie fails to jell and ends abruptly on a tacked-on positive note after a disappointingly downbeat conclusion to the Raymond Hackett episode. Director Harry Beaumont takes advantage of the studio's largess with an occasional sweeping tracking shot, but more often his handling rates as flat-footed and dull. He seems over-awed by a feature the script didn't need, namely "additional dialogue." In fact, Our Blushing Brides comes across as a "talking picture" that is far too talky, although it still has loads of curiosity value and figures as a definite must-see for Joan Crawford fans.

source: Our Blushing Brides

Joan Crawford lands her man in director Harry Beaumont's "Our Blushing Brides," but her two roommates aren't as fortunate as she is in the game of love. This early MGM black & white, Pre-Code soaper about three eligible single girls who work at a New York City department is the third entry in a "jazz age" trilogy that began in 1928 with Beaumont's "Our Dancing Daughters" and continued with Jack Conway's "Our Modern Maidens" in 1928. The plot is pretty simple as well as predictable. The Bess Meredyth, John Howard Lawson, and Edwin Justus Mayer screenplay follows the exploits of model Jerry (Joan Crawford) and her two optimistic gal pals Connie (Anita Page of "The Broadway Melody") and linen sales clerk Francine (Dorothy Sebastian of "Spite Marriage") and their romantic affairs with the opposite sex. Naturally, these babes are looking not only for mister right but also mister millionaire and "Our Blushing Brides" depicts their successes and failures. Basically, Jerry harbors few illusions about men and believes that they are out to take advantage of girls. Meantime, her roommates go for the gold. Francine flirts with a mustached Lothario, Marty (John Miljan of "Apache Warrior") who prefers to purchase everything with cold hard cash. Eventually, she falls for him and they tie the knot. When Francine is flaunting her jewelry to Jerry, an inquisitive Detective (Robert Emmett O'Connor) barges into Jerry's apartment. He bursts her bubble of prosperity when he reveal to her that he is nothing but a con artist. At the same time, Connie falls hard for the youngest son of the department store owner where she works. David (Raymond Hackett) is a regular lady killer. He sweeps Connie off her feet and then Jerry catches him with another woman when she goes out for an evening on the town and runs into him at a show. Jerry heads off to inform on David to Connie, but she doesn't get a chance to spill the beans. Ironically, David walks in on them and he thinks that Jerry has already told Connie about his hot date. Connie breaks up with David and later she commits suicide. As for Jerry, our heroine fends off the advances of a fellow department store employee, Joe Munsey (Edward Brophy of "All Through the Night"), as well as the oldest son of the department store owner, Tony (Robert Montgomery of "The Divorcée"), who pursues her until she flatly tells him to bug off. The moral of the story is that gals ought to play hard to get, because the only thing that men want is love on the run. The scenes where Crawford models lingerie are revealing for its day. She appears in one scene in the equivalent of a bikini and Montgomery is all eyes for her. This glimpse of life in the 1930s is interesting, but the narrative contains few surprises, except for the ending that finds Tony landing Jerry after the tragedy of Connie's suicide attempt. Presumably, Connie took pills, but we aren't allowed to see her do it because there were some acts that Hollywood prohibited Pre-Code or otherwise. It appears that Connie loaded up on pills but Hollywood wasn't allowed to show such things for few that it might prompt others to perform such an act. This early example of a 'chick flick' shows how little the woman's picture has changed over the last century. Beaumont would helm some of Crawford's later films, such as "Dance, Fools, Dance" and "Laughing Sinners." Apart from the suicide , "Our Blushing Brides" seems like the wrong title for this melodrama.

Our Blushing Brides (1930) ** (out of 4) Third film in the (name only) trilogy has Joan Crawford, Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian playing girlfriends working together in a department store and sharing the same apartment. The three women discuss the hopes of one day finding rich men to marry. Page and Sebastian will stop at nothing to find a rich one whereas Crawford has more morals and tries to do things the correct way. While this film doesn't work as good as the previous two, it's still a fairly entertaining movie that manages to have some great actors doing nice work to bring a rather predictable story to life. The biggest problem with the film is its rather weak story that isn't strong enough to carry a 101-minute film and there's also the horrid ending, which really kills the film but I won't ruin it for anybody. What works best are the performances with Crawford once again shining as the good girl who must keep her moral high ground even when those around her are taking an easier path. Crawford makes the character her own and does a nice job with it. Page steals the film as one of the bad girls who gets herself in a bad situation with the expected outcome. Sebastian is also very good in her small role as is Robert Montgomery, Raymond Hackett and John Miljan as the men in the women's lives. Other good things including the sound, which is actually the best I've heard in an early talkie. Listening the the crisp dialogue will have you forgetting how young this movie was in the sound game. Another plus are some nice pre-code moments, which includes plenty of legs and scantly clad women including Crawford. Some nice dialogue rounds things off but one still wishes the screenplay was better.

Overly long, dated, predictable melodrama done in 1930. Joan Crawford plays a department store model, Gerry Marsh, who resists the charms of Tony Jardine (Robert Montgomery), whose family owns the store. Meanwhile, she watches her two roommates (Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page) make big mistakes regarding men. This is a pre-code film, and despite the above-mentioned problems, they're always interesting to watch. This one had to do with giving in to one's baser instincts (having sex) for money and the good life. This is 1930, and America was still preoccupied with class distinctions. Gerry refuses to give in to Tony, but her roommate Connie (Anita Page) is kept by his brother David. Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) marries a big talker. Two scenes stick out as a sign of the times - outside Gerry's apartment building on a hot summer night, the street is teeming with kids playing, an ice cream cart, and people sitting on the stoop. A very realistic portrayal of cities back then. With no air conditioning and no television, people sat outside for the air and to talk with their neighbors. Social interaction, not social networks, Internet, and cable, provided their entertainment. The second striking thing was the radio description of an engagement of a couple from socially prominent families. I remember seeing an old Vogue magazine where an woman engaged to some sort of royalty got a full page portrait. Not uncommon. For anyone who only knows the hard-faced Joan Crawford of later years, this movie will serve as a revelation. Made for movies with those huge, mesmerizing eyes, beautiful face, and trim figure, Crawford shines here. At times she sounds like she's sporting some sort of affected accent, though I don't know why. Page and Sebastian are also very good in their roles. Montgomery is underused - he was more than a dashing leading man - but he looks great and does the role well. All in all, worth seeing for the young Crawford and a look at life in 1930 for shop girls.

Here we witness the reunion of Joan Crawford, Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page two years after their 1928 hit, Our Dancing Daughters. This time, perhaps reflecting the input of left- wing screenwriter John Howard Lawson, the girls are proletarian department store workers instead of the privileged creatures they played in the previous film. The early scenes pan through the dressing room where the employees dress for the day's work, catching snatches of shopgirl conversation. But the three central characters are still struggling with that old demon, sexual morality in the modern era. In this round, Crawford is the cynical one who has been abused so often by men that she has developed a distinct armor against their advances; Sebastian and Page are utter dupes who, in their yearning to marry money and escape a life of drudgery, fall for the first superficial moneyed suitor that comes along. Robert Montgomery, Raymond Hackett and John Miljan are the flawed menfolk they encounter. Though the plot developments are contrived even by the standards of the day, this is not a bad entertainment but it suffers midway when the progression of events grinds to a halt in favor of an elaborate but not very imaginative fashion show, ostensibly to impress female moviegoers, or perhaps to show off Crawford's beautiful body and skill at posing. She gets the star treatment here, frequently in dazzling close-up. Sometimes her facial expressions veer a bit into semi-dementia, but she restrains herself admirably. Anita Page does very well as the innocent victim of the thoughtless Hackett. Sebastian's role is in the wan mode of ZaSu Pitts; she has an amusing drunk scene. Montgomery, born to wear white tie and tails, must have gotten a big career boost with this one. If nothing else, this film can probably boast the most impressive tree house ever created for the screen.

This was the third film in the Joan Crawford flapper trilogy - (Our Dancing Daughters (1928)/Our Modern Maidens (1929)/Our Blushing Brides (1930)). The first two were silent, the third was a talking picture. This was not Joan Crawford's first talking picture nor her first film with costar Robert Montgomery - both those honors go to 1929's "Untamed". You can really see the onset of the Great Depression having an effect in this final film of the trilogy. The first two films involve lots of melodrama, but there is also widespread prosperity and a focus on living it up with partying that reflects the excesses of the 1920's. This final film really isn't about living it up at all. It's more about three shop girls just getting by and how the men in the lives of two of them (Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian) promise the good life but end up raining down tragedy upon them, while the third shop girl, Gerry (Joan Crawford), has her own cynical attitude towards men reinforced by watching the fates of her two friends. That makes the ending seem a little tacked on and even unbelievable to some degree, but it's still a good film. Unfortunately this film is neither on DVD or VHS. "Our Dancing Daughters" and "Our Modern Maidens" can be found on used VHS copies, but the transfer is pretty blurry. None of the three is on DVD, and considering their place in Joan Crawford's filmography, I find that to be a shame.

Third entry in Joan Crawford's flapper trilogy. The story is about three department store workers and roommates who are out to land husbands, preferably rich ones. Joan plays Jerry, Anita Paige is Connie, and Dorothy Sebastian is Franky. Jerry is the most level-headed of the three while the other two are complete idiots. Franky falls for a guy because he throws money around. Connie falls for a guy who plays the love card pretty liberally but won't propose. This is basically one of those "men will say whatever to get laid" stories. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. I suppose at the time it was sort of a cautionary tale for working girls that he won't buy the cow if the milk is free. It's all watchable enough but forgettable. Robert Montgomery has an early unimpressive role as Jerry's love interest.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's a simple story line and lasts just over an hour. JC is the practical motherly character which in future roles is not the norm, but she plays it well. It's worth watching just for that. There are definitely some racy pre-code themes. I would consider this a kind of early talkie chick flick.

From 1928-1930, Joan Crawford made three very similar films with very similar titles--OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (1928), OUR MODERN MAIDENS (1929) and this film. All were about Joan and her friends trying to find the perfect man, but encountering problems when they discover that these "perfect" man were often rats or expected them to "put out"--with no certainty of marriage. Compared to the films after the Production Code was enforced (1934 and later), these films are amazingly frank about sex and the plots seemed to revolve around this struggle to maintain self-respect and virginity while also finding a happy marriage. In all these films, Joan played a "nice girl" who would NOT put out, though her friends did and faced the consequences. So what you have are moralistic films that still pushed the envelope with their themes. In all three films, Anita Page played one friend and Dorothy Sebastian played the other friend in two of the three films. While this film is pure formula and also highly reminiscent to most of Joan's films of the 1930s (where she was a poor girl willing to do almost anything to bag a rich man), it is unique enough to be worth seeing. I particularly liked the portion of the film involving Anita Page--it was pretty awful but fascinating. The only sour note was the ending. I thought having Joan getting married to the brother-in-law of the man responsible for the death of one of her friends was really far-fetched, though my wife thought this actually worked well. Overall, nothing particularly new or inspiring enough to make this a must-see, but Crawford fans should enjoy it nonetheless. By the way, of all her films, Crawford is probably her most beautiful here--without the crazy padded shoulders or severe makeup that became her trademarks in later films.