MovieChat Forums > Our Blushing Brides (1930) Discussion > This seems to be a morality play

This seems to be a morality play

posted 10 years ago by boxerrebellion
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I've seen so many Boards with old posts cleared out, I'm surprised that this one only has two and they are both from 2008. I hadn't seen any of this trio of movies (the 'Our X Y' movies) before and caught this and Our Modern Maidens last weekend. I didn't see the very beginning of Maidens, but really enjoyed this one and what I saw of the other.

I think this one is a morality play, the girl who takes her time, isn't boy crazy or 'fast' is the one who ends up not broken. This is interesting in light of the earlier Maiden movie, where Joan Crawford's character basically throws herself on the grenade - leaving her brand new husband during the reception after telling her Dad it was just all a mistake because she finds out that her best friend is pregnant by her husband. This opens the door for an annulment so that her best friend can escape the scandal of unwed motherhood, but taking the scandal upon herself.

[–] FANatic-10 10 years ago

I thought it was interesting that this film was so different in tone than the previous two Joan epics. In the first two "Our" films, which were fairly frivolous in nature, Joan was a "wild" rich girl who proved to be made of sterner stuff deep down. "Our Blushing Brides" sounds by its title as if it would be even more frivolous. However, its worth noting that this is the first one made post-depression, and its Joan at her Shop Girl best, playing a struggling department store model (mainly lingerie), rooming with Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian. Things are fairly gritty, but Joan and Anita still manage to fool around with Robert Montgomery and Raymond Hackett, playing the two scions of the store's owner. A fashion show given at these two's extremely plush Long Island estate gives a chance to repeat the Art Deco splendor of some of the sets of the first two, with Montgomery's secret, decked-out "tree house" being especially eye-popping. Joan also sports a longer hair style here and looks prettier to me - her careful enunciation, while understandable given the brand-new state of talkies at the time, seems a little stilted at times now, but would improve with time. A good performance overall!