"...didn't succeed in talkies."
The good news is that she could have if she had wanted to. both of her talkies were successful, but she was sick of the being the woman who was always taking her dress off and retired, settling down on her husband's ranch.
you can't tell so well in her silents, but she is also strikingly intelligent. I feel so sorry for her; such a talented woman and so badly mismanaged.
shareIt was the depression. What once seemed cute in the 20s was now just too exhausting to pay attention to. The troubles of men in top hats and white tie and women in silks and fur were not of interest to audiences anymore.
If what you say is true, how do you explain The Thin Man movies, about a playboy detective and his rich heiress wife? Or My Man Godfrey with Carole Lombard as a spoiled rich girl or most of Bette Davis's and Katherine Hepburn's movies? Or all the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. Audience during the depression craved movies about the rich and their ways. It gave them respite from the realities of the Depression.
shareThe difference was the milieu. It was no longer the country club, the society ball, the golf course. Both The Thin Man series and My Man Godfrey moved around in the seedier side of the city. Being rich wasn't aspirational, but seen as something of a social handicap to be overcome. You have to watch a lot of the early (1928-31) talkies, especially those adapted from Broadway plays.
shareI think she was INCREDIBLE in "Call her Savage". I liked her much more in this movie than any of her silent films. She was a very good actress. And she didn't overact, as was done in the silents.
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