Our Modern Maidens is a 1929 film directed by Jack Conway.
Billie Brown (Joan Crawford) is a filthy rich young socialite who has just graduated from college. She is engaged to be married to one of her classmates, Gil Jordan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Gil is all set up to join the diplomatic service of the State Department, and Billie is determined that he'll get a posting in Paris. On the train back home from school, Billie meets Glenn Abbott, a senior, well-connected diplomat. Billie starts flirting with Glenn, with the hopes of buttering him up so that she can get that plum post for Gil, but she starts to develop feelings for Glenn. Meanwhile, with Billie paying attention to Glenn, Gil starts finding himself more and more in the company of Kentucky Stafford (Anita Page), Billie's gorgeous friend, who happens to be in love with Gil.
The second in a loose trilogy of films about young flappers, all starring Crawford and Page, following Our Dancing Daughters and followed by Our Blushing Brides.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: At a party, Gil entertains the other guests with some celebrity impressions. After doing impressions of John Barrymore and John Gilbert, someone calls out "Robin Hood!". Gil proceeds to do a scarily accurate impression of...Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s father Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, including the famous pose
◊ of Douglas Senior brandishing a mug of beer. - Alliterative Name: Billie's father, an industrial magnate, glories in the name of "B. Bickering Brown".Gil: What a colorful name!
- Dramatic Irony: Billie comforts a weepy Kentucky by saying "You'll be so happy...when you meet the man you love." Of course Kentucky has met the man she loves, namely Gil, whom Billie is marrying that day. And Billie has also met her real true love, Glenn.
- The Flapper: All three films in this trilogy were basically odes to The Flapper. Billie is a fun-loving, vivacious debutante, who likes to dance and wears her hair in a short bob and plays dice for fun—the archetypal flapper. At a dance, she jumps in with the band and starts playing drums.
- Lingerie Scene: The scene where Billie comforts a hysterical Kentucky happens just as Kentucky is changing into her bridesmaid dress, and is obviously just an excuse to film Anita Page wearing only a slip.
- Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: This film was made at the tail end of the silent era when studios were often sticking bits of dialogue into mostly silent films. Among the "talkie" bits added to this film is the sound of a choir singing "Here Comes the Bride" as Billie descends the staircase for her wedding.
- Love Dodecahedron: Billie and Gil each have other admirers, namely Glenn and Kentucky respectively. They wind up switching partners.
- Meaningful Name: You couldn't hear accents in silent movies, so naming a character "Kentucky Stafford" lets the audience know that she's an innocent Country Mouse.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: The lavish party Billie's father is throwing includes a little fleet of gondolas on the lake, with gondoliers to row the guests around. With Billie off paying attention to Glenn, Gil and Kentucky wind up snuggled up to each other in a gondola while they're rowed around the lake.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Kentucky gets knocked up by that single encounter that she had with Gil after the party.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Gil and Kentucky have a passionate embrace. Cut to the next morning and Kentucky on a couch, looking up at the ceiling with a dreamy expression meant to make the audience understand she got laid the night before.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Glenn and Billie get caught in the rain, which causes Billie to be drenched by the time they finally get to Glenn's cottage, which leaves her dress plastered to her body and leaving nothing to the imagination. Glenn embraces her but Billie manages to restrain herself and push him away.
- Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Not to be outdone when she sees Billie join the band and play drums, Kentucky jumps on top of a piano and starts strumming a guitar.
- Thematic Series: Second in a series of three films in which Joan Crawford and Anita Page play flappers, after Our Dancing Daughters and before Our Blushing Brides. The films don't share a continuity but all are romances with Crawford as a young flapper looking for love and eventually finding it.
- Worst News Judgment Ever: No big news stories in 1929, apparently, which is why "SOCIETY SHUNS BILLIE BROWN" and "MARRIAGE VOWS ANNULLED" are huge newspaper headlines.
- Zip Me Up: Kentucky ask Gil to fasten her watch. A little bit of touch from handsome Gil clearly gets Kentucky excited.
