"Our Blushing Brides" 1930

Cast: Joan Crawford (as Jerry March), Anita Page, Dorothy Sebastian, Robert Montgomery, Raymond Hackett, John Miljan, Albert Conti, Edward Brophy, Hedda Hopper, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Martha Sleeper, Gwen Lee, Mary Doran, Catherine Moylan, Norma Drew, Claire Dodd,
Wilda Mansfield.


Release date - July 19, 1930

Running time - 99 minutes (11 reels)

Director - Harry Beaumont

Writing Credits - Bess Meredyth and John Howard Lawson (dialogue), Helen Meinardi (titles)

Producer - Harry Beaumont

Cinematographer - Merritt B. Gerstad

Costumes - Adrian

Studio - MGM

Movie Synopsis

Gerry (Joan), Connie (Anite Page) and Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) are best friends who live and work together in New York City. Three shopgirls looking for love, desperate to find a man to keep them, have little luck realizing their dream. Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) gets all caught up in her crooked boyfriend's underhanded affairs and leaves New York City seeking retreat to her family's farm, after Gerry helps her out of her predicament. The fragile Connie commits suicide because of the philanderer she's married and Gerry is there yet again for her friend as Connie dies in her arms.

Interesting Trivia

Cost: $337K/Domestic Studio Gross: $874K/Foreign Studio Gross: $337K/ Profit:$412K

Box Office Receipts: $1,211,000.

Inflation Value in 2007: $15,079,415.51

Photos

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Movie Posters/Lobby Cards etc...

Reviews

Reviewer, Lady Jane Grey, says...

Joan Crawford in another of the alliterative early talkie series she did (others were "Our Dancing Daughters" and "Our Modern Maidens; one shudders to think what they would have done with the letter "C", and perhaps that's why they skipped it!) Jerry (Crawford), Frankie (Sebastian) and Connie (Page) are three NY department store shopgirls who live in a cramped apartment and use a hammer and a nail to open their canned dinner while listening to jazz on the phonograph and conserving the hot water so they can take a bath. Jerry's pals long for rescue by a rich man, but practical Jerry knows better; she's been there, done that, and knows that beaus with bucks only want one thing with a shopgirl, and it's not marriage. Still, though, there is that dreamy Tony Jardine (Montgomery, at the height of his boyish sexiness), son of the store owner, who seems to take a shine to Jerry and vice versa. A telling scene comes when Jerry has to model some lingerie for a store customer in Tony's presence, opening her robe to display herself to his eyes, making her totally vulnerable. While Jerry's pals find the men they think they want, Jerry won't give in to Tony's rather caddish overtures. And there is that nice Joe from the store with the flivver and gin flask. He's not dreamy, but he is solid and upstanding, and that's what Jerry wants. She has second thoughts when both her friends seem to have found love AND riches. But she can't forget Tony's kisses. Maybe she should abandon up her ideals and stop suffering and give in to Tony already.

The cast is wonderful here and Joan has lost her stagy silent mannerisms and you can just see a glimmer of the Crawford that was to come. The Depression was on, but you wouldn't know it by Joan (or this character), who persevered in spite of everything. Joan was the most ambitious actress ever to step tootsie in Hollywood and seems to have been propelled along by sheer force of will, but she did have real acting talent, and this movie displays it. Bob Montgomery plays another of his dependable rich-boy roles and looks great in a tuxedo, chatting idly about Oyster Bay. At one point, Jerry won't make out with him, so he says "Let's have a cigarette," like he just invented it. (Don't you miss smoking? I do). What a great line.

Other Reviews

Lucius Beebe in the New York Times (1930) said, "It is all quite lamentable and would be downright depressing in its spurious elegance if it were not for the humorous and intelligent acting of Joan Crawford, who plays the part of a mannequin with enough assurance for a marchessa and enough virtue for a regiment."

Photoplay (1930) said, "You must see Joan Crawford in those lace step-ins! Swell box office picture!"

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