{"id":35139,"date":"2015-04-22T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=35139"},"modified":"2015-04-21T22:18:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T05:18:33","slug":"tcm-film-fest-2015-why-be-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/tcm-film-fest-2015-why-be-good\/","title":{"rendered":"TCM Film Fest 2015: Why Be Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a new favorite film seen in 2015.<\/p>\n

Colleen Moore is absolutely, unequivocally the most adorable thing ever as Pert Kelly, a young girl who goes out and parties every night, embodying the carefree flapper spirit. We catch up with her when she’s agreed to go out with a super smarmy guy because he’s rich, but she clearly has limits on how far she’s willing to go. Exactly where those limits are become a sticking point when she trades out smarmfest for cleancut young Winthrop Peabody Jr (played by a very handsome Neil Hamilton) enjoying his last evening out before taking the job as personnel manager for his father’s department store. Turns out Pert is a clerk in the store, and when Peabody Sr discovers the kind of girl his son is going with, he objects – not because she’s a working girl (he’s too progressive for that), but because he assumes such a party girl has “been around,” as they say.<\/p>\n

\"WBG-why_be_good01\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The thing is, Pert is actually a good girl playing bad because it’s fun – and before you groan at the good girl\/bad girl dichotomy, the film is much more subtle about it than you’d expect. We’re definitely dealing with some old-fashioned gender mores in one way, especially as exemplified by Peabody Sr, but in its best moments, this movie is as progressively feminist as most things made today – and let me tell you, the moment when she tells her boyfriend off for seeming to follow in his father’s footsteps is both fist-bumpingly awesome (everyone in the theatre burst into spontaneous applause and cheers) and incredibly sobering when you realize that we’re still dealing with literally the same sexist crap today, 86 years later.<\/p>\n

Throughout the film, there’s a tension between what Pert knows about herself – she’s a good person who likes having fun – and what other people think of her based on their preconceptions of what good girls should be like. Her father is scandalized by how late she stays out, finding her sitting on the stairs kissing a boy at all hours of the night, and receiving clothes as a present from said boy. Peabody Sr. is obviously turned on by her dancing, but heartily disapproves of his son marrying her. It’s as clear a picture of a double standard as I’ve ever seen. Pert’s mom is the bright spot in this – she trusts her daughter implicitly yet still has wise advice to give her. I would watch a prequel about Mrs. Kelly when she was young.<\/p>\n

\"WBG-Why-Be-Good-02\"<\/p>\n

Why Be Good?<\/em> is a transitional silent from 1929 – there’s no spoken dialogue, but the film was created with a pre-recorded soundtrack of music and sound effects, and even a nonsense song sung by the worst wingmen of all time (seriously, Peabody Jr. is making out with Pert on the steps, and his buddies are out there in the car singing loudly, honking the horn, and yelling at him to come on). In the mid-1990s, a preservationist found the records of this soundtrack, but thought the film itself was lost, until another preservationist piped up that he knew of one copy – in an archive in Italy. After some twenty years (!) of negotiation, US archivists were finally able to get the film back and begin the work of restoration in 2012. Yet another reminder not to ever give up – up to 80% of silent films are thought to be lost, but miracles happen every year.<\/p>\n

The film is available on disc from Warner Archive<\/a> (I do not know if it’s based on the same print we saw at the Festival or not), and well worth checking out.<\/p>\n

\"WBG-Why-Be-Good-06\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new favorite film seen in 2015. Colleen Moore is absolutely, unequivocally the most adorable thing ever as Pert Kelly, a young girl who goes out and parties every night, embodying the carefree flapper spirit. We catch up with her when she’s agreed to go out with a super smarmy guy because he’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2111],"tags":[2569,2982],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WBG-feat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35754,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/challenge-week-13-my-best-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":35139,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 13: My Best Girl","author":"Jandy","date":"April 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've literally been looking forward to this one since even before the Challenge started, as Dan let me know earlier that he would probably pick this one. It did not disappoint! I think it probably came up in conversation after I saw and LOVED Why Be Good? (1929) at last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tf-feat-My-Best-Girl.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34052,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/2014-tcm-film-festival-hat-check-girl-1932\/","url_meta":{"origin":35139,"position":1},"title":"2014 TCM Film Festival: Hat Check Girl (1932)","author":"Jandy","date":"June 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After each TCM Film Festival, I've had a film that I considered my \"discovery\" of the Fest. It helps that TCM has a Discovery section dedicated to lesser-known and rediscovered films, but even out of that group, there's usually one I latch on to as the one that makes me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TCM Film Festival"","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35132,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/tcm-film-fest-2015-another-great-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":35139,"position":2},"title":"TCM Film Fest 2015: Another Great Experience","author":"Jandy","date":"March 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"There are plenty of great reasons to go to the TCM Classic Film Festival - seeing movies you love on the big screen, discovering forgotten and long-unavailable films, learning about film history firsthand, seeing some of the greatest actors, directors, and behind-the-scenes talent in the history of motion picture, etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TCM Film Festival"","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/TCM-Film-Festival-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35137,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/tcm-film-fest-2015-dont-bet-on-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":35139,"position":3},"title":"TCM Film Fest 2015: Don’t Bet on Women","author":"Jandy","date":"April 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Jeanette MacDonald is mostly remembered for her series of light operettas with Nelson Eddy, and for slightly more adventurous classic film fans, for her series of Pre-Code musical comedies with Maurice Chevalier and Ernst Lubitsch. That doesn't always stand her in good stead, since her particular brand of coloratura soprano\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TCM Film Festival"","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DBoW-Dont-Bet-on-Women-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35140,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/tcm-film-fest-2015-so-dear-to-my-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":35139,"position":4},"title":"TCM Film Fest 2015: So Dear to My Heart","author":"Jandy","date":"April 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I grew up watching this film, and just assumed that it was as much a part of everyone else's childhood as it was mine, just like any other Disney movie, or other animal movies like Lassie Come Home or National Velvet. Apparently that's far from the case, as only one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TCM Film Festival"","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/SDtMH-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34051,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/2014-tcm-film-festival-the-strangers-return\/","url_meta":{"origin":35139,"position":5},"title":"2014 TCM Film Festival: The Stranger’s Return","author":"Jandy","date":"May 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The tightest scheduling block I attempted was between How Green Was My Valley (see here) and this film, and I was extremely lucky to get in - I was, in fact, the LAST person into a very full theatre. I felt kind of bad (and still do, since I know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TCM Film Festival"","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}