1.– Although Dorothy Arzner’s work is generally unknown except to film
historians and specialists, the author is happy to report that her reputation
continues to rise. When the British Film Institute recently released its list of
360 key films in the history of cinema, most critics for whom the list was
submitted for comment felt the lack of a single Arzner film was a major
oversight.
2.-- Although Bow was a featured player in Dancing Mothers, her presence is
entirely irrelevant to the film’s similarity to Party. For the record, Alice Joyce
was the star of Dancing Mothers and Joan Crawford was the star of Our
Modern Maidens.
3.-- Needless to say, the author would love to see the first Bow/Arzner
collaboration: 1927’s Get Your Man. However, at this time the only known
print – albeit missing several reels – is in the Library of Congress and is
unavailable for review.
4.-- Among the other films made during the 1929 – 1930 period that I compared
Party to on a technical level: Anna Christie, Sunny Side Up,Marianne, Not So
Dumb, The Floradora Girl, Free and Easy, Doughboys,Madam Satan,
Atlantic, Blackmail, The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, The Big Trail, and of
course, Bow’s Dangerous Curves, The Saturday Night Kid, and True to the
Navy. By far, the only one that seems as adventurous as Party is Hitchcock’s
Blackmail; and without a doubt the worst is the one that is probably the most
seen: the Marx Brothers The Cocoanuts.
5.–- It’s not at all ironic that one of the lines Fredric March says to Bow is: "I
hate you – and I love you."
6.-- The author apologizes at this point for deliberately intermixing Clara’s name
throughout the article with that of her character, Stella. However, this is
central to the author’s intention as the two seem deliberately to be so much
one and the same.
7.-- Compare the climax of Our Modern Maidens. In that film, Joan Crawford
isn’t married to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. for two minutes before she discovers
he’s the father of best friend Anita Page’s child. So she walks out on her
wedding claiming to the crowd it was her indiscretion that is now causing the
wedding to be annulled. Then she flies off to Paris and into the arms of second
lead Rod La Rocque.
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