The greatest movie ever made..!
... View MoreIt's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
... View MoreIt's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
... View MoreThrough painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
... View MoreIn no way can I be persuaded to think that MARION DAVIES was a brilliant comedienne. She delivers her lines in flat fashion, making everyone aware that she is acting--as if that in itself is supposed to be funny. Truth is, she was better in silents where we were not subjected to her strident speaking voice and the affected mannerisms on display in her later films.I go with the N.Y. Times reviewer who said: "Some of it is funny, some of it isn't, and a lot of it is speed and noise." For sheer speed and noise you can have PAT O'BRIEN, spouting all his dialog like a machine gun spitting out lines faster than the speed of sound. You can have ALLEN JENKINS being his lovable but dumb self, saddled with some of the film's sillier moments but at least drawing a chuckle. Or you can sympathize with MARY ASTOR who is supposed to be daffy about FRANK McHUGH--and that too is good for a laugh. And then we have poor DICK POWELL, trying to make something out of a thankless supporting role as Marion's true love.It's all done in the furious fashion typical of these screwball comedies from the '30s--only this one hasn't got enough wit in the script to please any discriminating viewer.For Davies fans only. Before it's over, you get the feeling you've seen it all before.
... View MoreAfter William Randolph Hearst took his Cosmopolitan Pictures off the MGM lot and onto Warner Brothers, Marion Davies for her first film was given the title role in Page Miss Glory. The film is based on a Broadway play that ran only 63 performances during the 1934-1935 season.Press Agents Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh concoct a phony beauty by taking facial features from several known movie stars to create the perfect American beauty. When asked to produce her, our intrepid duo is stuck, but when hotel chambermaid Marion Davies comes in to make up the room, it seems like a prayer has been answered.O'Brien and McHugh are playing roles that they've both done dozens of times alone and together at Warner Brothers in the Thirties. I think Pat O'Brien pulled more cinematic cons than any other player on record. Davies has some very funny moments and I know she wished she could have done more films like this one.Dick Powell plays a Charles Lindbergh like aviator with a nice tenor voice who sings the song Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote for the film Page Miss Glory. It's done during a dream sequence when Davies still thinking like a chambermaid, imagines herself being swept up romantically by Powell.Page Miss Glory is one of Marion Davies better sound features and still worth seeing today.
... View More"PAGE MISS GLORY" A pleasant surprise viewing, we stumbled over this movie this morning on TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Our Satellite Service (DISH) provided its very brief introduction; noting that Marion Davies was in the Cast, we stayed on and viewed the entire show.I was raised in a family that did not admire Marion Davies nor, for that matter, W.R. (William Randolph Hearst). In fact, our family took its orders from the Legion of Decency listings; watching a condemned film could book you a ticket to H*E*L*L. Thus, I was amply supplied with bias and prejudice against the STAR of this movie. SURPRISE! Hey, I think she is acting! Just this week, I had read about the Production Code that governed what we the public could see - for example, the principals in a bedroom scene needed to keep at least one foot on the floor at all times. The article discussed the effect of the code upon how women were to be portrayed - before 1934, when the Code went into effect, women could be "sultry", "naughty", or whatever. After, however, the woman had to be relegated to unimportant and uninspiring roles; a rule, per the article, that led to popular male roles and the rise of male stars.MARION DAVIES was relatively unknown to me for the aforesaid reasons - for once, my "Videohound" was mute on the movie but did show that she had two other movies released on Video.So, we watched. We were seeing a CODE movie. A Cinderella story, she played an overly dumb blonde hotel room maid who (unwittingly)influenced a couple of promoters' efforts to create a pinup of the "the perfect" candidate for a beauty contest. The pinup is a composite of attractive parts of attractive women. Guess who looked like the imaginary pinup? We enjoyed the movie from start to finish and got a lot of good laughs - you would enjoy it. The only problem I had was the role played by Mary Astor - perhaps her sympathetic support lent stature to the movie but Astor's female role acted depressed and confused - not too dangerous to the men's silly schemes.I was sure that W.R. had meddled with the whole thing until I looked up "Page Miss Glory" in IMDb. From there, came most of the facts quoted above. It turns out that Davies' accomplishments included Movie Scripts and she produced a dozen movies. In all she acted in 48 movies from 1917 to 1937. Since "Page Miss Glory" was her 45th, it is a mature effort.
... View MoreMarion Davies shines in this spoof of celebrity as a country girl who comes to the big city and gets involved in a phony beauty contest. Screwball plot and great cast make this fun from beginning to end and proves YET AGAIN what a terrific comedienne Davies was. Dick Powell, Pat O'Brien, Mary Astor, Patsy Kelly, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins, Berton Churchill, and Helen Lowell (as the mother) are all wonderful. The bickering yeast kings (Joseph Cawthorn and Al Shean) are boring, but everything else in this comedy zings along. This one of Davies' last pictures and she was pushing 40 but she is brave enough to play half the film as the dowdy country girl. Davies was a star for 20 years and made the switch to talkies. Now she is finally being rediscovered and getting her due as a terrific comic actress. About time!
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