SHOW OFF+PLASTIC AGE

Details

• Genre: Comedy, Drama
• Plot: Idols Of The Jazz Age; ; A double feature, each starring an icon of the 1920s: ; ; Legendary Louise Brooks' appearance in The Show Off gives this well-made Paramount programmer most of its latter-day appeal, but the film is also well worthwhile for other reasons. ; ; Clara Bow as a fast-living jazz baby with a heart of gold ignites the screen in The Plastic Age, a raucous collegiate comedy of Prohibition era youth.; ; Louise Brooks has been canonized for her unself-conscious sexual allure, a quality recognized by German director G.W. Pabst, who cast her as femme fatale Lulu in Pandora's Box. ; ; Only two years earlier, however, Brooks was in supporting roles such as this fetching girl-next-door who steals every scene she's in. ; ; Her movie neighbor, Lois Wilson, plays Amy Fisher, the gullible fiancée of Aubrey Piper (Ford Sterling), a humbug whose pompous behaviour and incessant boasting mark him a worthless charlatan to everybody but her. ; ; When Amy marries Aubrey in spite of the family's objection, their lives spiral toward poverty, and it falls to the abrasive braggart to somehow save the day. ; ; This film was directed by Malcolm St. Clair, who by the late 1920s was regarded as second only to Lubitsch as a director of sparkling, sophisticated comedies with Paramount's top stars, and he gives surprisingly serious scope to a film which was probably planned as just as harmless diversion.; ; *******************; ; Clara Bow in The Plastic Age expresses the youthful exuberance and 1920s playfulness that made her an icon of the era and an unqualified screen legend. ; ; At Prescott College, she evokes the carefree lifestyle of the fast crowd with its ribald pranks, wild parties, and heavy petting. ; ; In addition to male leads Donald Keith and Gilbert Roland, a very young Clark Gable can be glimpsed in several scenes as one of Prescott College's charismatic revelers.
• Runtime: 2:35
• Media Format: Other