kidboots Review of Womanhandled

Womanhandled (1925)

"All Men Are Womanhandled"!!!

[8/10 · 16 January 2020]

Just the funnest movie - just ambles along, full of cute little incidents

• boy meets girl, love at first sight but..... Molly has an idealized version

of the West - she has read all the books and to her the West is were men are men, not the pampered, petted, womenhandled men of the East. Richard Dix as Bill spins a few yarns and before he realises it, he is on his way to his uncle's Texas farm to prove himself worthy in her eyes - before this trip the only rough things Bill had encountered were roads!! Getting to the ranch is a shock, the west has changed from the romance, instead of horses cars are used in round ups and most of the "cowboys" yearn to return to their real homes in "New Joisey"!! As his uncle says if it all gets too much he can always play a round of golf at the local golf course!!

Before he can return in his new found western "he man" guise Molly pays a surprise visit and in a plot line straight out of Douglas Fairbanks' "Wild and Woolly" Bill enlists the help of the whole ranch to put on a show to keep Molly's dreams of the west alive!! As her mother says at the end whether from the east or west all men are "womenhandled". So many quiet chuckles, Bill's dealings with Molly's pesky brother and when they all sit down to eat and Bill puts on some rough western table manners for Molly's benefit. I agree, there must have been a reel missing, they could have had a lot of fun with the arrival of that gang of chorus cuties who showed up at the ranch 5 minutes before the end!! Both Olive Tell and Margaret Morris were also featured in the credits but apart from a few seconds at the start, none were seen. Morris played an old flame of Bill's

• that could have created a few situations!!

Was there ever a more beautiful actress than Esther Ralston, any movie where she is featured is so welcome. This movie happens to be a lot of fun!!