Not too long ago I pulled out a disc of films I recorded on a day that TCM was celebrating the birthday of noted writer Anita Loos. Miss Loos was a feminist and staunch liberal. Typically, her stories are about what women have to do get ahead and stay ahead. These are fun little enterprises in the world of precode cinema, and she turned out several gems like BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES (1932) and HOLD YOUR MAN (1933), a particular favorite of mine.
With BIOGRAPHY OF A BACHELOR GIRL (1935) she is adapting a stage play by someone else, but it has been sufficiently "converted" to the Loos woman way of thinking. And though this film was made after the establishment of the production code, and it is not quite as daring as it might be...the story about a female Casanova is still rather vivid in what it suggests.
Ann Harding's character is a leftish type who crosses paths with a flippant editor played by Robert Montgomery. Miss Harding and Mr. Montgomery had previously been teamed by Metro for the first version of WHEN LADiES MEET (1933), and they were already a bankable pair. What I love about this duo is that they are both so self-assured, so conceited that they don't need anyone else, least of all each other! Yet they do still need each other. In a big way. They must prop one another up, since it takes a lot of energy to stand out and defy society's conventions.
We learn that Harding caught Montgomery's eye, professionally speaking, because he realized she had an extremely social life, with countless affairs, romances, whatever you want to call them, with important men. She loved them and left them at breakneck speed, then moved on to the next with seldom a regret. Because of her important connections around the globe, she's a natural go-to for an editor wanting to publish material that reveals the unblemished truth about such people. And who better to pen these (auto)biographical ditties than someone like Harding's character?
As the film starts Harding is currently involved with a pseudo-composer (Edward Arnold), and she is somewhat distracted. But don't you fear, Montgomery will pull her away from all that and get her to focus on what's important. Of course, not every person featured in Harding's tell-all will be pleased about their sordid adventures now being exposed to the public in this way.
One person who is vehemently opposed to the airing of his dirty laundry by Harding is a pretentious buffoon played by Edward Everett Horton. He is living a respectable conservative lifestyle, engaged to an influential man's daughter (Una Merkel). In fact, he is up for a top political job. And tsk tsk tsk, Harding's anecdotes could ruin his chances and end his new career before it starts!
An interesting aspect of the story is the fact that Harding's character is first and foremost a painter. Producing text for Montgomery's company is a second career. So some of the dialogue focuses on how Harding cultivates relationships as a serious artiste (painter) as opposed to providing fodder for the masses as a writer.
As her editor Montgomery gets to hack the heck out of what Harding gives him, and he can reshape the material to his own tastes. He is basically a ghostwriter if you will, which gives the film another layer...especially when they start to fall in love. It becomes about how they can edit or censure their most private thoughts, if they feel the need to, and how they can control the direction they're heading in as a creative team.
The best scene is a bit where he's taken her to some remote cabin to concentrate and finish writing. They go into the local village to buy groceries and must deal with some ignorant hicks. She starts speaking a false language, so the locals will find her even more strange and become even more fearful of her otherness.
She is mocking how they regard her ways as a woman, since their narrow mindedness has already caused them to consider her foreign to them and their small community "sensibilities." It's a wonderful scene that spoofs the uneducated conservative views of that time, and it applies very much to some of our uninformed folks on the so-called right side today.
With BIOGRAPHY OF A BACHELOR GIRL (1935) she is adapting a stage play by someone else, but it has been sufficiently "converted" to the Loos woman way of thinking. And though this film was made after the establishment of the production code, and it is not quite as daring as it might be...the story about a female Casanova is still rather vivid in what it suggests.
Ann Harding's character is a leftish type who crosses paths with a flippant editor played by Robert Montgomery. Miss Harding and Mr. Montgomery had previously been teamed by Metro for the first version of WHEN LADiES MEET (1933), and they were already a bankable pair. What I love about this duo is that they are both so self-assured, so conceited that they don't need anyone else, least of all each other! Yet they do still need each other. In a big way. They must prop one another up, since it takes a lot of energy to stand out and defy society's conventions.
We learn that Harding caught Montgomery's eye, professionally speaking, because he realized she had an extremely social life, with countless affairs, romances, whatever you want to call them, with important men. She loved them and left them at breakneck speed, then moved on to the next with seldom a regret. Because of her important connections around the globe, she's a natural go-to for an editor wanting to publish material that reveals the unblemished truth about such people. And who better to pen these (auto)biographical ditties than someone like Harding's character?
As the film starts Harding is currently involved with a pseudo-composer (Edward Arnold), and she is somewhat distracted. But don't you fear, Montgomery will pull her away from all that and get her to focus on what's important. Of course, not every person featured in Harding's tell-all will be pleased about their sordid adventures now being exposed to the public in this way.
One person who is vehemently opposed to the airing of his dirty laundry by Harding is a pretentious buffoon played by Edward Everett Horton. He is living a respectable conservative lifestyle, engaged to an influential man's daughter (Una Merkel). In fact, he is up for a top political job. And tsk tsk tsk, Harding's anecdotes could ruin his chances and end his new career before it starts!
An interesting aspect of the story is the fact that Harding's character is first and foremost a painter. Producing text for Montgomery's company is a second career. So some of the dialogue focuses on how Harding cultivates relationships as a serious artiste (painter) as opposed to providing fodder for the masses as a writer.
As her editor Montgomery gets to hack the heck out of what Harding gives him, and he can reshape the material to his own tastes. He is basically a ghostwriter if you will, which gives the film another layer...especially when they start to fall in love. It becomes about how they can edit or censure their most private thoughts, if they feel the need to, and how they can control the direction they're heading in as a creative team.
The best scene is a bit where he's taken her to some remote cabin to concentrate and finish writing. They go into the local village to buy groceries and must deal with some ignorant hicks. She starts speaking a false language, so the locals will find her even more strange and become even more fearful of her otherness.
She is mocking how they regard her ways as a woman, since their narrow mindedness has already caused them to consider her foreign to them and their small community "sensibilities." It's a wonderful scene that spoofs the uneducated conservative views of that time, and it applies very much to some of our uninformed folks on the so-called right side today.