The Saturday Night Kid (1929)

In real life and in films I absolutely hate when people start drama between two other people. That one person who starts the drama is usually jealous and wants something or someone for themselves. That is pretty much the entire hour and three minute story of The Saturday Night Kid.

            Mayme (Clara Bow) and her sister Janie (Jean Arthur) live and work together at a department store. Also working at the department store and living in the same apartment building is Bill Taylor. Mayme really likes Bill and he likes her as well. Janie is jealous of her sister going out with Bill. The sisters do not really get along that well. Janie is always wearing Mayme’s things without asking and doing other mischievous things with Mayme’s belongings.

            Mayme is usually late for work. Janie on the other hand is always on time even though she leaves after her sister by hitching rides with strangers which Mayme does not like at all. The department store is putting on a show for a charity with the employees as the actors. Mayme and Jane are chosen for two of the characters and Janie is also chosen as treasurer for the charity money since she is always on time for work. That same day a female customer comes in and flirts with Bill. Mayme does not that like that all so when the customer is on an exercise machine she cranks it up and the customer is all in a fit about it. Bill gets mad at Mayme for driving away a sale and for her behavior. Mayme does not go home with Bill or her sister that night. Bill comes back to the apartment to find only Janie home. Janie decides to start her nasty wedge between Bill her sister right then and there.

            Janie’s plan works for a while and then fantastically back fires when she gambles the money from the charity away on a horse race and she blames Mayme as the one who gambled the money. Mayme slaps the ever living hell out of her sister for the crap she pulled. Bill forgives her in a very cheesy ending. She had nothing to forgive him about why the hell was she apologizing?! Damn classic films in moments like this!

            The Saturday Night Kid was disappointing. I have read and heard that it is a classic Pre-Code that was good. I will say it was great to finally hear Clara Bow talk after seeing her in so many silent films. I liked hearing her voice to go along with that attitude she had. Jean Arthur as much as I love the woman was not good in this film. It could have been her character that I could not get into or it could have been that this one of her early speaking roles. I will only say to watch The Saturday Night Kid if you are a fan of either Clara Bow, Jean Arthur, or Pre-Code films otherwise skip it.  

Silent Sundays: The Primrose Path (1925)

According to the title cards a primrose path is a path that someone takes towards temptation. I can tell you that there is nothing very tempting in The Primrose Path that makes it really worth watching.

            A young man named Bruce Armstrong comes from what seems to be a wealthy family. He wastes his life gambling, drinking and partying. He apparently got so drunk one time that he seriously hurt his young brother Jimmy to the point where the kid has to walk with a leg brace. Despite that injury Bruce’s mother and brother love him and the family has become even closer because of the injury. As much as Bruce is a jerk Jimmy sticks up and covers for his brother after he trips him for no apparent reason. Bruce feels terrible and confesses to his mother that he has no idea why Jimmy sticks up for him (*great guy I would want him for an older brother let me tell you*).

            A phone call comes in for Bruce from a girl named Marilyn Merrill (Clara Bow). Marilyn dances at a popular club and she tells him not to come to the show that night. He ignores her request and replies that he will be there no matter what. Before he leaves his mother pleads with him not to stay out too late.

            Bruce gambles with Tom, the owner of the club, and a guy called Big Joe Snead. Tom owes Tom and Snead a lot of money. Bruce constantly passes bad checks and he has no other way to pay them. Tom comes up with a plan to have Bruce meet a man named Talbot at a dock. At the dock Bruce with exchange canes with Talbot. The canes are full of smuggled diamonds. If Bruce takes this job all his debts will be forgiven. He struggles with the idea he does not want to be a part of their smuggling operation but he does not have the money to pay them off. He decides to take the job. Marilyn hears what is happening and she is afraid Bruce will get hurt.

            Things happen that I cannot remember even though I somewhat wrote them down. A guy named Parker (I think that is who it is) intercedes the transfer and takes the diamonds back to Tom himself instead of Bruce getting them. Parker wants a cut but Tom lets him know that his cut will be Marilyn. Parker gets pissed and punches Tom sending him landing on a fireplace. Tom dies. Parker climbs out of the window and passes Snead. He tells Snead that Bruce has the diamonds. Bruce was in the room when everything happened. He is in such shock that he cannot move himself out of the room. Marilyn’s dressing room is on the other side of a second door in the room. She opens it and pulls Bruce into her room just before two other guys (possibly detectives I don’t know) come in to find the murderer.

            Snead wants the diamonds. Thinking that Bruce has them Snead goes to Bruce’s house. The two men get into a fight that winds up outside on the sidewalk. Snead was about to bash Bruce against the sidewalk when Bruce takes out a gun and fires. Snead is killed. Jimmy sees everything and goes to the mother to tell him everything he saw. Bruce is arrested for Snead’s murder. At the trial Bruce’s lawyer tells him that he will not go to jail because there are too many versions of the story and no witnesses. Well, the dumb lawyer was wrong there was a witness in the form of a cab driver that pulled up just as Brue shot Snead. The cab driver also blows everything to pieces when he tells the court that Jimmy was at the door an saw everything. The lawyers argue about having Jimmy come up to testify but they get the kid to come up. Jimmy is a boy scout and promises to swear an oath. Before he can even tell his story Jimmy becomes upset about what he will be made to say about his older brother whom he adores. Bruce will not let his brother carry the guilt of sending him to the electric chair for the rest of his life so he confesses himself that he killed Snead.

            In a nice lovely twist of fate the guy Talbot is picked up and he tells the District Attorney everything that happened with the diamonds. And because of Talbot’s story Bruce is let out of jail and back to his family.

            Blah how boring. I had no idea what The Primrose Path was about. I do not think it would have even mattered because it sounded interesting when I read the little summary of it on IMDB. But the story is so boring and typical. You know that by the end of the film   Bruce is going to reform and be home with Marilyn and family. You know that Bruce is truly innocent in the whole scheme of things. I watched this film to see Clara Bow. I have yet to see her in a role that makes people believe she is such an icon. From her films I have seen I do not understand why she is such an icon both as a 1920s woman and in film. I will confess though that I have quite a few of Bow’s films to sit through and I do not know that much about her. I like Bow I will watch more of her films in the future. The Primrose Path is only worth watching if you really like Clara Bow otherwise skip it. 

Silent Sundays: Kid Boots (1926)

“Some girls crave good men- I just want ‘em reliable.”

            Samuel “Kid” Boots (Eddie Cantor) is not a very good looking guy. He has received a card with a caricature of him with his long face and big ears a poem calling him ugly. He is a sad lonely guy working in a tailor shop.

            Clara McCoy (Clara Bow) was out riding in a car with her boyfriend Big Boyle when their car breaks down. Boyle fixes the car but his suit is all messy with grease. Clara makes him buy a new suit before he gets back in the car with her. He goes into the shop Kid works in. Kid sells Boyle a suit but the suit has a hanger that will not come off of it and he places the jacket the big man. Boyle likes it and he walks out with his small suit. He proudly shows his suit off to Clara and she laughs when she sees the hanger. Boyle angrily tears into the tailor shop looking for Kid. Kid manages to get out of the store before Boyle can tear him apart. He runs into Clara outside and she rips her skirt on the car. Kid quickly stitches her skirt and they flirt a bit before Boyle comes running out of the store.

            Kid gets caught at a corner and jumps into a car. The car belongs that belongs to Tom Sterling. Tom drives away with Kid sitting next to him. Boyle somehow manages to catch up with Kid and Tom. Kid walks behind Tom like he is Tom’s friend.

            When Tom enters his apartment his soon-to-be-ex-wife Carmen is sitting seductively on his bed. She wants to come back to him because he has come into three million dollars. She traps him by having her lawyers walk in and seeing her things and her standing next to Tom in her robe. The lawyers say that they now have to stay together unless Tom has a witness. Tom opens the door and Kid comes flying through the door. He is now Tom’s witness. The evil lawyers want to get rid of Kid.

            Tom goes to work as a golf professional at a resort. He brings Kid along with him. Unfortunately Tom did not manage to hide very well. Carmen and her lawyers find out where he is staying and go out to the resort. Tom likes Eleanor the resort owner’s daughter who he has been seeing for golf lessons. Kid sees all these couples having a good time together and it makes him think of Clara. To his surprise Clara is also at the resort as a swim instructor. And sadly so is Boyle. Carmen and her lawyers see Kid acting like a love sick little boy around Clara. That gives the one lawyer the idea to have Carmen “vamp” him away from Clara. While Clara is away changing Carmen sneaks up behind Kid. Not realizing Clara is not behind him he takes Carmen’s hand kisses it. Clara sees this and gets mad at Kid. He just responds by saying women find him irresistible and that he is going to meet with Carmen for tea.

            Of course Carmen does not show up for tea with Kid. He sits by himself at a table that is partially covered by a door. He sees Clara and decides, for some stupid reason, to make her jealous. The way Kid makes Clara jealous is by making his hand look like a females, as if it was Carmen’s and moving it around as if the woman could not keep her hands off of him. He makes his actions so convincing that he makes Clara cry. Kid tries to explain that it was his hand and that Carmen is not behind the door. Of course that backfires on Kid. When he moves the door, Carmen is there having snuck in a few seconds before.

            Tom learns about Carmen being in the hotel. To get ahead of her and the lawyers he leaves the hotel to go to the city where they are to receive their divorce. He tells the bellhop to let Kid stay in his room. Tom tells Kid his plan and to stay behind. When Tom pulls away, Kid overhears the lawyer tell Carmen he will get rid of him. Kid goes up to the lawyer to come with him to a shed under the guise of wanting to ask for some legal advice. In the shed Kid hits the lawyer over the head before he can do anything to him.

            Something happens to Kid that makes him exhausted and he collapses into bed when he gets back to the room. Carmen sneaks into the room and stays there all night. Clara comes to the room the following day to give Carmen a piece of her mind. Carmen shows Clara that she was with Kid the whole night and pulls back the blanket on the bed to reveal Kid fast asleep. The lawyer comes in and tells Carmen that the hotel clerk is willing to sign something that she was in Tom’s room the entire night to use in court.

            Tom calls Kid from the courthouse telling him to get down there. He only has thirty minutes to get from the resort to the hotel. Kid finds Clara driving away. He tells her everything that happens and she tells him what Carmen did. Kid tells her she needs to come with him. Tom told him to take a plane down but the plane does not leave for an hour. Kid and Clara take horses through a mountain path that will be quick to get through. Right after they left on the horses Boyle gets to the airfield. One of the pilots tells Boyle that he thinks Clara and Kid were going to a courthouse to elope. This of course makes Boyle furious.

            Through some way too long mishaps that included Boyle and parachuting down to the courthouse from the cliff of a mountain, Kid and Clara arrive at the courthouse just in time. It takes Clara so long to tell her story of what she saw and heard that the judge, who is eager to leave and go fishing, has enough and grants the divorce. And not surprising, Kid and Clara get married.

            Kid Boots was alright. I really cannot stand plots where the ex-wife is trying to pull one over on the ex-husband and there is all this blackmail and stupid petty lies going back and forth. It was nice to see Clara Bow in a role where she was not the college girl every guy wanted or the seductress in some way. I liked seeing her as a sweet girl who liked the nerdy guy. Put it in basic terms, she was not the girl that was unattainable. This was Eddie Cantor’s first film and he had played the role of Kid Boots in the Broadway production. I have seen Cantor in later films and he drove me crazy. I liked him here though, maybe because he was not talking and his character was nice. Kid Boots is currently available to view on YouTube. It is worth seeing at least once.