Lubitsch making a drama sans his trademark cheeky comedy is bound to be viewed less favorably than his bubbly classics, but there's enough here to make Three Women worth seeing. In it, Pauline Frederick and May McAvoy play a mother/daughter pair who are pursued in turns by a predatory leech, played by Lew Cody, who ends up having yet another woman on the side (Marie Prevost), hence the title.
In a good way, Cody reminded me of Warren William in some of his dastardly pre-Code roles, and Frederick and McAvoy are also strong, even kind of looking like they're related. There is a lot of life to the dancing scenes, both among the Cal-Berkeley kids and the socialites, who among other things have a giant slide near the dance floor. The quality of the print I saw was quite good, which allowed me to see the attention to detail in the sumptuous costumes and set designs, something I liked. It's a melodrama but the story is reasonably compelling, and I have to believe most viewers will truly begin to despise Cody's character, and wonder where this is going. Happily, the ending was not dictated by a Production Code. Where it falls a bit short is in its pacing, even at just a 70 minute runtime. I had to put myself in 1924 mode as the story played out, and wish it had been jazzed up just a bit. Overall, it's not great, but it's well made, and mildly entertaining.
In a good way, Cody reminded me of Warren William in some of his dastardly pre-Code roles, and Frederick and McAvoy are also strong, even kind of looking like they're related. There is a lot of life to the dancing scenes, both among the Cal-Berkeley kids and the socialites, who among other things have a giant slide near the dance floor. The quality of the print I saw was quite good, which allowed me to see the attention to detail in the sumptuous costumes and set designs, something I liked. It's a melodrama but the story is reasonably compelling, and I have to believe most viewers will truly begin to despise Cody's character, and wonder where this is going. Happily, the ending was not dictated by a Production Code. Where it falls a bit short is in its pacing, even at just a 70 minute runtime. I had to put myself in 1924 mode as the story played out, and wish it had been jazzed up just a bit. Overall, it's not great, but it's well made, and mildly entertaining.