"The Flapper" Movie Review

 

by Daniel White

Screenwriter Frances Marion certainly didn't invent the term "flapper" but she probably did more to popularize it than anyone else. The 1920 film, The Flapper, which she wrote, marks the first time Hollywood embraced the word so publicly. Making it fair to say, that its star, Olive Thomas, is Tinseltown's earliest unofficial free spirited "It" girl.

In it, she plays Genevieve King, a small town Florida teen who yearns to kick up her heels. Sent to an all girls boarding school in upstate New York to curb her interest in boys, she soon finds herself getting into all sorts of mischief (most of it involving the opposite sex!).

Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Myron Selznick (David's older brother), what's so notable about this flick is that everyone involved is so damned young! All the talent is under thirty, with producer Selznick, at twenty-one, barely out of rompers! The Jazz Age belonged to the brats, and The Flapper stands as a testament to that tenet. The on-location shooting also commands attention. Though it starts off set in the Sunshine State, much of it unspools in wintry Lake Placid. Wunderkind Selznick doled out a lot of cabbage it appears, seemingly confident in the movie's success.

Thomas is a fun, frisky filly in the film. She had a remarkable, if brief career. An ambitious lass, she arrived in New York City from Pennsylvania around 1913, having already separated from her first husband. Starting off as an artist's model, she was a favorite of Alberto Vargas. It seems Miss Thomas had few reservations about disrobing for her "art". Drawings exist of the nubile maiden, posing in various stages of undress. Christened the "Most Beautiful Girl in New York City," she soon became a Ziegfeld girl, as well as mistress to the famed impresario.

Unfortunately, Olive Thomas was not only ambitious, she was a tad reckless. Married in 1916 to Jack Pickford (Mary's kid brother), the two were intent on burning their candles at both ends. The couple liked to party, and pursued a life of extreme merriment. While in Paris in 1920 on a second honeymoon, they returned to their hotel after a night of revelry. Inebriated, and in need of a sedative, poor Olive inadvertently swallowed Jack's topical syphilis medicine, mortally poisoning herself. It was the "Baby Vamp's" final, inglorious curtain call. She would die several days later in acute agony.

About twenty-four minutes into The Flapper there is a scene that is both poignant and charming. "Ginger," as she has renamed herself, is alone in her room at the school. Picking up a ukulele, she does a brief, silly shimmy. For several seconds we see the girlish, childlike innocence of Olive Thomas. For that, the film is priceless.

Distributed by Select Pictures, The Flapper provides us with a glimpse of the youthful allure of Olive Thomas as well as proof of Frances Marion's uncanny pulse on society's mores. Available on YouTube.