Watching The Plastic Age, one is reminded how, in some respects, little has changed since 1925. Boys and girls still go off to college a little naïve; drinking and sex soon become more important than their studies; they disappoint mommy and daddy, who have placed all their hopes into an adolescent with raging hormones; friends fight over girls/boys; and parties get busted. What has changed, however, are audience reactions to such a story. Reviewers at the time were shocked by Clara Bow’s appetite for sex — that’s not the way nice girls act, and only nice girls go to college. Critics refused to believe that these urges were being satiated on college campuses. What the film makes clear is that, yes, they certainly are. There is something strikingly modern about The Plastic Age, especially when compared to later scholastic-narratives like The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), whose feigned innocence can be charming, but ultimately more fantasy than reality.
While kids might not have changed all that much, neither has a dull story. Too many title-cards exclaiming “Gee!” get old awfully fast (such faux-naivety was certainly corn-ball, even for audiences of the 1920s). The dramatic arch is hackneyed — two roommates fall for same girl and become romantic/athletic rivals. And the sudden fast-forward from freshman to senior year — and to “the big football game,” no less — is awkward and cheap, to say nothing of the sudden brotherly love after the protagonist scores the winning touchdown. Only Clara Bow seems of interest these days. This was the role that catapulted her to stardom. Her voracious amorality and jackhammer shimmying is absolutely wonderful, though her no-so-subtle transformation into a “good girl” is both expected and disappointing, as well as completely unbelievable.
by Cullen Gallagher | Source: Image Entertainment DVD
10 Oct 2008 5:24 PM | Submit Comment