Kiki (1931)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Sam Taylor

Writers:

David Belasco (play)
Sam Taylor (writer)

Release Date:

14 March 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Musical

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play | Character Name In Title

Cast

Mary Pickford	...	Kiki
Reginald Denny	...	Victor Randall
Joseph Cawthorn	...	Alfred Rapp
Margaret Livingston	...	Paulette Vaile
Phil Tead	...	Eddie
Fred Walton	...	Bunson
Edwin Maxwell	...	Dr. Smiley

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Sam Taylor Productions

Movie Connections:

Remake of Kiki (1926)

Now THAT's what I call a "precode!"

Mary Pickford's "Kiki" (1931) is not generally considered one of her best films, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

An earlier comment here said that this film was Ms. Pickford's attempt to "sex up" her image. Long gone were the billowy curls of her early films, where she played young girls even after she was in her thirties. Here, she sports jazz-age bobbed hair, plays an audacious flirt, and is clearly a woman "on the make" -- though chastely -- for the character played by her costar, Reginald Denny.

I've said that in "Kiki," Ms. Pickford tries to "sex up" her image. Here, she shows us her legs (which were "not bad" for someone only 5 feet tall); she removes her brassiere from beneath her blouse while standing in front of Denny; and in a later scene, she sits in front of his male assistant in her lingerie and unconcernedly puts on her stockings, slowly, one leg at a time.

The film is lively and kinetic, almost a slapstick comedy. Ms. Pickford delivers kicks to various backsides, among them Reginald Denny's and Margaret Livingston's, and gets kicked herself. Twice, Ms. Pickford is seen falling on her rear end. She even tumbles off the stage and into the orchestra pit, landing seat first into a drum -- a stunt her friend Charles Chaplin would use, years later, in Limelight (1952). I thought everyone in "Kiki" was extraordinarily game. They were all obviously hoping to make this film hilarious.

Unfortunately, "Kiki" flopped at the box office, and Ms. Pickford would make only one more film -- "Secrets," another flop. The writing on the wall was now more legible than ever. Maybe the public felt that, at age 39, Ms. Pickford was reaching a little too hard for the youth serum. The era of "America's Sweetheart" was over.

But she left behind a legacy of great performances, and a great public enthusiasm for America's first major female movie star.

Dan N.