DANCING MOTHERS
starring Alice Joyce and Clara Bow
PHOTOPLAY
April 1926
Herbert Brenon scores again. The renowned creator of film fantasy has here turned out a realistic, fast moving drama of smart night life.
It concerns a gentle wife who would a-flappering go. Her sub-deb daughter and her distinguished husband leave her home, night after night, while they seek the white lights. Finally, mother puts on her smartest evening gown and rebels. The complication is that she falls in love with the same handsome bachelor who is loved by her daughter and her husband's sweetie.
Clara Bow's performance as the poppy little daughter is beautifully handled. Norman Trevor does very well by the father. But Alice Joyce and Conway Tearle as the mother and the lover are rather disappointing.
DANCING MOTHERS
starring Alice Joyce and Clara Bow
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
May 1926
The younger generation is on the warpath again, chaperoned this time by the older generation. The cocktail-drinking flapper has her moments, but in reality her place in the scheme of things is only secondary, as the real story concerns the effect that her conduct has upon her parents.
"Dancing Mothers" develops into a problem story which ends with the problem still unsolved. The sponsors have forgotten, apparently, the tradition of supplying a happy ending. The final scene is hopeful but hardly cheerful. However, one cannot deny that the ending was not true to character and situation. Alice Joyce, with her usual charm and restraint, plays the mother. Her quiet manner is an excellent foil for the rampant exuberance of Clara Bow as the daughter.
For more information, see "Dancing Mothers" as our "Feature of the Month"