THE PLASTIC AGE
Starring Clara Bow, Donald Keith and Gilbert Roland
PHOTOPLAY
December, 1925
Another story of the carryings-on of the collegiate set. The novel was shrewd and had some distinction, but the film is just another one of those movies. The college atmosphere is implausible and Clara Bow is not our idea of a colege girl. While Donald Keith is a good hero, there aren't enough convincing character studies to lift it above the level of the usual jazz drama.
THE PLASTIC AGE
Starring Clara Bow, Donald Keith and Gilbert Roland
SCREENLAND
December, 1925
Kids will be kids, and some are even more so. This gang of young animals that races around in this celluloid version of college life is the acme at once of sophistication and naiveté, innocence and deviltry. These effervescent youngsters, we are to understand, represent the New Age in which girls are not immodest but are only without consciousness of modesty, and in which ethics, chivalry or what have you are dumped overboard in favor of instinct, especially in the matters of sex.
I hope that the author of the successful novel from which the picture was adapted has exaggerated just a little. It isn't exactly pleasant to think that college girls are so eager to go to extremes, as are the young women in this story, or that the lads in our universities are as cynical, hard-boiled and ruthless in sex matters as they appear here.
The tale purports to give a true picture of the "inside" of college life and to show how the modern social amenities can pull down a clean-cut youth and break him. Of course he reforms just before it's too late and covers himself with glory in the big football game, and his strength of will also inspires the girl, who has been the cause of his disgrace to mend her ways.
I found "The Plastic Age" mildly entertaining. It
was interesting mainly because it kept me busy saying "I
don't believe!" Clara Bow is the jazz-mad, sex-mad girl --
I almost called her the heroine, but I shudder to think that we
may ever have to consider this type of girl in such an exalted
capacity. Clara does very well, though her make-up in the early
reels is terrible. She manages to be a real and convincing reason
for the downfall of the nice boy, played by Donald Keith. I like
this young Keith (whom I have seen only once before, in "With
This Ring"); he is natural and fresh, with a half wistful
appeal masked by a typically youthful brazenness. He's no great
shucks as an actor, but it's pleasant to watch him, and he'll
probably develop.
Video source: Videobrary, Kino
Return to "The Plastic Age" Feature of the Month