WINE OF YOUTH
Starring Eleanor Boardman, Ben Lyon, William Haines, Robert Agnew
and Pauline Garon
PHOTOPLAY
September 1924
"Mary the Third," Rachel Crotherrs' Broadway success, has been made into a good picture. A grandmother, mother and daughter live under one roof. The daughter, frightened by the seriousness of selecting a husband from among her suitors, decides to take two of them to a mountain camp on a trial honeymoon. This precipitates horror and trouble at home, of course. But things come right in the end. The cast is exceptinally heavy with stars.
WINE OF YOUTH
Starring Eleanor Boardman, Ben Lyon, William Haines, Robert Agnew
and Pauline Garon
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
October 1924
Both as an example of flapper expression at its highest peak and as entertainment, "Wine of Youth" (Metro-Goldwyn) leaves but little to ask for in the way of entertainment. It is similar to others of its cloth in that its theme brings forth that Youth of today is no different than when grandma was a girl. But where it surpasses the others is in its prodigality of scenes.
King Vidor, you are responsible for this effort. And you have brought out the jazz spirit here so that the picture eclipses anything heretofore presented along this line.
The heroine has her fling -- a good, big one -- then she sees the error of her ways, and accepts matrimony as the best solution of a conventional existence. She has been goaded into wedlock thru her quarrelsome parents, each of whom has accused the other of being responsible for Mary's streak of wildness. The picture is an adaptation of Rachel Crothers' play, "Mary, the Third." And it moves at a lively pace, offering one rich scene after another, until its climax, when Vidor allows it to become a preachment. The concluding scenes offer too much generalization on morals. Had it maintained its pace and not flirted with preachy advice it would have been almost perfect. It is capitally played by a group of the younger troupers who act in the modern sophisticated style called for in the story.