The greatest movie ever made..!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

No movie better illustrates the inherent contradiction of the Hollywood flapper than Why Be Good? (1929). Colleen Moore is a party girl who wears make-up, bobbed hair, and short skirts. She flirts with young men and has built quite the reputation for herself; however, she (and the film) makes it clear that she is a "good girl" despite everything. Sexual liberation hand in hand with conservative values so that the audience isn't too radicalized.This quality was my biggest issue with that second most famous of flapper pictures Our Dancing Daughters (1928) with Joan Crawford as the virginal flapper who is held up as an ideal modern girl in comparison with the Anita Page character, who sleeps around and is thus a horrible person who must be punished. Though that film claims to be modern, it upholds Victorian morality with relish. Yet in Why Be Good? the double standard is firmly attacked. While we are assured that Moore is a virgin with some conservative sexual values, the movie stands up against the double standard. When the male love interest is swayed by his sexist father into thinking Moore is trash because she flirts and parties, Moore shoots him down, claiming that if she stayed home and "darned socks" she would have hardly attracted his attention in the first place. In a society where a good girl is labeled a "prude" and a party girl a "tramp," a woman just can't win.Well not here. In the end, the flapper wins the boy and the day. The message is quite progressive for the time, far ahead of Our Dancing Daughters. It's also more fun, with Moore showing off her charm and comic talent to great effect. She also sports some great playful sex appeal here. The Vitaphone score paired with the film is excellent, giving you a great sense of the time period, all jazz and Charlestons.I've rambled on enough, so let me make it brief: watch this movie. Colleen Moore is funny and the message quite modern, one society still has not fully taken to heart, even in the 21st century.

recently restored--combined missing disk with footage--Vitaphone ProjectThis film is a great example of a supposedly lost film that was found due to the so-called 'Vitaphone Project'. Because early Vitaphone sound films consisted of both the film footage AND an accompanying record for sound, many movies seemed to be only available as sound discs or film footage. However, with the internet age, the Vitaphone Project has managed to track down BOTH copies of many films and film shorts--the record and film have finally been reunited! So, although "Why Be Good?" has been considered lost for years, here it is---for the first time in many, many decades.Like many of these early sound films, it really is NOT a talking picture but a silent with a soundtrack. A few songs in the film also are sung live by the actors. Otherwise, it's a traditional silent film. As for the soundtrack, it's actually at times too invasive and generally too loud! I actually wish, at times, there was no soundtrack!As for the film, it's a romantic comedy about flappers--in particular, Pert Kelly (Colleen Moore). Pert LOVES to party and goes out all the time with her friends in order to dance. One night, she meets a nice guy, Winthrop Peabody Jr. (Neil Hamilton) and they fall in love. Later, she learns that he's her boss at the department store! The problem is that Winthrop Sr. is worried that Pert might be a bit of a slut. After all, she loves to party, loves to dance and is clearly a flapper. So what's next? See the film.This is a pretty good film and is one of the last silent-style films from Warner Brothers. The story is good and talks about the double- standard for ladies--the need to be fun, adventurous, rather slutty and yet chaste! My only real complaint is the ending--which seems to come rather abruptly.

On the 50th floor of a modern skyscraper in New York City, handsome young millionaire Neil Hamilton (as Winthrop Peabody Jr.) has a wild party to celebrate a new job managing his father's department store. In a poorer section of town, perky flapper Colleen Moore (as Pert Kelly) dances at fast-motion to "Sweet Georgia Brown" in a Charleston contest. A clear winner, Ms. Moore is also one of the thousand "cuties" employed as a clerk at Peabody's department store. Later, she hooks up with Mr. Hamilton at a hot roadhouse called "The Boiler". Moore angers her parents by arriving home late, but she really lives a virtuous life. However, Moore is late for work and ordered to see the new store manager...Moore's last silent is very nicely produced, for its star, by John McCormick. Director William A. Seiter and his crew present Moore in a flattering light, and give us a tasteful peak at her underwear in a couple of scenes. Trying to make time with Moore before she meets Hamilton, amorously greasy Louis Natheaux (as Jimmy Alexander) is a stand-out. Carey Wilson's story was a standard for the time. A pretty clerk getting attention from an (ideally, department store) millionaire was a common fantasy. The plot was well-worn, and doesn't fit the "flapper" girl. Mary Pickford and Clara Bow had released finer films on the topic. Moore's best rags-to-riches story is, appropriately, "Ella Cinders" (1926)...This was Moore's final "silent" film. She transitioned to the "talkies" as well-spoken, but without distinction. Moore was likely hurt by being so closely associated with a bygone era. She was #1 in the industry's "Quigley Poll" of box-office stars for 1926. "Why Be Good" finds its star acting almost purely with the exaggerated silent mannerisms associated with silents. In the past, Moore demonstrated some of the subtly and style which would prove useful in all-talking pictures; but, here, she makes her preference known. The recently re-discovered print of "Why Be Good?" is spectacular, and it survives with its beautifully rendered "Synchronized Musical Score and Sound Effects" track. Let's see more...****** Why Be Good? (1929-02-28) William A. Seiter ~ Colleen Moore, Neil Hamilton, Louis Natheaux, Bodil Rosing

You can say that this is a mix of It,Saturday Night kid and Love Trap and our Modern Maiden. Colleen Moore did a few of her vehicles ,back in the twentieth ,focusing on the flapper, such as Flaming Youth, which only a fragment survives.The music that was used in this silent film sounded exactly like the music of Hugo Riesenfeld , that was used in the King of Kings.I though First national had used him,but, the credit stated Max Terr and Irving Talbot.So they were copying some of his king of king score.They had also include pop tunes of that times in the score,some that I heard live 365 oldies station.What made me think of Saturday night kid was the fact that Jean Harlow played a part in it and she had an uncredited part in This feature.I did not notice her .I also did not notice Micha Auer in it neither.Like Clara Bow,Colleens character is a good girl who pretends to be sexually wild ,out of fear she won't be excepted .A working girl in a department store She goes out with her friends for dancing and drink booze moderately.She live with her parents,played by Edward Martindel and Bodil Rosing.Her father disproves of it , but her mother is understanding knowing she does not do wrong.I got the impression that it was made in 1927 and held back until 29,because it looked that way,but, in the inter title card the date mentions 1929.It's when Colleen is going out with her new beau played by Louise Natheaux, is when she meets Winthrop ,played by Neil Hamilton, practically almost the same similar role he played in the Love trap, that she falls in love with him.His father ,who runs the department store,in which Winthrop manages,does not think she good for him ,so he fired her.Collen thinks it might of been Winthrop,but Winthrop did not realize it.The father disapproving the engagement for the ex shop girl,suggest to test her of her virtue.The test all falls out,that she hold her virtue.Considered a lost classic for years and was restored last year with the aid of the Vitaphone project .Worth collecting 11/14/14