''Party Girl'' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Victor Halperin Victor Hugo Halperin (August 24, 1895 in Chicago, Illinois – May 17, 1983 in Bentonville, Arkansas) was an American stage actor, stage director, film director, film producer, producer, and writer. The majority of his works involved romance film ...

and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr.,

Jeanette Loff Jeanette Loff (born Janette Clarinda Lov; October 9, 1906 – August 4, 1942) was an American actress, musician, and singer who came to prominence for her appearances in several Pathé Exchange and Universal Pictures films in the 1920s. Born i ...

, and

Marie Prevost Marie Prevost (born Marie Bickford Dunn; November 8, 1896 – January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born film actress. During her 20-year career, she made 121 silent and sound films. Prevost began her career during the silent film era. She was d ...

. It is also known by the

alternative title An alternative title is a media sales device most prominently used in film distribution. Books and films are commonly released under a different title when they are screened or sold in a different country. This can vary from small change to the t ...

of ''Dangerous Business'', the title of the novel on which it is based. It follows a New York businessman who inadvertently becomes involved in the criminal activities of a covert

escort agency An escort agency is a company that provides escorts for clients, usually for sexual services. The agency typically arranges a meeting between one of its escorts and the client at the customer's house or hotel room (outcall), or at the escort's ...

. The film holds the record for the longest transfer from banned status to original release in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

history, having been rejected for cinema release in 1930, and remaining unreleased there until 2003.

Plot

Maude Lindsay operates the Lindsay Social Bureau, which is a covert front for a "party girl"

that caters to high-class playboys attempting to close business deals. Jay Rountree, the son of a bottle manufacturer, is engaged to marry his secretary, Ellen Powell, a former party girl, whose roommate, Diana Hoster, secretly works as a party girl. Around

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

time, Jay and his friends crash one of the girls' parties, where he meets Leeda Cather, the daughter of a formerly-prominent New York family who has gone destitute. A drunken Jay spends the night with Leeda, awaking in her room the next morning, where she exclaims that he "ruined her" the previous night. When Leeda's "mother" confronts the two in bed, Leeda claims she eloped with Jay the night before, a story which he goes along with. Leeda then suggests to Jay that the two marry that afternoon. When news of their elopement makes the papers, Leeda calls her ex-fiancé Paul Newcast, a businessman who was hesitant to marry her. Happy to be free of the obligation, he gives Jay's father a business contract, as well as sending Leeda $5,000. Jay overhears the conversation and confronts her, but she insists the marriage benefits him and his father's business. At a Christmas Eve dinner at his family's home, Jay tells his father about Leeda's deception, after which she states she pressured Paul into signing the contract, and threatens to implicate Jay and his father in a public scandal. Meanwhile, Ellen learns of Jay and Leeda's relationship, and is persuaded to attend one of Maude's parties. Police subsequently arrive at Leeda's apartment to investigate the party girl racket, and make a deal with her if she cooperates with the investigation. Leeda attempts to flee via a fire escape, and falls several stories. Jay arrives just before Leeda dies, and she remorsefully instructs him to save Ellen from the party being raided by police. Jay manages to arrive at the party just before the police and explains to them that he and Ellen are not involved in the party girl racket. Maude attempts to convince the police that Ellen is in fact a party girl, but her secretary, Miss Manning, attests that Ellen has never worked for her. After the police depart, Jay proposes to Ellen and she accepts.

Cast

Production

During the production of the film, actor

Paul Bern Paul Bern (born Paul Levy; December 3, 1889September 5, 1932) was a German-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he became the assistant to Irving Thalberg. He helped launch the career of Jean Harlo ...

dated Loff, Barrie, and Prevost, the film's three principal female stars.

Release

''Party Girl'' premiered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

1930, expanding on January 25. Due to its themes surrounding sexuality, the film was banned in some U.S. cities, such as

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

Home media

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ne ...

released ''Party Girl'' on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on April 25, 2006.

References

Sources

External links

* {{Victor Halperin 1930 films 1930 crime films American black-and-white films American crime films Tiffany Pictures films Films about prostitution in the United States Films based on American novels Films directed by Victor Halperin Films originally rejected by the British Board of Film Classification Obscenity controversies in film 1930s English-language films 1930s American films