The Naughty Flirt
Directed by Edward F. Cline
Written by Richard Weil and Earl Baldwin
1930/US
First National Pictures (Warner Brothers)
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube
Miss Katherine Constance ‘Kay’ Elliott: And now the prisoner takes the stand in her own defense. Listen, Alan, I have an income of a hundred thousand dollars a year, and every man I know is trying to marry it. They don’t fool me for a second. Do you blame me for fooling them? I go out a lot and I stay out late. I don’t like golf, or tennis, or horses. So what else is there for me to do? One more word before you pass sentence. I’ve always played fair, and I’ve never done a deliberately rotten thing. Now, what has the court got to say?
I couldn’t get too excited about this one.
Kay Elliot (Alice White) is the daughter of a very wealthy lawer and has substantial income of her own. She lives a wild life on the nightclub and boozy party scene. Fortune-hunter Jack Gregory is determined to marry her by fair means or foul aided by his scheming sister Linda (Myrna Loy). But Kay prefers a lawyer in her father’s firm.
There are many, many pre-Code pictures with this kind of “idiot” romcom plot that are better than this one. I did enjoy my introduction to Alice White and this early role from Myrna Loy, still in her “evil vamp” stage. . I thought Alice White was charming, if affected, and Myrna Loy had a long way to go becoming a pro in the line reading department.
