Watch Loose Ankles For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Best movie of this year hands down!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The main reason to watch this film is to see the 17-year old Loretta Young in an early female lead. She is hardly recognizable from the face that movie buffs would soon see and remember for decades. Yet, she's every bit as beautiful a woman. For such a young actress she displays a mature talent. Young had been in silent films as a child, and by 1930 already had leading parts in several movies, including a couple of talkies before this one. This isn't much of a story - a wealthy family whose members look to get even richer from a relative dowager's will. But there mustn't be a scandal among any of them, or the whole lot loses their inheritances. One can guess who the person might be who wants to raise a little cain.Douglas Fairbanks Jr. co-stars in this film, but he seems quite wooden. He was a big star of his day - a romantic idol for women, but he isn't more than a mediocre actor in his several films that I've seen. He seems wooden in all of his roles. Many films were made since the talkies debuted in 1928 until the enforcement by Hollywood of it's Hays Code in 1934. Some people make a big deal out of that, but in truth the vast majority of films made in that period didn't have naughty content that should be censored. This is one such film. One does wonder, though, how this and similar films went over with audiences of the day. After the stock market crash of 1929, the U.S. and world were plunged into the Great Depression for nearly a decade. How many people enjoyed watching films about the wealthy gallivanting around the world or living the high life? Indeed, with unemployment that peaked at 25% in the U.S. and up to 35% elsewhere in the world, how many people could even afford to go to the movies?

"Loose Ankles" has a lively start (certainly any movie that opens with a close-up of Loretta Young's legs starts on the right foot - pun intended), Young and Jr. (Douglas Fairbanks Jr., that is) are appealing, and Inez Cortney is a joy as Young's cousin. But when the focus switches to Young's two middle-aged aunts and their two "professional escorts", especially in the extended "circus cafe" segment, the film becomes dreadfully unfunny. ** out of 4.

During 1930-31 Loretta Young churned out 14 films, none of them were that good and her acting bland at best. She once said of these movies - "I was coasting on my youth and I knew it" and the titles tell the tale ie "Loose Ankles", "I Like Your Nerve", "The Truth About Youth" etc. "Loose Ankles" was a film considered so trivial that it didn't even rate a New York review - Loretta may have been the star but the film only came alive when the supporting players were given the spotlight. That included bouncy Inez Courtney who introduces the jazzy song "Loose Ankles" at the film's start and even though the first shot was of Young's rather loose ankles being massaged, the film didn't live up to it's racy start!!The film starts off when beautiful Ann Harper (Young) finds the only way she can capture her inheritance is on the death of her husband but being a carefree flapper she doesn't even have a steady beau!! The real kicker is that if she finds herself caught out in a public scandal the whole estate will be given to a dog and cat home!! Of course because she has no interest in money she immediately sets about to get her picture in the papers!! She advertises for a handsome but unscrupulous man and it is instantly seen by a trio of male escorts!! This is when the fun starts - as Eddie Nugent takes centre stage, with his mad mugging and eye rolling, he is a riot!! Sure, he'd love the job but he decides to offer it to young Gil (Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.) a decent chap who is down on his luck job wise!!Wouldn't you know it, it is love at first sight for Ann and Gil and after a farcical bit containing lost pants and hiding in closets, helped immeasurably by Daphne Pollard's resourceful maid - everyone heads to the Circus Café. Ann has now engaged the services of one of the other escorts, Lin, who is big on unscrupulousness but small on niceness. She is hoping to meet up with Gil because she found the tickets in his pants - the only problem is, they weren't Gil's. After a pretty bizarre circus/cabaret dance routine along comes third billed Louise Fazenda as straight laced Aunt Sarah and most of the rest of the movie consists of that old faithful "drunk routine"!! You know the one, where two maiden aunts of the "lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine" variety proceed to get well and truly plastered and claim that they can do the dance better than the two professionals out on the dance floor!!The film really opens out at the club which has a very similar look to some of the sets from "Gold Diggers of Broadway" but the film betrays it's stagey, early talkie origins when the whole cast gathers to pair off at the finale!!

I enjoyed so many of the performances in this movie. The plots been summarized in other reviews, so let me just mention my favorites. Louise Fazenda as Aunt Sarah lets loose with some great physical comedy. According to IMDB she was 45 when this was made, but had performed in Mack Sennett comedies and her training shows in this. I also enjoyed the maid (Inez Courtney?) who responds to Loretta Young's comment that she "must have been in a comprising position at one time" -- "Oh, the position wasn't so bad....." The help she provides to the young and innocent Loretta as she tries to involve herself in scandal is quite funny.A very enjoyable way to spend just over an hour.