Why Be Good?

In the third consecutive Manhattan party scene opening the picture, this time at a nautically-themed night club where Prohibition is openly flaunted, flapper Pert (Colleen Moore) with hustling Jimmy (Louis Natheaux), spotted by blue-blood Peabody (Neil Hamilton) and pals, in Why Be Good?, 1929.

From one Manhattan party scene to the next, this time introducing top-billed Colleen Moore as aptly-named flapper Pert, again with emphasis on synchronized music and sound effects, also meeting dandified Jimmy (Louis Natheaux), William A. Seiter directing the slick Why Be Good?, 1929.

Director William A. Seiter and First National Pictures could probably be accused of showing-off their synchronized-sound technique, as buddies wait on Peabody (Neil Hamilton), who’s just met virtuous flapper Pert (Colleen Moore), whose parents (John St. Polis, Bodil Rosing) still worry, in Why Be Good?, 1929.

Impressive synchronized music and sound effects and a jolly Manhattan Jazz Age party, introducing Neil Hamilton as department store heir Peabody and later Edward Martindel as his beaming dad, in the last non-talkie starring the famed flapper Colleen Moore, First National’s Why Be Good?, 1929.