Why Be Good?

1929
TV-G
1h 24m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Romantic Comedy Comedy Drama Musical Romance

A flapper with a dubious reputation enjoys a vivacious night of dancing and finds herself romantically linked to her boss.A flapper with a dubious reputation enjoys a vivacious night of dancing and finds herself romantically linked to her boss.A flapper with a dubious reputation enjoys a vivacious night of dancing and finds herself romantically linked to her boss.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

587

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Photos43

+ 36

Top cast22

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Colleen Moore

Pert Kelly

Neil Hamilton

Winthrop Peabody Jr.

Bodil Rosing

Ma Kelly

John St. Polis

Pa Kelly
(as John Sainpolis)

Edward Martindel

Winthrop Peabody Sr.

Eddie Clayton

Lincoln Stedman

Jerry

Louis Natheaux

Jimmy Alexander

Collette Merton

Julie

Dixie Gay

Susie

Mischa Auer

Man Dancing at The Boiler
(uncredited)

Bobby Burns Berman

Night Club Show Host
(uncredited)

Phyllis Crane

Salesgirl
(uncredited)

Andy Devine

Young Man at The Boiler
(uncredited)

Jean Harlow

Blonde on Rooftop Bench at Junior's Second Party
(uncredited)

Phil Harris

Drummer in Band at The Boiler
(uncredited)

Earl McCarthy

Party Guest
(uncredited)

Jack O'Shea

Man at Dance Contest
(uncredited)

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The film was lost for decades until it was found in the late 1990s. The sole known 35mm nitrate print was discovered in an Italian archive. The print had been donated by actor Antonio Moreno who starred in Colleen Moore's Synthetic Sin (1929). The following message is included at the end of the newly preserved film--"Warner Bros. gratefully acknowledges the following people who made the re-discovery and preservation of this film possible: Joseph Yranski, Ron Hutchinson, The Vitaphone Project, Matteo Pavesi of Cineteca Italiana de Milano, Gian Luca Farinelli of Cineteca de Bologna."

Goofs
When Peabody, Sr. enters the Store Manager's office, he calls him Ralph, but the name on the Manager's door is H.B. Lewis.

Quotes
Jimmy Alexander: Well, Mama - now that I'm tea'd up - let's neck.

Connections
Featured in Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007)

Soundtracks
I'm Thirsty for Kisses - Hungry for Love
(uncredited)
Music by J. Fred Coots
Lyrics by Lou Davis
Sung during the opening credits, beginning scenes and at the end by Eddie Willis, Carlton Boxeil, Stanley McClelland and Fred Wilson
Played often throughout the picture as Pert and Junior's theme

User reviews19

Review

Featured review

9/10

It'll make you wish you were born in 1905

With stellar jazz-age tunes this movie starts on fire and never fades.

It's funny. It's sexy. It challenges the boundaries of the day.

I kept thinking: I was born several decades too late.

Makes me sad Colleen Moore didn't make many movies after this, before retiring in the mid-30s. Also fun to see ''Commissioner Gordon'' in the silent era. Supporting cast is well above average. And maybe most surprising of all it's all so natural. None of that ham- boned silent-era acting. It's almost as if the actors were delivering their lines in a talkie.

Thank heavens for TCM, or we'd never see this great movie.I could watch this movie over and over again.