Bare Knees (1928) User Reviews

A Solid Flapper Movie

[Maleejandra · 8/10 · 30 May 2008]

Bare Knees is the epitome of the Jazz Age, but because of its obscure cast, it will most likely remain a rarity forever. The story revolves around Billie (Virginia Lee Corbin) who comes to a small town to visit her sister (Jane Winton). She stirs things up with her short skirts, bobbed hair, and flapper mannerisms. She catches the eye of Larry Cook (Donald Keith) who gives her his pin to wear. She is a flirt who likes to have a good time, but the townspeople cannot see past that to realize she is really a moral person.

This film is purely entertainment. Corbin is beautiful and plays her role to a T. Also notable is the bow-legged maid (Maude Fulton) who does her best to adapt to Billie's flapper lifestyle. Bare Knees has several memorable scenes like the baseball game and the fire on the pier, but you should really see it for yourself.

The Grapevine release has a better-than-normal print which was struck from the original 35 mm nitrate film. There are only a few scenes where the faces look washed out and the ending is a bit dark due to the purple tinting, but otherwise, it is in great shape. The musical score suits the action well too.

Dated Flapper Film, See It For Virginia

[overseer-3 · 6/10 · 23 October 2003]

Bare Knees is a flapper film that is hopelessly dated, but still fun to watch, just to see Virginia Lee Corbin all grown up, showcasing her independence and her pretty figure.

I'm not sure this film honestly represented the 1920's however; it was a much more complex era than Hollywood chose to present to the populace through its films. This film had to have been made before the Wall Street crash as well, since after that tragic event, which ushered in the Great Depression, flapper films quickly lost their popularity, to be replaced by breezy musicals or social dramas. After the crash a flapper film like Bare Knees, which showed women raising their skirts and smoking, was seen as rather shallow entertainment.

Great little comedy

[Philipp_Flersheim · 7/10 · 21 January 2022]

An attractive flapper visits her straightlaced sister whose life she proceeds to shake up. After a series of hilarious complications it turns out she is far more sensible than the conventional and prejudiced people with whom her sister is acquainted. Virginia Lee Corbin is a brilliant lead; Jane Winton, who plays the sister, is doing very well, too. I found the male actors a bit pale, but all in all this is a great little comedy that should be appreciated more. It deserves a careful restoration.

Flappers - "God Bless Them - and Dress 'Em"!!!

[kidboots · 9/10 · 9 May 2013]

Sometimes you can get a truer picture of teen life in the 20s from "little" pictures like this rather than big productions ie "Our Dancing Daughters". Even though vivacious Virginia Lee Corbin had been in films since the 19teens she was still only a teenager when she portrayed flirty flapper Billie Durey who dusts up a small town when she comes to stay with her staid sister Jane (Jane Winton who played a pretty straightlaced sister in "The Patsy").

Sort of a "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" in reverse (an F. Scott Fitzgerald story where a country cousin comes to stay and shows up her city slicker cousins). John and Jane are in a rut - John scorns perfume for his wife's birthday present thinking she would prefer a sensible scarf and into the stifling atmosphere of her birthday party breezes in Billie, Jane's ultra modern sister. That scene is hilarious - all you see is her dancing feet, bare knees and lots of chiffon while all the guests are sitting around with their jaws on the floor. Of course she immediately takes over, ordering the orchestra to jazz it up while she tries to teach everyone the Charleston!!

She comes across a downhearted group of girls - they are the local baseball team and their star picture has a broken arm, hence the dejection. Billie takes them under her wing and gives them a makeover - silky hot pants and pom pom beanies!! It is very funny as Billie steps up to the plate, scores a home run by putting the catchers off their game and the other girls sneak home when the pitcher starts a heated conversation with a photographer who just ambles onto the field!!

One of Billie's haunts, the "Ship Ahoy Club" is in danger of being padlocked and once again John bemoans the fact that Billie is so unlike Jane. But Jane has a secret - John's stuffiness and "holier than thou" attitude is driving her into the arms of another man, John's best friend (isn't it always) playboy Paul (Johnnie Walker). They usually meet at the notorious Pom Pom Pleasure Pier and it is up to quick thinking Billie, who has loads more sense than people give her credit for, to stop Jane from making a fool of herself but Jane has already found out - what a snake in the grass Paul is!!!

The best sequence is the fire at the amusement park, could that have been the Pike Amusement Pier?? - it looked pretty spectacular and with Donald Keith rushing into the water looked as though it was filmed on location. Funniest title would have to be when Billie and Paul are sitting there, realising they can't swim for shore because they have never learned, Billie ruefully admits "I was too busy posing on the beach to learn"!!!

Great fun film!!

Flapp-tastic!

[David-240 · 9/10 · 25 August 1999]

This must be the ultimate flapper comedy - an hilarious and risque look at a new fad, full of the new slang (in titles of course), bobbed hair and short skirts. If you love the roaring twenties don't miss this film. Virginia Lee Corbin is the head flapper - and she's delicious. Also gorgeous is Jane Winton as her straight sister. Corbin invades Winton's quiet life in a small town and shocks everyone - but she also reveals the underground activities at the local fun pier and married Winton's secret affair!

The story comes to a climax on a burning rollercoaster that has to be seen to be believed. Nice score on the Konadog print too! A pure delight.

Twenty-Three Skidoo, It's The Bees Knees!

[GManfred · 13 August 2012]

Thought I'd trot out some 20's jargon to describe this very entertaining roaring twenties film. It is presented tongue-in-cheek and is a satire on stuffy prohibition-era morality. A staid, boring couple plan a staid, boring house party at about the same time the sister of the wife plans to visit. Her arrival takes place while the party is ongoing, and everyone is aghast - her knees are showing beneath a short skirt! The reaction of the guests is priceless, as the camera pans around on several of them with mouths open, chins hitting the floor.

As if things weren't bad enough (or funny enough), she unleashes a torrent of flapper-era expressions which indicate what a funeral she thought the party was and proceeds to take matters into her own hands. She asks the band to play something 'hot' and shows a few Charleston-like maneuvers and asks a man to join her. No one had evidently ever seen the like before. Finally, some young buck asks if she would like to go for a ride in his motor car, rescuing her from reproach and rebuke - and this is only about the halfway point of the picture.

Most of us weren't alive in the 20's and this film is as revelatory as it is humorous. The tenor of the story is hyperbolic in nature but it is great fun, a satirical look into a clash of cultures from an earlier time. It was shown on a print from the Library of Congress at Capitolfest, Rome, N.Y. 8/12.

An Absolute Must-See for All Virginia Lee Corbin Fans!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 21 October 2008]

A comedy-drama I greatly enjoyed was 1928's Bare Knees (especially in its present, ultra-attractive, tinted print). The lovely Virgina Lee Corbin stars as the spirited, teasing flapper of the title, receiving rich support from Jane Winton (as the seemingly solidly conventional sister) and Johnny Walker (as the lover with a heart of clay). Erle C. Kenton's direction rates as surprisingly lively throughout, and even becomes decidedly skillful when the movie suddenly turns serious for its thrillingly staged fire-on-a-fun-pier climax. True, Kenton does allow that witty, talented screenwriter Maude Fulton to over-emphasize her Fanny Brice impersonation, but I'm not complaining.

Oh, those Flapper Girls!

[jery-tillotson-1 · 10/10 · 13 June 2017]

When we think of silent screen stars, the usual big names jump up--Gloria Swanson, Colleen Moore, Clara Bow, etc. But there was a whole little world of independent studios that showcased lesser known names--like that of Virginia Lee Corbin. Her name is hardly known today among film buffs but in this delightful, satirical tale of Vixen-Comes-To-Small-Town, she's perfectly suited. She's beautiful, lively, wise-cracking and wearing some beautiful Jazz Age frocks. What makes watching this antique from 1927 is the beautiful print and musical score. My copy was so well preserved it looked like the movie was filmed yesterday. There's a great, tinted sequence of a pier fire at a park that's very ambitiously done. The whole cast is attractive and give it their all. Too bad lesser known silent movies like this one are totally forgotten today. They evoke a lost era of talented, beautiful screen hopefuls that never got their big break in a major studio.

Not bad little "It Girl" comedy

[vandino1 · 10 March 2006]

Here's a dated and thoroughly obscure silent film from 1928 featuring Miss Corbin as the flapper sister of Jane Winton (who looks somewhat like Claudette Colbert) who is unhappy with her marriage to Forrest Stanley, but still quite willing to snap at Corbin for being such a free spirit and so "modern" about men. When Winton walks out on hubby to run away with another man (who immediately rejects her), Corbin rightfully calls her sister a "cheap hypocrite." But Corbin covers for Winton when hubby shows up. Then there is a fire at the amusement pier that they're all together at, leading to an action packed finish and a rescue by Corbin's male admirer. Best scene is just before the rescue: Corbin and Winton's lover are stranded on the pier with the fire closing in. They know the only escape is to jump into the water but neither knows how to swim! They sit on a bench awaiting their doom then Corbin decides to go out with a bang by riding the roller-coaster that's on fire so that they can go out with a big finish! That's one of the wildest ideas ever perpetrated in film history and it's tossed off without a second thought. Wacky! And Corbin is delightful in the Clara Bow-like "It Girl" role. Thankfully this film doesn't play the usual card of having the "looser, modern girl" pay the price in some moralistic tragic way. She in fact is the voice of reason throughout. Nicely done.