Extravagance (1930)
7/10
Competant Melodrama about Marriage Among the Wealthy: June Collyer Shines
4 September 2022
This is an okay movie with an interest conflict and a lot of moral questions. It is pretty believable.

Two wives seem to be unfaithful to their husbands because of their desire for the finer things in life. One of them actually does love her husband. At a running time of just over an hour, the film is quite watchable, especially because of June Collyer's charming performance. Dorothy Christy is also good as the not so loving wife.

The ending is very preachy and moralistic, but somehow pretty satisfying.

Marriages were one of the main topics in movies of this time period. Good marriages versus bad marriages were a common motif and this one provides a different slant on it.

There is a marvelous scene where Collyer and her husband sit down to eat breakfast and because of hurt feelings between them have nothing to say to each other. The husband turns on the radio. We hear a very well done spoof of a radio commercial. This is certainly one of the first movies to portray the medium of radio. For that alone it has historical value.

Also, I really liked Collyer's reaction to being slandered as a gold-digger. She does not take it well at all. Like most pre-codes, this shows that women were feisty and had their own minds and opinions at this point in history.
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