Party Girl

2055. PARTY GIRL (1930-USA). With DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. Yes Virginia, some big time Hollywood movie stars did appear in exploitation films early in their careers. Here is one such potboiler which features an actor who not only became a star in his own right but is the son of the silent screen’s greatest swashbuckling hero. Who knows what possessed Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. to appear in this fascinatingly awful film. In any case, there he is on screen in a melodrama which is way beneath his station as a member of Hollywood royalty. In typical exploitation film fashion, the scenario is meant to warn Mr. and Mrs. America about an evil contaminating society. The subject is the “party girl racket” which “threatens to corrupt the morals of thousands of young girls who seek to earn their living decently.” In the end the film only serves to titillate the viewer with more than subtle hints of nudity and sexual innuendo. It tells of an escort service which exists as a front for a clique of loose women who attend parties where they indulge in “most anything” with businessmen who are old enough to be their grandfathers. Fairbanks plays Jay Roundtree, carefree Ivy Leaguer whose father is an upright captain of industry. Jay is crazy for his dad’s secretary who, unbeknownst to him, has a secret past as a party girl. One evening he attends a fraternity bash in which he gets roaring drunk. Afterwards he and several cronies crash a “hot party” where the female guests are party girls and the male guests are intoxicated dirty old men. It ends up being a night which Jay a those who are dear to him are guaranteed to not soon forget. 61 minutes. Exploitation