Girls Demand Excitement (1931)

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely brilliant

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

John Wayne is quoted as saying that this was his worst film, and is the Duke ever right! It should be titled "Girls Demand Their Money Back," because there's not an ounce of excitement or anything else. This is a totally inept film in every category, and features that deadly slow dialogue generally only found in films made a year or two earlier: "Say...(pause)...you're not coming to school...here...(long pause)...are you?" Apparently the idea was to make a college sex farce, but there's absolutely no sex and no farce. Sample: Spinster psychology teacher tests kissing in class, using blood pressure meter. She tries it herself and her meter goes way up. Ha, ha. Then the gals challenge the guys to a basketball game. Apparently the idea was that they'd distract the guys with their costumes, but the costumes are so modest that I didn't catch the point until the end of the game. One can see the temptation to theatrically program a rare Wayne film that also stars Virginia Cherrill (and which was released the same week as her classic performance as the blind girl in CITY LIGHTS!), but this isn't just dull, it's just absolutely pathetic and incompetent in every way. It should only be shown in fan-boy living rooms.

Apparently, John Wayne himself mentioned that he felt this was the worst film he made in his career. That's saying a lot compared with the dozens of routine, generic B westerns he pumped out during the 30's and critically ravaged films like The Barbarian And The Geisha, and particularly the notorious The Conqueror (which I personally think is good!). No wonder Girls Demand Excitememt has never been released, and probably never will...then again, most of Wayne's lousy 30's westerns are commonly available on video and dvd.Wayne completists like myself will not be satisfied until every one of his films is made commercially available! Fortunately, every year a few more of his long neglected films get released on dvd.

I think most of these early films that Wayne appeared in was akin to work experience in order to penetrate a profession. Although there may not be any real story in this film, there's a lot that you can learn about how to be a gentleman and treat women just by watching JW.