This is what pre code is all about: fun dialogue, wealthy heiress, thin plots and happy endings. Alice White is a howl of fun here. If you don't like this, youlll not like pre code.

Until I saw this movie last night, I'd never even heard of Paul Page who retired from film-making after appearing in a minor role as Jerry Bronson in the Wheeler-Woolsey Kentucky Kernels (1934). Here the dull Page has the male lead opposite super-sexy, rich heiress-running-wild, Alice White, while Myrna Loy likewise shines in the smaller role of villainess, Linda Gregory. Fortunately, Alice and Myrna give the movie sufficient lift to keep the foregone plot afloat – and this despite Eddie Cline's somewhat erratic direction which manages to touch all bases from boring to humdrum to bright, from static long takes to sweeping tracking shots, and from dull close-ups to swift, scenic cut-ups. Fortunately, we can't cast any aspersions at all on Sid Hickox's moody photography. And as for the musical collaboration between music director Erno Rapee and orchestra conductor Leo F. Forbstein, all we can say is "Wow! Wow! Wow!" In fact, I've never heard better from the Vitaphone Orchestra. This magnificently recorded, full-blooded music run-out alone makes the Warner Archive DVD an absolute must-buy! Just don't forget to leave the DVD running when "The End" title blacks out. Thank you, Warner Archive! Thank you!

Alice White is, indeed, a "Naughty Flirt". She plays a "wild and crazy party girl" who loves to go out and engage men. One man, a lawyer, resists her advances - so, naturally, she wants him most of all. He spanks her for her naughty ways, and it changes her life (she tells him he really makes an "impression"). She gets herself a job as lawyer Paul Page's secretary and does tough things like clean his inkwell. Myrna Loy is good as a supporting player who wants to set her brother up with wealthy Ms. White. White is an engaging and funny performer, but her character behavior at the end of the film is so dumb it spoils the film. It shows the character has no maturity. If I were Mr. Page, I would shine her on - or, give her another spanking. *** The Naughty Flirt (1/11/31) Edward F. Cline ~ Alice White, Paul Page, Myrna Loy

"The Naughty Flirt" is a delightful period piece that evokes the (relatively) care-free life many of the very rich maintained even in aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash.Alice White plays the spoiled socialite Miss Katherine 'Kay' Elliott and does a very charming comic turn. This is a Pre-Code film in which the figures of all the female beauties are provocatively shown off in revealing attire in the party scenes. While the sex - including a somewhat surprising spanking scene - is played up, the prohibition age drinking is can only be suggested.The film starts with a gay gang of young socialites in the back of a Police Paddy Wagon headed to the police station to be booked on creating a public nuisance. It seems pretty obvious they've all been drinking as well as dancing at a riotous rooftop party.White as Kay is quite the unflappable flapper, a Daddy's girl with an income of $100,000 a year. Imagine what that could buy in 1931! She's been kicked out of every fine private school her father could get her into and is the dedicated decadent until her world is turned around by a straight-laced country-boy-turned lawyer who happens to work for her Dad's firm.It's a classic case of opposites attract - with a dash of Taming of the Shrew. The two are instantly drawn to each other starting when the lawyer, Alan Ward (Paul Page), - studiously attending a session of night court at the police station - first lays eyes on the naughty platinum blonde.Their romance is tested by a scheme masterminded by Linda Gregory (Myrna Loy) and her brother Jack (Douglas Gilmore) who wants to marry her for money. These dark characters hope to recover from the loss of their fortune in the stock market crash.There are also trust issues as regular guy Alan attempts to gage the loyalty of this 'belle of the ball' while taking stock of her seemingly countless admirers.I saw this on TCM which has a very high technical standard. I'm always impressed at how quickly sound movies progressed. Just four years into the sound era, there's a scene with a wax cylinder Dictaphone in which we listen in as White puts on headphones and hears the recording of Alan speaking for dictation and then get sidetracked into another far more personal conversation with a friend drops into his office unexpectedly. The sound is played back in the scratchy Dictaphone mode - differentiating it from the regular sound.This is a fun and funny story, providing a glimpse into a fascinating age (especially if you were rich) where Jazz Age attitudes intersected with an elite American Anglophile culture.