The Flapper (4 Stars)

Alan Crosland's "The Flapper" (1920), written by Frances Marion and starring Olive Thomas, stands as a landmark in American cinema – not merely as an early comedy about youthful rebellion, but as a film that helped define the cultural archetype of the "flapper". Often cited as the first motion picture to use and popularise the term, "The Flapper" captures a moment of profound social change at the dawn of the 1920's, when women were beginning to assert new forms of independence and identity in the wake of World War I.

At its core, "The Flapper" is a coming-of-age story. Genevieve "Ginger" King, a spirited small-town girl, longs to escape the dull conventions of her respectable upbringing. Her time at an exclusive finishing school and her innocent flirtations with men represent her first attempts to explore a world that has always been kept just out of reach. Ginger's naïve pursuit of glamour and adventure ultimately leads her into a mix-up involving stolen jewels, a comic scandal that mirrors her own confusion about where the line between fantasy and real-world consequence lies. In the end, she redeems herself by exposing the true criminals, thus reaffirming her essential goodness even as she learns the costs of rebellion.

The film's narrative is deceptively simple, but it reflects deeper tensions within early twentieth-century gender politics. Ginger's behaviour challenges the patriarchal norms of both her family and society, yet her misbehaviour is framed through comedy and moral correction rather than tragedy. This structure allows audiences of the time to enjoy the spectacle of female freedom while still witnessing its containment. The flapper figure, as represented by Olive Thomas, embodies a paradox: she is liberated enough to question social conventions, but not so liberated that the story must punish her for it. The film thus offers a safe, transitional fantasy for a culture negotiating women's growing autonomy.

Frances Marion's script lends the story both wit and empathy, avoiding moralism even as it restores order by the final act. Ginger's flirtatiousness is not condemned as wickedness but portrayed as youthful curiosity – a human response to the stifling expectations placed upon young women. Thomas's performance amplifies this complexity: her expressive face and physicality convey both mischief and vulnerability. In her, we see the birth of a new cinematic heroine: playful, self-aware, and unapologetically modern.

Visually and thematically, "The Flapper" bridges the genteel sensibilities of silent-era melodrama and the vibrant modernity that would come to define the Jazz Age. Its treatment of fashion, flirtation, and moral ambiguity foreshadows the more sophisticated flapper films of the later 1920's, such as It (1927) with Clara Bow. Yet "The Flapper" retains an innocence that reveals its transitional nature: it celebrates the possibility of freedom without fully embracing its implications.

Ultimately, The Flapper is both a product and a catalyst of cultural change. It documents the early cinematic imagination of the "modern girl", capturing the anxieties and excitements surrounding women's new visibility in public life. Through Ginger King, the film announces the arrival of a generation eager to dance out of the parlor and into the modern world – with wit, courage, and just enough scandal to make history.