Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

salvidienusorfitus Dreadful picture. One of the worst pictures I have seen from 1929. The main characters awaken absolutely no sympathy from the viewer. Watching the 30 year old Colleen Moore trying to act like a dumb teenager is absolutely ridiculous. Furthermore, the thought of someone like Neil Hamilton (or any sane person for that matter) falling in love with such a silly ridiculous person (dressed in some of the most ridiculous fashions I have seen) is beyond belief. Almost every other women in the picture, including the extras, are much more attractive that she is. I am also shocked on how bad the Synchronized Score is, especially as this is a First National picture, as all other example of Synchronized musical scoring I have heard from 1928-1929 for First National pictures are quite elegant and tasteful. The music in the dancing sequences is crass and annoying and I find it hard to believe that the extras were dancing to anything even remotely sounding like that.If you look at film trade reviews from the period, the film did very poorly upon release. I'm surprised that First National produced two expensive all talking musicals ("Smiling Irish Eyes" and "Footlights and Fools" with Technicolor sequences) in 1929 after this disaster.. again starring Colleen Moore... which are lost but frankly after seeing this film it is no great loss if her acting in those pictures was even remotely similar to that she gives in the disaster known as "Why Be Good"

Art Vandelay With stellar jazz-age tunes this movie starts on fire and never fades.It's funny. It's sexy. It challenges the boundaries of the day. I kept thinking: I was born several decades too late. Makes me sad Colleen Moore didn't make many movies after this, before retiring in the mid-30s. Also fun to see ''Commissioner Gordon'' in the silent era. Supporting cast is well above average. And maybe most surprising of all it's all so natural. None of that ham- boned silent-era acting. It's almost as if the actors were delivering their lines in a talkie. Thank heavens for TCM, or we'd never see this great movie.I could watch this movie over and over again.

MissSimonetta No movie better illustrates the inherent contradiction of the Hollywood flapper than Why Be Good? (1929). Colleen Moore is a party girl who wears make-up, bobbed hair, and short skirts. She flirts with young men and has built quite the reputation for herself; however, she (and the film) makes it clear that she is a "good girl" despite everything. Sexual liberation hand in hand with conservative values so that the audience isn't too radicalized.This quality was my biggest issue with that second most famous of flapper pictures Our Dancing Daughters (1928) with Joan Crawford as the virginal flapper who is held up as an ideal modern girl in comparison with the Anita Page character, who sleeps around and is thus a horrible person who must be punished. Though that film claims to be modern, it upholds Victorian morality with relish. Yet in Why Be Good? the double standard is firmly attacked. While we are assured that Moore is a virgin with some conservative sexual values, the movie stands up against the double standard. When the male love interest is swayed by his sexist father into thinking Moore is trash because she flirts and parties, Moore shoots him down, claiming that if she stayed home and "darned socks" she would have hardly attracted his attention in the first place. In a society where a good girl is labeled a "prude" and a party girl a "tramp," a woman just can't win.Well not here. In the end, the flapper wins the boy and the day. The message is quite progressive for the time, far ahead of Our Dancing Daughters. It's also more fun, with Moore showing off her charm and comic talent to great effect. She also sports some great playful sex appeal here. The Vitaphone score paired with the film is excellent, giving you a great sense of the time period, all jazz and Charlestons.I've rambled on enough, so let me make it brief: watch this movie. Colleen Moore is funny and the message quite modern, one society still has not fully taken to heart, even in the 21st century.

MartinHafer recently restored--combined missing disk with footage--Vitaphone ProjectThis film is a great example of a supposedly lost film that was found due to the so-called 'Vitaphone Project'. Because early Vitaphone sound films consisted of both the film footage AND an accompanying record for sound, many movies seemed to be only available as sound discs or film footage. However, with the internet age, the Vitaphone Project has managed to track down BOTH copies of many films and film shorts--the record and film have finally been reunited! So, although "Why Be Good?" has been considered lost for years, here it is---for the first time in many, many decades.Like many of these early sound films, it really is NOT a talking picture but a silent with a soundtrack. A few songs in the film also are sung live by the actors. Otherwise, it's a traditional silent film. As for the soundtrack, it's actually at times too invasive and generally too loud! I actually wish, at times, there was no soundtrack!As for the film, it's a romantic comedy about flappers--in particular, Pert Kelly (Colleen Moore). Pert LOVES to party and goes out all the time with her friends in order to dance. One night, she meets a nice guy, Winthrop Peabody Jr. (Neil Hamilton) and they fall in love. Later, she learns that he's her boss at the department store! The problem is that Winthrop Sr. is worried that Pert might be a bit of a slut. After all, she loves to party, loves to dance and is clearly a flapper. So what's next? See the film.This is a pretty good film and is one of the last silent-style films from Warner Brothers. The story is good and talks about the double- standard for ladies--the need to be fun, adventurous, rather slutty and yet chaste! My only real complaint is the ending--which seems to come rather abruptly.