Welcome to the first theme month of 2026! We’re going to be watching film portraying unconventional women, from affectionately humorous tomboy comedies, to new women in the workplace (as the boss!), to girls gone wild (trousers! bobs!).
The twentieth century woman was ready to drink, smoke, vote, divorce, and dance the night away, at least that’s what movies either celebrated or condemned. It was basically a coin toss whether our independent lass would remain so at the end or if she would “see sense” and settle down to conventional matrimony. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
We will be focusing on comedy and light drama rather than action films (which really deserve their own month) or fantasies. These films will be stylized but they will exist in the modern world as their audiences knew it.
Here are a few films I have already reviewed featuring spirited heroines:
Manhandled (1924): Gloria Swanson navigates the perils of a feisty shop girl as she chooses between her poor inventor boyfriend and loftier suitors.
IT (1927): Clara Bow has it, but so does Antonio Moreno, her boss. When she tries to help a single mother, all hell breaks loose.
That Certain Things (1928): Viola Dana plans to marry her way out of poverty but when her new husband is disinherited, it’s up to her to dig up her own gold.
Mickey (1918): Mabel Normand plays a tomboy-turned-heiress who spreads chaos in her wake.
East and West (1923): Molly Picon is an American abroad who spreads chaos through her family’s shtetl and that’s before she accidentally gets married.
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Movies Silently 