Review of The Girl in Tails (1926)
Seen in 2026.
I saw a 121-minute restored edition.
An inventor fallen on hard times favours his son and neglects his daughter, Katja. Both kids graduate from high school, and have a similar build. Katja, who cannot get her father to pay for a gown, goes to the celebratory ball in drag: Her brother’s white tie and tails.
The most progressive aspect of the writing is the Larsbo community of highly educated, more or less gender-ambiguous AFAB characters who support Katja after the central scenes at the ball, which are the most entertaining. With its dry wit, slow pacing and largely chiastic ending, The Girl in Tails takes a blithely tolerant stance on contemporary feminism.