This Paramount 1929 film is supposedly the first talking musical. Well, the music is minimal, with Helen Morgan singing just bits of songs as Kitty Darling. The film and sound quality are poor, and the show hall music of the day gets nerve-racking after a while. It was made in Paramount's Long Island Studio of the time. That's before Hollywood became firmly Hollywood.
This was Rouben Mamoulian's first film. It has a simple plot and his message or moral is clear. But the script is too full of the poor life and failings of Kitty. Hitch Nelson, played by Fuller Mellish Jr., quickly gets the scorn of the audience. He plays the cad or villain we would see in a silent film, which this "talkie" resembles far too much. The scenes of April (played by Joan Peers) in a convent are overly melodramatic. There are a number of other oddities in the film. The most obvious is the costumes of the nuns. They are wearing long flowing capes, but I doubt there ever was such a habit in any religious order.
"Applause" has what may be the most ridiculous scene ever in a movie. In the early part, Kitty comes on stage in her tights costume, and slim appearance. After she faints off stage and a doctor is called, she has a baby. Then the whole troupe of show girls are amazed and walk by to look at what we are to believe is the baby. Lying beside a small wrapped doll is Kitty, still in full costume from her recent stage number. I don't think the director or producer were thinking at all, or even tried to make this whole matter appear real.
Mamoulian got some of his artistry with the camera in this film, but it couldn't salvage a mostly horrible, cheap-looking melodrama. The chorus group in this film is hard to believe. Most of the girls are chunky if not terribly over weight, and plain looking to homely. I don't mean to disparage anyone – many of us do not have the dashing looks of celebs. But the public generally wants and expects beauty in these types of performers. Paramount was one of the Big Five studios of early Hollywood, but it looks as though it couldn't attract the beauties – or wouldn't pay to get them. For comparison, check out the attractive chorus in the 1929 MGM film, "The Broadway Melody."
I can't understand how anyone could rate this film higher than five stars, even a die-hard Helen Morgan fan. She isn't that good in this role, which parallels her real life somewhat. After a short successful start on Broadway, she went to Hollywood. But she got in with the wrong crowd, had a bad marriage, and became an alcoholic. She made only 15 films and her career was washed up by the mid-1930s. She was only 41 years old when she died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1941.
The rest of the leading cast is made up of people who went nowhere in Hollywood, or barely beyond a start. Fuller Mellish was in just three films and died in 1930 at age 32 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Joan Peers was in one silent film and then nine sound films period from 1929 to 1931. Jack Cameron who played Joe King made only two films. And the only halfway decent acting role, of Tony, was played by Henry Wadsworth who had small parts in all of 22 films stretching from 1929 to 1945.
No, this was a real cheapie thrown together by Paramount, possibly in a race with MGM and others studios for a sound musical. But it's mostly terrible in all aspects. I don't even see any historical value in it unless it would be as an example of the poor quality of some of the early sound efforts. For Mamoulian's little bit of artistry, I stretch some and give "Applause" four stars. Apparently, most other reviewers to date think much more of Mamoulian's work here, though a couple seem to be taken by the pre-code nature of this movie. But, there's just nothing that shocking in this film.
This was Rouben Mamoulian's first film. It has a simple plot and his message or moral is clear. But the script is too full of the poor life and failings of Kitty. Hitch Nelson, played by Fuller Mellish Jr., quickly gets the scorn of the audience. He plays the cad or villain we would see in a silent film, which this "talkie" resembles far too much. The scenes of April (played by Joan Peers) in a convent are overly melodramatic. There are a number of other oddities in the film. The most obvious is the costumes of the nuns. They are wearing long flowing capes, but I doubt there ever was such a habit in any religious order.
"Applause" has what may be the most ridiculous scene ever in a movie. In the early part, Kitty comes on stage in her tights costume, and slim appearance. After she faints off stage and a doctor is called, she has a baby. Then the whole troupe of show girls are amazed and walk by to look at what we are to believe is the baby. Lying beside a small wrapped doll is Kitty, still in full costume from her recent stage number. I don't think the director or producer were thinking at all, or even tried to make this whole matter appear real.
Mamoulian got some of his artistry with the camera in this film, but it couldn't salvage a mostly horrible, cheap-looking melodrama. The chorus group in this film is hard to believe. Most of the girls are chunky if not terribly over weight, and plain looking to homely. I don't mean to disparage anyone – many of us do not have the dashing looks of celebs. But the public generally wants and expects beauty in these types of performers. Paramount was one of the Big Five studios of early Hollywood, but it looks as though it couldn't attract the beauties – or wouldn't pay to get them. For comparison, check out the attractive chorus in the 1929 MGM film, "The Broadway Melody."
I can't understand how anyone could rate this film higher than five stars, even a die-hard Helen Morgan fan. She isn't that good in this role, which parallels her real life somewhat. After a short successful start on Broadway, she went to Hollywood. But she got in with the wrong crowd, had a bad marriage, and became an alcoholic. She made only 15 films and her career was washed up by the mid-1930s. She was only 41 years old when she died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1941.
The rest of the leading cast is made up of people who went nowhere in Hollywood, or barely beyond a start. Fuller Mellish was in just three films and died in 1930 at age 32 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Joan Peers was in one silent film and then nine sound films period from 1929 to 1931. Jack Cameron who played Joe King made only two films. And the only halfway decent acting role, of Tony, was played by Henry Wadsworth who had small parts in all of 22 films stretching from 1929 to 1945.
No, this was a real cheapie thrown together by Paramount, possibly in a race with MGM and others studios for a sound musical. But it's mostly terrible in all aspects. I don't even see any historical value in it unless it would be as an example of the poor quality of some of the early sound efforts. For Mamoulian's little bit of artistry, I stretch some and give "Applause" four stars. Apparently, most other reviewers to date think much more of Mamoulian's work here, though a couple seem to be taken by the pre-code nature of this movie. But, there's just nothing that shocking in this film.