Applause
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Beth Brown and Garrett Fort
1929/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube
Slim Lamont: I mean the way Kitty slams over a number. And boy, she packs the meanest strip and tease routine that ever burned up a runway! You know what I mean.
April Darling: Well no, not exactly.
This movie’s highlights are the great Helen Morgan and Mamoulian’s fluid use of the camera this early in the sound era.
Kitty Darling (Morgan) is a dim and boozy but sweet burlesque star. She has a daughter she names April (Joan Peers). When April is old enough she sends her to a convent school where she becomes refined and knows little of her mother’s doings.
When April graduates she reunites with Kitty. Now Kitty has a boyfriend/manager named Hitchcock who is a complete rat. He insists that the young pretty girl earn her keep in the burlesque show. Both April and Kitty are horrified. Worse, Hitchcock can’t keep his hands off poor April who makes her disgust obvious.
April meets a sailor on leave and their five-day romance leads to a marriage proposal. But Hitchcock has been selling the idea of putting April in Kitty’s headline spot. Out of loyalty to her mother, she dumps her sailor and takes the stage. I’ll stop here.
The acting of all the principals is good, except for the daughter who takes over-earnest to new heights. The story is pure tearjerker stuff. But the star of the show is Mamoulian’s moving camera. This was one of my favorite films of its year. Recommended.
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