A star is bored after becoming America’s Pal but holds a fierce allegiance to the man who gave her a break…but his downfall breaks her. George Cukor’s classic reveals the viscera under the glamorous facade of celluloid heroes, balancing melodrama with intense Pathos and Thanatos.
The opening scene is a visual pun as we get a close-up of lipstick being applied to luscious full lips then the camera pulls back to reveal a beautiful lady (who will be our American Pal) who is just pretending to be a movie star, mimicking a sultry Garbo and lusting after a Photoplay Clark Gable. Her surroundings are as far from Hollywood as could be: a dreary one-room apartment littered with tinsel and dreams. Our heroine dresses for work at the Brown Derby where she will eventually get her big break thanks to six glasses of water. The film is full of real-life Hollywood references and some intriguing shots of the blue-collar workmanlike skill that goes into every scene and setup. We even get to see inside a sound booth while the engineer controls the boom-mike during a scene within the film we’re watching. Very meta.
Constance Bennett is wonderful as the waitress who becomes a megastar imbuing her character with childish fervor before becoming, in a few short edits, a weary and haggard star transformed from real person into faux persona. But the star of the film may be in the performance of Lowell Sherman as fading alcoholic Director Max Carey, the man who finally allows the bottle to drink from him. As he finally sees through the glass darkly, his ravaged visage contrasted by nostalgia, he breaks his own heart with a .380 round. DP Charles Rosher captures his downfall in slow-motion as his body collapses to the floor which has to be one of the earliest uses of the effect in popular Hollywood films. I’ve seen over a hundred Pre-Code Hollywood films and can’t recall another slow-motion segment in any other narrative film of the era. And its use is only momentary, used to depict the slow downfall of Max as he crumples to the ground dead. Rosher’s compositions are excellent with tracking shots and blocking of multiple characters and the editing, from dissolves to transitions, display extraordinary skill especially for its time. Of course, Cukor’s directing is top-notch and elevates this to one of the best Pre-Code films!
Final Grade: (B+)