tavm Review of Applause

Applause (1929)

Rouben Mamoulian's early talkie Applause can still marvel with its innovations

[8/10 · 27 December 2012]

This was a very interesting film to watch because of the year it was made-1929-when most talkies were limited in movement because of the way cameras of the time had to stay in certain places and microphones of the period had to be careful not to pick up unwanted noises of certain objects. How director Rouben Mamouliain attained his movements and sounds the way he wanted is a mystery to me but for the most part, he succeeded in making a naturalistic location-shot film that looked like it could have been made today with some underscoring and some clear smooth sounds added. Helen Morgan is suitably pathetic as the over-the-hill burlesque singer-dancer Kitty Darling who sends her only child April to a convent to shield her from her rough life. So after several years when her nearly-grown daughter (played by Joan Peers at this point) comes back, this April can't believe how sleazy a life her mother lives especially when this mother's comic boyfriend Hitch makes the moves on her! I'll stop there and just say this was quite a revelation to me what with not only the innovative techniques of the director but also with how the material was obviously presented before the Production Code of 1934 cleaned things up for the next few decades. Ms. Morgan's singing performances aren't bad, though she was better presented on film in Show Boat several years later. It's also a little harrowing knowing that she's one of the earliest of the popular female singers to fall victim to drugs and drink like latter-day contemporaries Judy Garland and Whitney Houston especially when you see her character's fate here. Still, Applause was enjoyable enough as both a historical and artistic film. P.S. As a Chicago native, I have to note the birth of Ms. Peers there also and Ms. Morgan's part-time raising there. Oh, and that my name is the same as the sailor April falls for here which tickled me since I knew a girl named April in elementary and high school that I had a huge massive crush on back in the day.