Ida Lupino (Helen) wants the best for her younger sister Joan Leslie (Katie) and pushes her into a showbiz career. Lupino is pretty ruthless and Leslie is pretty useless. Still, Leslie makes it to the top but there is a cost – plenty of heartbreak and ruthless behaviour. Lupino has to answer for her actions.
The film is told in a long flashback. And it's pretty long. Way too long. It gets boring. Lupino holds together the film as she is always watchable but the whole premise of the film is utterly unbelievable. There is just no way that so much credit would be given to Joan Leslie for possessing what seems to be zero talent. She just doesn't convince as someone with extraordinary talent. Or any talent, for that matter. She can't sing and she can't dance. And she's not that attractive. Lupino's screen presence dominates her in every scene and the infatuation that double-act Dennis Morgan (Paul) and Jack Carson (Albert) show towards her is a complete nonsense.
I actually thought that this film was deliberately portraying Leslie as a rubbish singer and dancer so that the heartache would come from her realizing that she was just never any good. Well, that, surprisingly, is not what happens.
Set against this is a good performance in an all-too-brief scene with has-been star Gladys George (Lily). The film really could have used more of her.
I suspect the film is meant to have some kind of meaning with Lupino wearing the white dress symbolic of her younger sister's dreams. It is really Lupino who has the dreams and so ends up wearing the dress instead of Leslie. The songs and dancing are unmemorable and the story drags.
The film is told in a long flashback. And it's pretty long. Way too long. It gets boring. Lupino holds together the film as she is always watchable but the whole premise of the film is utterly unbelievable. There is just no way that so much credit would be given to Joan Leslie for possessing what seems to be zero talent. She just doesn't convince as someone with extraordinary talent. Or any talent, for that matter. She can't sing and she can't dance. And she's not that attractive. Lupino's screen presence dominates her in every scene and the infatuation that double-act Dennis Morgan (Paul) and Jack Carson (Albert) show towards her is a complete nonsense.
I actually thought that this film was deliberately portraying Leslie as a rubbish singer and dancer so that the heartache would come from her realizing that she was just never any good. Well, that, surprisingly, is not what happens.
Set against this is a good performance in an all-too-brief scene with has-been star Gladys George (Lily). The film really could have used more of her.
I suspect the film is meant to have some kind of meaning with Lupino wearing the white dress symbolic of her younger sister's dreams. It is really Lupino who has the dreams and so ends up wearing the dress instead of Leslie. The songs and dancing are unmemorable and the story drags.