The period between Jolson speaks (surely the most over-rated moment in movie history) and roughly the advent of the Hays Code was easily the worst in Hollywood history.
The vast majority of films from the early talkie era are stiff, static, dull, flat, lifeless, stagebound snoozefests. Polly Of The, um, Church is no exception.
Marion Davies is supposed to be the travelling trapeze act but she gets distracted and plummets about 40 feet. Somehow she neither dies nor is permanently crippled. Just injured enough to be sent to a young preacher's house (Clark Gable) to recuperate.
What ensues is 90 minutes of standing around boring the audience to death.
Were theatre-goers so enamored with circus acts that they filled the house for 160 performances in the 19-oughts? Was the 1917 film starring Davies any good? Because this story has so much mold on it you could grow yogurt with it.
The vast majority of films from the early talkie era are stiff, static, dull, flat, lifeless, stagebound snoozefests. Polly Of The, um, Church is no exception.
Marion Davies is supposed to be the travelling trapeze act but she gets distracted and plummets about 40 feet. Somehow she neither dies nor is permanently crippled. Just injured enough to be sent to a young preacher's house (Clark Gable) to recuperate.
What ensues is 90 minutes of standing around boring the audience to death.
Were theatre-goers so enamored with circus acts that they filled the house for 160 performances in the 19-oughts? Was the 1917 film starring Davies any good? Because this story has so much mold on it you could grow yogurt with it.