Applause (1929)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Rouben Mamoulian

Writers:

Beth Brown (novel)
Garrett Fort (adaptation)

Release Date:

4 January 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Musical

Tagline:

Is Kitty a mother?

Plot:

This early example of the "backstage" musical genre tells the story of Kitty Darling, a fading burlesque...

Plot Keywords:

Burlesque | Catholic School | Mother Love | Theater | Nun

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Helen Morgan	...	Kitty Darling
Joan Peers	...	April Darling
Fuller Mellish Jr.	...	Hitch Nelson
Jack Cameron	...	Joe King
Henry Wadsworth	...	Tony
Roy Hargrave	...	Slim Lamont
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dorothy Cumming	...	Mother Superior

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Kaufman Astoria Studios - 3412 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Some sources erroneously credit Paul Barrett with the role of Slim Lamont. Roy Hargrave plays this role; Barrett does not appear in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When April comes backstage to see Kitty after returning home from the convent, the shot from outside the dressing room shows Kitty sitting at her mirror and then turning to see April in the doorway. In the next shot, from inside the dressing room, she once again is sitting at her mirror and once again turns to see April entering.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years at the Movies (1994) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Doin' the Raccoon

Mamoulian being great again.

Both in the theater and in movies, Rouben Mamoulian seems to have been present at the birth of several revolutions (talkies, the integrated stage musical, the populist opera "Porgy and Bess"); why isn't he revered as, say, Welles or Ford? This early talkie boasts remarkable use of camera and sound, interesting location shooting (though nominally made at Parmount's Astoria Studios, there is plenty of footage of 1929 New York), a hokey but touching mother-love story, much pre-Code sexual frankness, and Helen Morgan's finest hour on film. Consider it a companion piece to "Gypsy," and all the grittier for being made during the actual years of the waning of burlesque; in both movies, the mother forces the daughter into a tawdry stage career, but here the outcome is strikingly different. A fascinating curio for all the cinematic techniques that Mamoulian invented or perfected, and a most affecting melodrama in its own right.