Glamour (1934)

A married chorus girl falls in love with a composer.

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

Doris Anderson, Edna Ferber (story),

Stars:

Paul Lukas, Constance Cummings, Phillip Reed

Cast

Credited cast:
Paul Lukas	...	Victor Banki
Constance Cummings	...	Linda Fayne
Phillip Reed	...	Lorenzo Valenti
Joseph Cawthorn	...	Ibsen
Doris Lloyd	...	Nana
Lyman Williams	...	Forsyth
Phil Tead	...	Jimmy
Luis Alberni	...	Monsieur Paul
Yola d'Avril	...	Renee
Alice Lake	...	Secretary
Louise Beavers	...	Millie
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wilson Benge	...	Pritchard
Peggy Campbell	...	Amy
Lita Chevret	...	Grassie
David Dickinson	...	Stevie

Storyline

Ambitious chorus girl Linda Fayne achieves a friendship with successful composer Victor Banki, who writes a song for her and gets her in an Ibsen show where she is a hit. Fame, romance and marriage to Victor, and a baby follows. Linda is attracted to Lorenzo Valenti, whom she discovered in a Bohemian café and persuades Ibsen to give him a job in her show. She and Valenti have an affair and Victor consents to a divorce. The locale shifts to London where Valenti's success and life style parallels Linda's rise to fame. Disillusioned, she returns to New York where tragedy awaits. The child dies and Victor has lost his ability, but Linda spurns Valenti's cable asking her to return to him, and she and Victor chart a new course in life.

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Plot Keywords:

melodrama | one word title | london england

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 April 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fascinación

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

74 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Fifteen minutes were cut from the film after the Hollywood preview and before the New York release.

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Soundtracks

"Heaven on Earth"
Written by Roy Turk and Harry Akst

User Reviews

Glamourless

This is an extremely boring, trite, unconvincing melodrama. It stars Constance Cummings as an extraordinarily selfish, unsympathetic show girl who stalks and "shames" Paul Lukas into writing a song for her. Lukas is so "taken" by her antics that he marries her. They have a child, merely because she believes it will make her a better, more sincere performer. Eventually, she gets restless and pays Lukas back for all the good he's done her by falling in love with her leading man. So it goes on...

If this hackneyed storyline isn't enough, the movie is made even more tedious by the lack of humor in it. There's probably only one good laugh in the whole picture.

According to the book "William Wyler: A Talent for Trouble" by Jan Herman, director Wyler was "forced into doing the picture." He "felt it was 'a real disappointment' and couldn't muster the enthusiasm to save it. He always remembered it as 'kind of a screwy picture.'" A real disappointment is putting it mildly. I rate this picture a 3/10.

The only real reason to see it is for Constance Cummings who, in spite of her mediocre acting, looks very pretty, particularly in the middle and towards the end of the film. She displays quite an ample amount of cleavage. There is one scene in particular where Paul Lukas throws her into the shower fully clothed, pulls her out, and proceeds to strip off her wet garment, after putting a towel over her, of course.