Applause (1929)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Fearing for both her waning career and for the reputation of her young daughter April, good-hearted Kitty Darling (Helen Morgan), aging dime-store doyen of New York's gritty burlesque nether world, sends April away to a convent school * of the hard knocks that showbiz life. When, years later, Kitty is reunited with the grown April (Joan Peers), motherhood and career clash in the fading limelight. Loyal to a mother she's never known and both repulsed and fascinated by a beckoning world of sleaze and sawdust, April fends off Kitty's predatory lover while shyly fanning the fires of first love.
- Actors:
- Helen Morgan, Joan Peers, Fuller Mellish Jr., Jack Cameron, Henry Wadsworth, Roy Hargrave, Dorothy Cumming
- Directors:
- Rouben Mamoulian
- Writers:
- Beth Brown, Garrett Fort
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Music & Musicals
- Collections:
- Films to Watch If You Like..., What to Watch Next If You Liked Dracula
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Reviews (1) of Applause
Pre-code Melodrama. - Applause review by Steve
Sleazy, precode backstage melodrama which overcomes some initial creakiness mainly courtesy of Rouben Mamoulian's artistic direction. Not everyone cast in this can act, and they get to inhabit some transparent archetypes. But the compelling visual storytelling and realistic set design retain interest long enough for the characters eventually to start to matter.
This was Mamoulian's debut feature and he had the usual difficulties of early talkies to contend with. But he got his camera to move quite freely, though not always smoothly. He pioneered new sound techniques, but that isn't really what makes this interesting. The New York locations add value, but mainly it's how the director skilfully explores each frame for nuance and narrative detail.
Helen Morgan stars as a deadbeat burlesque stripper who wants to keep her daughter out of the racket but is continually blocked by the lowlife chiseller (Fuller Mellish) she's shacked up with. Who turns his sexual attention to the girl (Joan Peers). It's a trashy tearjerker but it builds up a powerful impression of life being nasty, brutal and short, with no way out for the poor of the depression.
Morgan was good casting. She had success on Broadway in the '20s with Showboat, but by the time of Applause she was an alcoholic and well on the way to an early death. She is 29, but looks much older. Her life was cleaned up in 1957 for a nostalgic biopic, The Helen Morgan Story. She's got a sob in her voice that initially irritates, but eventually touches the heart.