What Price Hollywood? (1932)

Satisfying Soap (spoiler). - What Price Hollywood? review by Steve

Sparkling and very entertaining Hollywood comedy-drama... about Hollywood. This was shamelessly ripped off in 1937 for A Star is Born. Constance Bennett plays a Los Angeles waitress who becomes a big star while the drunken director who discovers and marries her sinks into oblivion. It's full of cynical insider snippets about the trials of showbiz life: the obsessive fans, the paparazzi, the gossip columns.

Bennett is especially good at the comedy. She performs an understated Marlene Dietrich impression when she sings a ballad on a night club set. She's an appealing personality for the audience to identify with while she scales the hierarchy of celebrity. There's some screwball, but the character is not as dizzy as that suggests and the story becomes increasingly melodramatic.

The star re-marries to that ultimate signifier of early talkie male glamour, the polo playing millionaire. The support cast is capable but not prestigious. Louise Beavers makes an impression as the archetypal black maid with a sassy tongue. George Cukor was perhaps Hollywood's ultimate director of quality soaps and he keeps it light and frothy.

This is one of the more amusing examples of Hollywood self-analysis. There's a polished script which is relentlessly witty. There's some art deco interiors. Max Steiner's score is sophisticated. Bennett was one of the biggest stars of the early talkies. She's not remembered so much now, but this is a wonderful vehicle for her gift for romantic comedy.