Exit Smiling

"Smile tho' your heart is breaking"--that's the motto of the theatre, where on-stage appearances and illusions are essential to creating the audience's experienced reality. Sam Taylor's "Exit Smiling" is an insightful commentary on the theatrical life, behind the make-up and costumes and between the grueling roadshow performances. It fittingly features Beatrice Lillie, renowned as a Broadway performer, in her first film role, alongside a supporting cast of colorful, but certainly less than marquee-status players. The very fact that MGM did not employ its bevy of famous names in this picture seems a testament to the overall sense of *ordinariness* that "Exit Smiling" conveys. For the world of this traveling theatrical troupe is not one of glamour and glitz with elaborate sets and costumes, but rather one of cramped dressing rooms and boxcars, lonely train depots, and rural barnyards.

In this midst of all this stands Lillie herself, who, as Violet, the drudge of the troupe, responsible for every menial task, spends her spare moments dreaming of the roles she could play if only given the chance. Lillie has a physical presence that is mesmerizing; her face is not traditionally beautiful, or even traditionally feminine (an aspect which is exploited in the story)--yet she is all the more striking as a result. Her reactions to the goings-on around her are quite subtle--you need to watch closely in order to pick up on her considerable abilities as a comedienne.

If, however, you come to this film (as I did) expecting a rip-roaring comedy (whether of the slapstick or the screwball variety), you may be disappointed. For me at least, this film rises above the ordinary not as a comedy, but as a reflection on the kinds of people in society it portrays through Lillie's character. For Violet toils away behind-the-scenes, both in her job and in her intervention on others' behalf, yet never receives the credit or rewards she deserves. Such is the nature of life, and Taylor seems to suggest that we might do well to transfer the empathy we feel by the end of the film for Violet to those other "Violets" in our own lives--to those who make things happen, who make the performances seem effortless.

Greatly enjoyed this great classic 1926 silent film comedy and was amazed at the great performance that Beatrice Lillie portrayed on the screen as Violet. Violet worked as a stage hand for a theatrical company that traveled by railroad all through the small towns of America. Violet would serve meals, clean up, mend clothing, iron and washed the actors and actresses clothes, besides, acting a small role in their play as a maid. Violet meets up with a young man named Jimmy Marsh (Jack Pickford) who needs a job and she manages to get him into this theatrical group and falls in love with him. However, Jimmy Marsh is suspected of stealing money in his home town and has some dark secrets he is hiding from everyone. There is plenty of comedy performed by Franklin Pangborn,(Cecil Lovelace) who plays a big sissy and has people laughing in stitches. Jack Picford is the brother to Mary Pickford who found a career in Hollywood, but had a very short life. Great Classic Silent film. Enjoy

I loved the ended of this movie.

Beatrice Lilly had such a screen presence, her eyes seem to jump off the screen. It's easy to see why Rudolph Valentino had a romantic interest in her. It's a shame she only made 8 movies in her career. TCM said that it was because movie making lacked the audience interaction she so much loved. And didn't care to make movies with out knowing instantly how the audience was reacting.

Sure the ended may have shocked some audience goers and it wasn't what they wanted but, I kinda liked that. It was in the times with today to have twist and turns in the plot.

The updated musical score probably adds more to this movie than we'll ever know without hearing the original. It was simply suburb!!

I would imagine with a few edits and very little re-write this movie would have moderate success today.

This marvelous film stars one of the funniest women who ever lived, as a theatre slavey who plays both male and female roles in the play to help the love of her life-whom she does NOT ride off with to live Happily Ever After. Perhaps the 'no happy ending' of this particular Cinderella story doomed it to failure at the time of its original release, but it's a delight that should amuse today's comedy fans...please, could we just see it once more? Beatrice Lillie is lovely and extremely funny. I will never forget the sight of her tossing a long fur boa over her shoulder as she 'vamps' the villain...and getting it caught in an electric fan...

... in that this is authentic and fresh, and from what Buster Keaton has said about MGM in the 20s and 30s, they really never got comedy at all and often overstructured and poll tested their comedies. This one flopped in its original release, but has aged well and is charming today at least partly because MGM didn't seem to overthink it.

It's a backstage comedy with a big dose of pathos. Beatrice Lillie is Violet - or Vi - the drudge of a traveling vaudeville troupe that is currently featuring "Flaming Women", a play about a hissable villain and a Mary Pickford like heroine who disguises herself as a vamp to save her lover - a production whose plot would have seemed aged in the Civil War, and of course the corniness of it is intentional as far as the larger film goes. Vi plays bit parts, but is mainly the maid for the troupe. She dreams of playing the vamp role in Flaming Women, and gets close one night but then the actual lead actress shows up at the last minute, although with a hangover.

Vi befriends Jimmy (Jack Pickford) and coaches him on how to get a job with the troupe, and finds that she is falling in love with him. But then the troupe pulls into East Farnham and Jack cannot appear here because he is running from a charge of embezzlement. He was a teller at the town's bank when 5000 dollars disappeared. When he panicked and ran it was assumed he took the money. Complications and hilarity ensue.

Lillie gives a Chaplinesque performance as she does plenty of physical comedy, and I think this silent has always been one of my favorites as Lillie's goofy facial expressions and pantomime remind me of my late mother when she was goofing around and trying to make us kids laugh.

The supporting cast includes Franklin Pangborn doing his trademark effeminate dandy act in his feature film debut and had a voice that translated nicely in sound films. Doris Lloyd plays the lead actress of the troupe and also has a long career as a character actress in sound film. Beatrice Lillie did not do that many films because she preferred stage roles, but her next feature role after this one was in Warner Brothers' Show of Shows. That was a sound film revue to show off the studio's talent in talking films and has Lillie doing a short recitation. Unlike many films from 1929, it's still around and, like this one, is readily available via the Warner Archive.

There are quite a few backstage silent comedies, and Exit Smiling ranks with the best.