Applaus

"Applause" (1929), directed by Rouben Mamoulian (who did the great "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"), is a corny but surprisingly effective musical about Kitty Darling, a burlesque showgirl who sends her young daughter April off to a convent to be raised properly. Now that April's a fully blossomed teenager, Kitty's disreputable boyfriend Hitch lusts after the possibility of getting her into the burlesque business and demands that Kitty stop sending money to the convent. April comes back to New York City and is shocked to see where her mother works. However she cannot deny that she loves her mother or that her mother's burlesque money supported her in the convent. April struggles against Hitch's wishes and finally gives in and becomes a showgirl. One night she meets a nice sailor on leave named Tony. They fall in love and Tony proposes marriage and a nice life on a farm back in Wisconsin. At the same time, Kitty loses her job--she's just too old to perform anymore. What will happen? Will it all turn out for the good in the end? "Applause" is important in that it is one of the first great American musicals.

Interestingly, I've always been told that "Gone with the Wind" was the taboo-breaking picture that first transgressed the profanity barrier, but our villain Hitch says "damn" twice in this film, not to mention the surprisingly overt sexuality of the burlesque house.

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.

Applause is without a doubt the best early talkie I have ever seen. The inventive camera angles, the location shots (the Brooklyn Bridge!), the more realistic acting style, and even some pre-Busby Berkeley overhead shots of dancing girls put this film in the 'ahead-of-its-time' league.

Technical achievements aside, I recommend this film to anyone interested in early 1930s culture, backstage drama, hard-boiled slang, or New York City circa 1929 -- it's a great slice of history. Just seeing the Gothic Woolworth building when it was still the tallest structure in the world or hearing Tony's reaction to meeting a girl named April (an unusual name at the time) is a priceless history lesson in itself.

Even if you aren't interested in any of those elements, it's a touching, timeless, well-told story ... and it's available now on DVD. What more could you want?

WOW what a terrific film..... 27-year-old Helen Morgan is superb as the frowzy Kitty Darling, the burlesque queen who sends her daughter away to convent school only to have her fall into the clutches of her villainous lover.

Rouben Mamoulian does a spectacular job directing this VERY early all-talkie. Amazing camera angles and lighting, silhouettes, overlapping dialog, songs, music.... he completely captures the sleazy stage world on stage and off.

The film is a pleasure from the very opening with the playbill blowing across the street to Kitty's tragic ending and then ironic kiss between the lovers in front of her poster.

Joan Peers is very good as the daughter, Henry Wadsworth is also good as the young sailor, and Fuller Mellish Jr. is one rotten villain.

The DVD came with "extras" (which I usually never watch) that gave great background material on Helen Morgan, the censorship of the film, and the search for 200-lb former burlesque queens to "round out" the "Beef Trust." But Helen Morgan is just great.... she has all the pathos of Julie from SHOW BOAT (she starred in the original Broadway production) with a twinge of Shelley Winters.... Great performance!

I know of two films that, comparatively speaking always, rival Kane (before Kane) in their bevy of diverse film technique, both French. Now a third one and the first in sound. Similar to Welles, Mamoulian started out in the theater and moved to film, and like him, an innovator, loved the camera, visual space and movement, and fought with studios on and off throughout his uneven career.

No comparison really. Welles was a narrative mastermind next to his other qualities as a showman. Still, an interesting guy I will be seeing more from—already have Love Me Tonight, a light operetta in the Lubitsch mode.

The plot here is shameless melodrama, a burlesque mother is made by her abusive boyfriend to pull her daughter from boarding school and into the show biz to start making money. The boyfriend is the kind of lecherous villain that audiences back when they thought the actor was his character, would probably boo his every on-screen appearance. In the silent format, the effect would have been somewhat mitigated by the presence of intertitles, and not being able to hear the constant sobs and wails of pathetic anguish of the mother—theatrical voicing on top of theatrical acting.

But no matter. Watch a few films of the era and get back to this, start with The Jazz Singer.

It's a breath of fresh air. The staging is fluid; the places some of them real, explored with a youthful, modern gaze; the camera expressive, cultivating visual space as of equal importance to the story than as simple conveyance for it. I would describe it, relative to its time, as New Wave—think of Breathless by contrast to a late 50's run-of-the-mill crime flick.

The scene of two youthful lovers staring out to sea on top of I think the Empire State Building takes the breath away. Or the two of them wandering by sunup to Brooklyn Bridge—simple poetry, a pan from wrought iron framework to simmering horizon, still modern.

Ultimately, it exhilarates. You dwell long enough in the stringent melodrama and overall depressing feel of the burlesque world, so these free flows, when they come, sweep you out to sea and floating freedom.

It's a smart bit of dynamics. You venture past the limits of the adult stage with these youth (she a dancer, he a sailor), it's got to be you. When they part in the subway, and she looks with a kind of dumb amazement at the pieces of gum in her palm, it's a heartbreaking moment.

Well, it wasn't going to fly. It opened with three weeks to go for Black Tuesday.