Applause

"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.

Made in 1929, this film was directed by Robert Mamoulian and features some pioneering camera work. Specifically, the static camera of other 1929 films is absent here. Mamoulian does some of this by shooting part of the picture silent with sound dubbed over it, such as in the scene where Kitty first arrives in New York and the camera follows her line of sight as she looks around the hustle and bustle of Grand Central Station. In scenes with lots of motion that have dialogue, Mamoulian has the players walking away from the camera so he can dub in the dialogue unsynchronized to the players' actual speech. If you didn't know how he did this, you wouldn't notice it.

If you are expecting to see Helen Morgan the torch singer doing the same type of act she did for Ziegfeld in his Follies, you'll be disappointed. Instead, be prepared to see Helen Morgan the actress in this one. Here Helen Morgan plays Kitty Darling, a woman of burlesque whose husband is sent to the electric chair for killing a man in a fit of jealousy. Kitty gives birth to their daughter, April, at about the same time. Convinced by a friend that the burlesque backstage is no place for a child to grow up, Kitty sends April to a convent school in Wisconsin. She remains there from age 5 to age 17.

When April returns home she finds her mother's world in sharp contrast to the peace of the convent. Plus, Kitty has taken up with a younger man. He is a parasite who is two and three timing her and soaking up what money she has. He tries to put the moves on April, but with no success. Kitty dealing with the end of her career and both her private and professional humiliation is hard to watch. Morgan gained weight and donned an unkempt blonde wig just for this part, and her acting is superb. Do realize that much of the film focuses on April, Kitty's daughter. Joan Peers was the actress playing April, and this was her first credited screen role. She handles the part quite well, but by 1931 her career in films was over.

By the way, the video quality is excellent and the audio is fine too if you are viewing the Kino DVD. It is necessary to turn up the volume a little during some outdoor or crowd scenes that have dialogue. However, there is no hissing and crackling in the audio, nor is the sound of shoes clomping around and jewelry clanging in competition with speech as in many other early sound films.

I first half-watched this film on DVD while I was surfing the internet, never thinking it would be that good. Wrong. The next night I watched it again, no distractions. Helen Morgan drew me in with her soulful acting, Mamoulian had the camera man sweep in and out to highlight certain scenes and it just kept pulling me in. I watch a lot of film, mostly early film and this drama ranks up there with the best Mother-Daughter tragedies in the STELLA DALLAS style. But it is an original that has only been poorly copied since. I recommend you give this film your time and you too will be touched and amazed at the power of a very early talky. Like two other great films from 1929, LOVE PARADE & COCONUTS prove, some early sounds films are great not only standing the test of time… but they are great films for ALL TIME!

Rouben Mamoulian established the possibilities the talkie, showing great flexibility in using location shots outdoors. A scene shot on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway just amazed me. Not the static feeling you expect from the first talkies at all. Helen Morgan gives a very moving performance as well, making the obsolete melodrama moving and in places quite modern in its way. With "Applause" and "Love Me Tonight" Mamoulian established the outline for the art of the talking picture.

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.