Les feux de la rampe

When the name Joan Crawford is mentioned today, most have images of a crusty old actress opposite Bette Davis in 1961's "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" or as the abusive mother in her daughter's scathing book, "Mommie Dearest," made into a 1981 Faye Dunaway flick. But early in her career, Lucille Fay LeSueur was a lithesome young dancer who stood out in the eyes of producer Jacob Shubert while she was on the dance circuit. Brought to Broadway to be part of a chorus line in 1924, she hired a publicist to arrange a screen-test with MGM. Studio executives saw the potential from her looks and agility and offered her a $75 a week salary.

Arriving in Hollywood, she immediately received bit parts, first as a body double for her idol Norma Shearer in 1925's 'Lady In The Night,' as well as a few other nondescript flash appearances. Then for the first time, she's recognizable in some brief scenes in September 1925's "Pretty Lady." The ZaSu Pitts vehicle was perfect for the dancer since the movie concerns life as a chorus girl. Billed under her birth name, Lucille LeSueur, the budding actress appears in several sequences in a backstage setting. She also has two additional scenes with ZaSu Pitts together and at a party. Myrna Williams, soon to be Myrna Loy, made her screen debut in "Pretty Lady" as one of the chorus line dancers who, with Lucille, is seen dangling from a chandelier. Thus the baby steps towards two storied Hollywood careers begin.

It's the Follies, with Zasu Pitts as the star comic and Lilyan Tashman as the beauty queen. When Tom Moore -- who reminds me of Paul Douglas -- comes to Zasu with a song, she puts it in her turn, and it's a huge hit. Now Lilyan wants a song from Moore, and almost gets it and him, until he realizes that she may look good but Zasu has an inner beauty. A year later, they're married with a baby, and Miss Tashman still wants a song..... and him.

Zasu gets to do some dramatic acting, and she's so good, you can understand why von Stroheim and Milestone cast her in serious roles.... and why the audiences rejected her: being a star means you take roles with some consistency. I am as curious as anyone as to what Miss Pitts would have done with a dramatic career. Would she have been Beulah Bondi? That would have been a nice career -- except for Miss Bondi -- and we might now mourn the hints of comic genius which were never followed up on.

Although large chunks of the movie are unavailable, there's also some nice casting otherwise. Ann Pennington is here, as is Norma Shearer, and in her first credited role, Joan Crawford (as Lucille Le Sueur). Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy are also supposed to be there, but it will give you a hint at how poor the print was that I could not spot Myrna.

How often do you see Zasu Pitts and Tom Moore billed over the likes of Lilyan Tashman, Joan Crawford, and Myrna Loy? Probably only in this film.

The print I saw was pretty bad, there was no music track added, so it really is "silent". It only ran 53 minutes, probably because the Technicolor portions that are part of the show are lost. It's about a Broadway show entitled "Pretty Ladies" that is pretty typical for the time. There are dance numbers and comedy routines, and there is backstage melodrama aplenty.

Show headliner Selma Larson (Lilyan Tashman) is angry because comic Maggie Keenan (Zasu Pitts) makes her entrance too close to Selma's applause. She swears she'll get back at her somehow. Al Cassidy is a musician in the orchestra pit who is an aspiring songwriter. The movie makes a point of saying that while all of the "pretty ladies" of the show have a date after their performance, Maggie goes home alone. However, she must be doing pretty well financially, because she has a large house and a maid. Regardless, she is lonely, and has taken to eating with her "dream lover", imaginary companion, Conrad Nagel.

When she stumbles - and I mean literally - into Al Cassidy's world, perhaps Maggie will finally have something that Selma deems worth stealing from her.

There are some interesting scenes here that recommend this. First, the opening scene shows some men sitting around playing cards when a light on the wall flashes. At first I thought this must be a speakeasy and the light a signal. Nope, it is simply to tell the musicians that the show is about to start and to go into the orchestra pit. The waiting room they were sitting in is joined to the pit with a long dark stairwell. Maybe a little bit of Broadway architectural history?

The second memorable scene is when Maggie is performing Al's song "The House Fly Blues". Al is on stage, on drums. There is a long line of chorines dressed as housewives with rolled up newspapers, and Maggie (Zasu) is dressed as a giant housefly. It really is bizarre. Did Irving Thalberg approve this script???

I will tell you that I never spotted Myrna Loy or Norma Shearer. I think I did see Joan Crawford - this was her first credited role - in the changing room scene with all of the other chorines. They might have just been extras, or they could have shown up in the missing Technicolor footage. Recommended only for the film history buff.

I only saw about two minutes combined of this movie.It was part of the "MGM comedy parade",but with what I did see,I COULD NOT believe that that was Joan Crawford.The narrator said about her"There she is folks,Joan Crawford.Big eyes and beautiful".To be honest,I thought it was kind of hippocritical for her to be commenting on Bette Davis' "Bug eyes",when her she has bulgy eyes herself. The movie's about a bunch of show girls......well,that's all I could muster.But Joan was SMILING,and she looked quite cute when the camera closed in on her.Dare I say it,she looked INNOCENT,and childlike in a way.Kind of reminded me of Louise Brooks. Barely recognisable,really.Didn't look like the "Mildred Fierce" we all know and love.