Exit Smiling

Beatrice Lillie was totally captivating.

I have just finished watching this movie for the first time on TCM. I loved it. The realistic depiction of life in a traveling troupe of actors is great. The filming was light years beyond my expectations for a 1926 film. The cast is really great. But what makes the movie is the performance of the fabulous Beatrice Lillie, unknown to me before now.

The plot is thin, but provides enough tension through a couple of subplots to maintain interest at a high level. However, Ms. Lillie glows with such beauty, charm and charisma that she could easily maintain your interest through a much lesser film. Her acting style will knock you out. Perhaps due to her stage training, her acting is so nuanced and subtle you might think that she was an actress from the last half of the 20th century instead of the first half. I roared with laughter, and yet I felt her character's yearning - both for the love of her life and for the elusive acting opportunity. When life hands her the great opportunity that the stage has denied, she seizes it with abandon. Here the slapstick is hilarious and never clichéd. Yet this film is much more than slapstick. Other humor and irony abound.

But the film is not just a comedy, either. Several scenes are not comical, but serve to advance what is a dramatic plot underlying the comedy. And Ms. Lillie shows a wide range of emotions. While the ending may not fulfill some viewer's wishes, it is also far from the pat ending that might be expected in a pure comedy. Even though it strikes a different emotional chord from the comic character of most of the film, clear ground work has been laid for the ending; so it is not really unpredictable or a great plot twist. I suspect audiences in 1926 would have preferred a pat ending, but modern movie-goers are more likely to embrace this one.

The greatest of clowns, such as Chaplin, give us characters that are not merely funny, but also are filled with pathos. Beatrice Lillie has this gift. She shows us the soul of her comic character so that we see her longings and disappointments - her angst. That is why we root for her poor troupe flunky, are delighted by this wonderful gem of a movie, and find ourselves feeling very ambivalent about the ending. I feel blessed for having finally been introduced to this incredible actress, and I regret that she did not leave a legacy of many more films for us to enjoy today.

OF COURSE most viewers will track this one down for the first screen appearance of stage comedienne nonpareil, Bea Lillie, and Lady Peel gives an absolutely beautiful performance (pretty enough to win an English Lord, as the actress did in real life, yet able to walk a perfect comedic tight rope between insouciant self-confidence and nagging insecurity), but there is even more to recommend this charming backstage comedy than the star performance.

Set (and beautifully observed) deep into the tour of one of those third tier "acting" companies (heavy on the melodramatic programming and light on competent management) that lived on "the road" and which helped bring about first the rise of powerful central booking agencies and ultimately the formation of Actors' Equity, the film seems to say these are a memory of the past even in 1926 . . . but what a lovingly recalled memory!

Bottom of the pecking order within the company is Voilet (Ms. Lillie), who plays maids and cares for the costumes and longs to play "vampire" leads (we're talking 20's vamps, not Anne Rice territory). She's even below the juvenile/character man (last billed featured player Franklin Pangborn, who's later lavender camp personality is still not locked in stone here, though his comic and dramatic talents are), but when she manages to get a handsome young drifter (little she knows!) hired on as the company juvenile, she shows her real acting talents saving him from himself without ever letting him suspect - or suspect that she longs to be more than a friend.

Mary Pickford's younger brother, second billed Jack Pickford, plays the young thespian, Jimmy, very nicely in a rare appearance. Though he lacked a certain "star" quality, his acting was fine and it's a pity his career seemed to wither in the face of his personal demons and more famous sibling. He didn't survive his 30's.

The print being shown these days on Turner Classic Movies has a nicely varied but occasionally too lush score by contest winner Linda Martinez, but it serves the quiet moments (and there are many) beautifully. Director Sam Taylor undercuts playwright Marc Connelly's story at a number of points (given scant hours to prepare Jimmy for his big tryout, does Violet grab a script to get him up on the lines he's never heard? No, they adjourn to a neighboring farm yard to rehearse "cute"), but otherwise the details of on- and back-stage life of the touring company are captured with something close to perfection, and the detail appreciating cinematography and acting from all concerned is a joy from start to finish.

Anyone who loves Lillie's later work (all the way to her Mrs. Meers in 1967's THOROUGHILY MODERN MILLIE - a mere 41 years later but there are some surprising moments of foreshadowing for that role here!) shouldn't miss this one. It captures their girl at the peak of her powers when she could do more with a raised eyebrow than pages of dialogue.

Anyone who loved the early scenes in any of the SHOWBOAT films that gave them their name or who howled at Michael Frayn's hilarious stage farce and fun film, NOISES OFF, will also feel right at home with this deft predecessor.

Exit Smiling (1926)

*** (out of 4)

Strange but charming MGM silent about a traveling theatre group with a young woman named Violet (Beatrice Lillie) who dreams of becoming an actor playing vamps. However, she's at the bottom of the pole in the group and doesn't get to act but instead cook food and clean boots. When a wanted man (Jack Pickford) joins the group, he a Violet become friends but his past is about to catch up with him. This film is interesting in many ways and was recently show by TCM as part of their "Gay Images in Hollywood" series. What makes the film really interesting is that MGM didn't use any of their big stars in it. Instead they went with Lillie, in her film debut, and she certainly delivers the goods as the woman whose dreams are a lot bigger than reality. She's isn't a beautiful woman but she's got a quiet charm and looks that are perfect for her role. Pickford, Mary's younger brother, is also very good in his role and brings some great, quiet moments to the film. The "gay stereotype" in the film belongs to Franklin Pangborn who plays a character named Cecil Lovelace. He's very funny in the role even though it's a pretty big stereotype. The film is also interesting in seeing how these theatre groups traveled and what they did while not on stage.

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...

Beatrice Lillie is eminently likeable as the plain actress in a traveling theater troupe who plays the maid and is a servant to the others off the stage, but dreams of being a star. Jack Pickford plays a bank clerk on the run after being framed for embezzlement, and naturally he falls in with the company, and Lillie falls for him. There is a real sweetness to this film, and Lillie's comic moments are a clear forerunner to those of Carol Burnett, especially in the wonderful final 15 minutes where she assumes the role of vamp (seriously, watch those and tell me you don't see Burnett). Pickford holds up his end despite the wild life he was leading off the screen, and it's interesting seeing him in his penultimate film, seven years before his early death. The ending is quite touching and very well done too.

Despite everything the film had going for it, the reason I didn't rate it higher was the first half of the film, where the humor was cute but rather dated, e.g. Whacking ketchup out of a bottle all over a guy, or leaving an iron on a shirt too long and burning it. Offsetting some of that was Franklin Pangborn in his feature film debut, in an effeminate character type he made a career out of, even if it is stereotypical. Anyway, if you're struggling to enjoy the film as much as you like Lillie, I suggest sticking with it, as it finishes strongly.