Upstage

... but she pulls it off.

Upstage" (1926) is an early Norma Shearer starrer, with Oscar Shaw (wonderful dancer who only made 7 movies and who was a champion golfer, besides!), Tenen Holtz, Gwen Lee, Dorothy Phillips, Ward Crane, and others. Although not a comedy of the laughing sort, this one is listed as a "drama/romance", which is correct, but by the old-fashioned definition of comedy, or even comedy/drama, this actually fits the bill. Running at 76 minutes, it gets through the material in very watchable way. One can easily see Norma Shearer being groomed through the press and coming out smooth and ready to be wrapped around some gritty and mega-star material very soon.

Shearer begins the piece arriving in Pennsylvania Station fresh from the sticks just out of business college and she's eager to prove herself. Her snappy cockiness and hayseed naivete is both a boon and a bane. She goes to apply for a secretarial job, finds it's taken, and runs into Vaudeville performer - a genuine trouper - Shaw - who takes her under his wing as his new partner. However, she's a bit too naïve, a bit too cocky, a bit too egoistic - and certainly NOT a trouper - yet. She quits Shaw, goes with Crane, ruins the act by not being a trouper, being less than ready for the likes of anything higher than Vaudeville, etc. Guess who she gets back to? Oh, and by this time, with the intervening events, she's a trouper.

For anyone interested in Shearer and her early career, this is a must. She's quite good. There are fine scenes of 20's New York City, too, and those opening scenes in Pennsylvania Station are a treat.

The copy I looked at timed in at 55 minutes and was a bit fuzzy, but not so that I couldn't see the care with which Monta Bell directed this. Norma Shearer is given the star billing in the role of a girl who comes to New York to be a secretary and is immediately chosen by Oscar Shaw as his partner in a dancing act. Miss Shearer can't do anything but look lovely, but she does that so well that all the press notices mention this. She quickly develops a swollen head and garners the attention of Ward Crane. When Shaw doesn't give her more to do, she walks out on him and into a two-act with Crane, which promptly bombs.

Bell directs this with some interesting sequences, like the ones with the ventriloquist's dummy. The movie emphasizes the collegial atmosphere of vaudeville, and their admiration of stick-to-it-ness. Gwen Lee has a nice role as the not-so-dumb blonde, Tenen Holtz gets some good titles as the theatrical agent, and Shaw dances up a storm. I've only noticed him before this in The Coconuts, but here he's very good, looking like George Murphy, and Miss Shearer is shot to look striking. Pretty good.

Every time I see Norma Shearer in a film, it baffles me how for years her reputation as a star was in the dumpster. This is only the second silent film I've seen with Miss Shearer, but in both films (this and The Waning Sex), she radiates beauty, intelligence, poise and acting talent.

This is just a trifle, a piece of fluff about a small town girl who comes to the big city, ends up on stage, becomes an overnight sensation, gets upstage, falls to the bottom of her profession and must work her way back up. Norma is enchanting, wears a lot of gorgeous clothes and makes the lighthearted film a joy to watch.

Credit must be given to director Monta Bell, who - beginning with Broadway After Dark (1924) - built Norma's starring career through a series of five films (six if you count her extended cameo in Pretty Ladies), of which this is their fourth (or fifth) collaboration. He was in love with her and their films together are supposed to be expressions of his love (according to Seductive Cinema by James Card). Of course their working together ended when she started dating Irving Thalberg. All in all, a fascinating bit of Hollywood trivia that adds another layer of interest to their collaborations.