Passione ardente

Strangely, it's set in France, yet features a bevy of American actresses playing girls with names like Nana, Yvonne and Simone. It's not as good as the similar Stage Door, which was released by RKO the year before, and the story takes a while to get going. Lovely, dark-eyed Luise Rainer stars as the young woman who aspires to be a great actress; Paulette Goddard is cast to type as a cynical, knowing classmate; Gale Sondergaard is the teacher who resents Rainer for her youth and talent; and Alan Marshall is the wealthy cad who misuses Rainer, thus allowing her to experience the suffering required for her to achieve great dramatic success. It's not a bit credible but, when all is said and done, it's fairly entertaining. With Lana Turner in an early role, Virginia Grey, Ann Rutherford and Margaret Dumont, Henry Stephenson, Genevieve Tobin, John Hubbard, Marie Blake, Erik Rhodes and moist-eyed Rand Brooks.

Dramatic School is a kind of French version of Morning Glory with Luise Rainer as a continental version of Katharine Hepburn's Eva Lovelace. Luise sacrifices all for a career, going to the prestigious Paris School of Drama and working the night shift at a factory to make ends meet. She doesn't want fellow students like Paulette Goddard, Lana Turner, Virginia Grey, and Ann Rutherford to know what she's doing so she makes up stories about a more interesting life Luise wishes she were leading.

One day during class when a very strict acting coach Gale Sondergaard is giving a lesson she passes out and then tells the whopper of all time about going out with a well known man about Paris town in Alan Marshal. That sets off a nice chain of events that culminates in an ending typical of all backstage stories, I need not spell it out for you.

This was the last film Luise Rainer did under her MGM contract, it was dissolved by mutual consent between Luise and Louis B. Mayer. What Luise wanted and might have gotten at another studio were roles that were more challenging for her talent. She wanted what Greta Garbo had over at MGM and for Mayer there was only room for one Garbo on the lot. If Irving Thalberg had lived things might have been different, but who can say. In any event she and the rest of the cast acquit themselves admirably.

If anyone stands out though, for me it's Gale Sondergaard. She has a great part as a great actress who also teaches and is jealous of all the young ones coming through the school, especially Rainer. The acting profession is especially unkind to older women and Sondergaard channels a lot of resentment into her part.

Dramatic School was not a bad film for Luise to leave MGM on. It's not Camille or Ninotchka, but L.B. Mayer made it clear only one actress gets those parts on his lot.

Unlike other posters, I found this film delightful and entertaining. But what was most fun was seeing all these stars as incredibly young people: Lana Turner, Paulette Goddard, Virginia Grey, Hans Conried. Luise Rainer was at her luminescent best with her big, soulful eyes, gorgeous bone structure, and beautiful speaking voice.

The story takes place in France, with those dissolves that translate French into English right away. It concerns a young dramatic school student whose fantasies become real due to a series of happy accidents. The end is particularly delightful.

I don't understand the backlash against Luise Rainer. She was a beautiful, principled actress who was discovered by Max Reinhardt, escaped Hitler, and came afoul of another dictator, Louis B. Mayer, who would not give her roles befitting the status of an actress who had won two Oscars.

After an unhappy marriage to Clifford Odets, she found happiness in a marriage and left the U. S. She's still alive and works occasionally. You can't say that about many people born in 1910 or anyone in this film, including Ann Rutherford, who is still with us as of this writing.

(Sorry for any misspellings or grammar problems, I wrote this fast.)

I saw this film last night on Turner Classics. I was very touched by the film's romantic sensibility. Yes, the film has a B movie feel. Yes, the performances are typically surface in a 1930s outdated style. Yes, at times it was obvious this was not Paris but a studio sound stage. But I forgive all of those things because that's what one does in film and theater: suspend disbelief to experience the characters' journey.

Here, the characters are all drama students who are either utterly disenchanted (Paulette Goddard) or romantically idealistic (Luise Rainer). All of the characters share the dreams of stardom and I find that element a universal and timeless trait: To be a successful STAR.

I was captivated by Rainer. She's no different than how Marilyn Monroe (or any great artist) must have felt on her way up. Rainer is magical, almost like a silent screen star with her exagerated facial expressions. And also like Garbo with her dark, European voice. I think that Rainer is the film's heroine in the traditional sense of Heroism. She overcomes poverty, social criticism, and artistic limitations by just living through her own perspective and by her own rules. Also, she's a very young woman, a student. And young people do make mistakes like the ones she makes in the films. Yes, I felt she was a real character.

In all fairness, I am not used to the exagerated style of her acting. I much more related to the fast talking Lana Turner or Paulette Goddard. But that's because they are very American and so am I: I like fast-talking broads. However, Rainer's romantic quality is rooted in her unknowable otherworldliness and I love her for that. I was swept off my feet into her idealistic heart. She took me there. Exactly like how I felt when I watched Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. Pure fantasy, and I love this film because of that.

Not to sound elitist but a true gem for any closet sophisticate and old-school romantic.

Always enjoyed the acting of Paulett Goddard who plays the role of (Nana) a young girl who is attending a Drama School in Paris, France along with Lana Turner,(Mado) who are striving to become actresses and have only one desire in their lives. Luise Reiner, (Louise Mauban) is a poor gal who attends the Dramatic School in the daytime and is forced to also work in a factory making gas meters. Louise tells her fellow classmates at the school all kinds of stories about her relationship with a rich playboy who finances plays and is a ladies man. The story gets rather interesting when Louise really gets involved with this playboy who spoils her to death with everything she wants, however, she does notice that he still has an eye for any hot chick that comes along. Great 1938 film with lots of laughs and plenty of dramatic acting. Enjoy.