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Flying trapeze swinger Alice Brady (as Katherine "Kitty" Lorraine) is grounded when she becomes pregnant, then takes the baby girl to go live with her husband's family in Boston, Massachusetts. Eventually, with encouragement from comedian Ted Healy (as Ralph Martin), Ms. Brady returns to the vaudeville stage. When her daughter grows up to be gawky Maureen O'Sullivan (as Shirley), the now older Brady makes pretty Ms. Sullivan over as the leggy star of a successful Busby Berkeley-type chorus girls show.

"Stage Mother" attempts to convey some seedy theatrical realities, but they are hesitant and humorous instead of dramatic. Writer Bradford Ropes helped adapt his original novel, but obviously had to tone down much the sexual content; what's left is a little silly. Two attractive young men, painter Franchot Tone and cruiser Phillips Holmes, court pretty O'Sullivan. Brady slices through the leading role. A highlight is the production number for "Beautiful Girl", which effectively celebrates the female form.

****** Stage Mother (9/20/33) Charles Brabin ~ Alice Brady, Maureen O'Sullivan, Franchot Tone, Phillips Holmes

For most of its length, a good, tough melodrama of a mama (Alice Brady, excellent) living her life through her reluctant daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan), pushing her into show business and scaring away her suitors, and with them any chance of happiness.

Co-screenwriter Bradford Ropes, who also wrote the novel on which "42nd Street" is based, knew this tawdry milieu intimately and wasn't afraid to expose its seamy sides; fortunately, the movie came just before the Production Code, so its portrayal of the shabbiness and moral compromises of the show biz doesn't pull its punches. It resembles "Gypsy" and the great early talkie "Applause," and in particular, its look at backstage and onstage vaudeville is historically fascinating. Its main shortcoming is a too-fast, too-tidy final reel that races unconvincingly toward a happy ending. Also, Maureen O'Sullivan, pretty and spirited as always, doesn't really convince as a young miss aiming to become the toast of Broadway. (She's dubbed, and that's clearly a double dancing in the long shots.) Till that rushed denouement, though, it's a brash and winning backstager, and Brady's uncompromising, unsympathetic performance stays with one for days.

In some ways, "Stage Mother" is a decent film. But to me, it was really lacking something that it sorely needed....characters you could care about and like. Too often, folks are either jerks or plastic.

When the film begins, Kitty (Alice Brady) is a stage star, as is her husband. However, he's killed and Kitty is stuck...pregnant and without much of a life for the kid. So, she moves in with the husband's family and spends a few years living the suburban life. However, she becomes bored and goes back to the hard life of the vaudeville stage and she leaves her daughter with his family. Years pass, Kitty's prospects are exhausted so she takes a behind the stage job--and brings her daughter, Shirley (Maureen O'Sullivan) to live with her. Kitty doesn't do this out of the goodness of her heart. Her plan is to make Shirley a star and live off her! And for the remainder of the film, Kitty manipulates her daughter and sees her rise to the top. But, when Shirley meets a nice guy (Franchot Tone) and wants to settle down, Kitty decides to destroy this relationship for her own selfish reasons. What's next? See the film...or not.

As I mentioned, the characters (particularly Kitty) all seem like low-lifes. As for Shirley, she's nice...but in a very bland way and has little backbone. All in all, a curiously uninvolving story that should have been either more humanized or more hard-edged.

By the way, there are a lot of song and dance numbers that looked like they were choreographed by Busby Berkeley's less talented cousin...or dog.

There are older films one sits through to see a specific star, or because there is a legendary scene as highlight, but frequently when stories of this period so close to the silents or snatched from the theatre move into explication, they drag, are full of static scenes or wooden performances. Stage Mother is no such case--powered by the energetic, electric "on" personality of Alice Brady in most of the film, a high interest in plot development ensues, and the expected conflict between mother and daughter similar to what Merman and company essayed in Gypsy some 25 years later keeps the narrative moving right along--it doesn't hurt that peppy Franchot Tone pops in for an early film appearance as a wealthy suitor, or that Maureen O'Sullivan can hold her own with Brady. Some folks complain about the final melodrama, but given the period when audiences expected to be send home feeling good, and given that this is an MGM studio product, it doesn't matter one way or another. It's a fun film to watch! Singing! Dancing! Jokes Aplenty!

This is one of the MGM feature films Ted Healy did, while still with Howard, Fine and Howard. Along with Healy, Larry Fine has a cameo, as a music store customer. That was an interesting scene because, in record stores in 1933, to sell records, live singers would sing samples of the song and charge 50 cents for the actual song on a record. It's the 1930s version of going to iTunes. In Stage Mother (1933), a pregnant theater-singer loses her trapeze artist husband, in a tragic accident. I wasn't ready for that. It was a good start to this film. Although, when the doomed husband landed on the ground, you could clearly see the giant mattress he safely lands on. In the next shot, he's lying on a hard stage floor. This was a technical mistake, that could have been fixed, even in 1933. Later on in the film, after the baby has grown to three years old, the mother Kitty Lorraine (Alice Brady), has to give the kid up to the in-laws, because the theater life isn't a place for a child. Healy, who's character, Ralph Martin, a friend of Kitty's, goes after her quickly, with desires for marriage. They go off, get married, make it through things, for about a decade and then Martin becomes a drunk, that ruins their theater act. This is an eerie sequence of events, considering the real-life story, that happened to Ted Healy in his real life.

The crazy life of a theater performer in the 1930s, is the main drive of the plot. The kid grows up to be Maureen O'Sullivan. Yes, that Maureen O'Sullivan. The one, who would go on to play Jane, in six of the Johnny Weissmuller, Tarzan films. After staying with her grand parents for a number of years, Shirley is reunited with her mother, Kitty. She is 16 years old and this is the point O'Sullivan steps in for her character. In fact, I was impressed with the way the filmmakers made-up 22 year old O'Sullivan, to age from 16 to her 30s. So, stage Mother wants her daughter to be a dancer. An idea, Shirley isn't to keen about, but accepts the direction her life is about to go in, thus setting up a possible Mommy Dearest scenario. Fortunately, Shirley will age to a point, that the Mommy Dearest phase doesn't fester.

When Shirley goes for her first try-out, the collection of kids routines were pretty funny. I did notice some bad edits in Stage Mother (1933), even by 1933 standards, but the camera work was really nice. 55 minutes into the film, Shirley breaks up sadly, with her man she is seeing and minutes later, does a great show, with some amazing sets, created for the dance numbers. Some may question moments of the acting in the movie, but I liked C. Henry Gordon as Ricco. The film ends kind of quickly and abruptly, plus there's a uneasy feeling, that things didn't go the way you thought they would. The happy music, playing out to the film's end, doesn't hide the real anguish behind Shirley's eyes. Did Mommy Dearest actually win? Stage Mother (1933), is still a cinematic artifact, from an earlier time. I thought it was cool. It's not a great film, but still, fairly good.

6.3 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.