A Modern Cinderella

Modern Cinderella, A (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Warner short has Ruth Etting playing a poor shop owner's daughter who is sent to a lavish party so that she can deliver a dress to a rich girl. The stuck up one doesn't like the dress so she has Etting put it on who eventually gets mistaken for "one of them" and is asked to sing. When Etting's name is brought up today it's usually because someone is mentioning Doris Day who played her in the classic LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME. This here was my second or third short with Etting and I'm pretty much in the middle. There's nothing bad about her but then again there's nothing overly great either. She doesn't have the greatest voice in the world but it is a unique one and I did enjoy her big number here. The film is well directed by Mack who keeps everything moving and the 17-minutes really flew by. The supporting cast wasn't overly strong and that includes the comedy relief by the drunks.

It's easy to agree with the other reviewers that Etting wasn't the greatest singer and that this short is sub-par in many ways. Shorts, however, were shown between the main features and Etting was primarily a radio star--perhaps the first woman to fully become a radio-based celebrity. It's hard to know what she really sounded like--the technology of the day doesn't compare to now and if you listen to the spoken dialog it's just about as tinny as the vocals.

But I was very surprised to see the bit of creative film-making in the middle of this short. I'm referring to the scene where Etting is filmed sitting singing into a mirror. We see her sing through her reflection. Then, the mirror image changes and the frame around the mirror becomes a screen into which Etting and the audience can see, as if by remote surveillance video, the other characters going through their motions elsewhere. This was a common understanding at the time of what television would look like when made available. It also pretty well encapsulates Jacques Lacan's notion of the mirror stage--that place where the real and the fantasy bump against each other when desire comes out to play.

Not a great short but always interesting to find hidden gems of cinema making no matter where Hollywood buried them at the time.

Anita Ragusa (Ruth Etting) is the daughter of a costume designer. At the last minute, she delivers a dress to a lavish ball. The snobby socialite dismisses the dress. Anita offers to model the dress. She's alone and starts singing. A drunken party guest passes by and brings her to the party.

This is mostly for Ruth Etting fans. The radio star is in her mid-30's and is no ingénue which this role really needs. At best, it's really an old timey middling musical short at best. It could have injected some drama if the rich owners actually did anything. It's not bad, but there's really nothing much here.

The chance to see Ruth Etting one of the great singers of the 20s and 30s who did not make too many films is not to be passed up. Even in a short subject like A Modern Cinderella and I have to say that Ms. Etting's acting was not as good as her singing.

Ruth plays the daughter of an Italian tailor played by Adrian Rosley who makes Chico Marx's Italian look like a Renaissance Prince. He asks his daughter to rush deliver a gown over to a swank party.

When she models the gown, she gets invited to the party by the chauffeur a most tipsy Brian Donlevy. Where she delivers a couple of songs in good Ruth Etting style.

Etting never did really make it in Hollywood. Her life turned out to be a great subject for a great film where Doris Day played her. Best you see her in the Eddie Cantor classic Roman Scandals where she has a big Sam Goldwyn/Busby Berkeley production number No More Love.

Ruth Etting works in her father's costume shop. When she delivers a dress to a customer, the customer rejects it; Miss Eating models it to show it's nice and sings one of her torch ballads.

Miss Etting made several assault on the movies over the years, mostly in shorts subjects. Somehow, despite her undeniable talent and ability to sell a sad song, or indeed any song, none of them took. Whatever it was that made her a top Broadway star did not transfer over to the screen. It's one of those mysteries that make show business such a puzzlement to insiders and outsiders.

In any case, this is a good short subject, not only because of Miss Etting's singing, but because of a nifty two-act dancing to "Dinah."