What Price Hollywood? (1932)

Satisfying Soap (spoiler). - What Price Hollywood? review by Steve

Sparkling and very entertaining Hollywood comedy-drama... about Hollywood. This was shamelessly ripped off in 1937 for A Star is Born. Mary Evans is a Los Angeles waitress who becomes a big star while the drunken director who discovers her sinks into oblivion and then kills himself. It's full of cynical insider snippets about the trials of showbiz life: the obsessive fans, the paparazzi, the gossip columns.

Constance Bennett, as Mary, is especially good at the comedy. She performs an understated Marlene Dietrich impression when she sings a ballad on a night club set. She makes an appealing personality for the audience to identify with as she scales the hierarchy of celebrity. There's some screwball, but the character is not as dizzy as that suggests and the story becomes increasingly melodramatic.

Mary marries again to that ultimate signifier of early talkie male glamour, the polo playing millionaire. The support cast is capable but un-starry. Louise Beavers makes an impression as the archetypal black maid with a sassy tongue. George Cukor was perhaps Hollywood's ultimate director of quality soaps and he keeps it light and frothy.

This is one of the more amusing examples of Hollywood self-analysis. There's a polished script which is relentlessly witty. There's some art deco to look at. Max Steiner's score is sophisticated. Bennett was one of the biggest stars of the early talkies. She's not remembered so much now, but this is a wonderful vehicle for her gift for romantic comedy.