Applause (1929)

In the early years of talking films first time film director Rouben Mamoulian would produce a tragic story that would push the boundaries of the censorship of Hollywood yet manifested a heartbreaking tale of sacrifice and love, and in the process begin to truly revolutionize the art of cinematography and sound. Times were very different in October 1929, when Applause was premiered. Prohibition was in full swing and the stock market was about to collapse sending the nation into The Great Depression. Applause would not directly help a nation on the brink of collapse with its tragic story, but it would manifest how movies where progressing as an art and would truly be a form of entertainment and a kind of national tonic in times when people would want to take their minds off their own troubles if only for a couple of hours.

The story is of burlesque star Kitty Morgan (Helen Morgan) who desperately tries to create a good life for her young daughter April (Joan Peers). Kitty in attempt to keep April from the form the sleaz of her lifestyle would have April raise at a convent until the day her cheating boyfriend, burlesque comic Hitch (Fuller Mellish Jr.), has April sent home from the convent for all he is interested is in Kitty's money, or what little she has left. Kitty does everything she can to keep her 17 year-old daughter from falling into the world of shifty men and objectification of women, which seen through April's eyes as very evil. When things begin to look great for the future of April, getting engaged to a young innocent sailor who is in the city on leave from the Navy, Kitty's days seem to get worse. It leads to a tragic back and forth ending where April sacrifices her future of marriage to stay behind with her suffering mother working in the world her mother worked so hard to keep April from getting into all her life. Ultimately Kitty would poison herself with an overdose of drugs so her daughter would not be dragged down with her into a life of burlesque. The film closes on April and her returning fiancee as they pledge to move from this life and bring Kitty along with them as they yet know of Kitty's recent passing, a scene that leaves you heartbroken with knowing the awful truth of the sorrow that is yet to come, but is not seen as the film fades to black.

Despite this film is not well known outside well versed film circles, this picture has many interesting notes of significance. First and formost is the great direction of Rouben Mamoulian. A Russian born stage director that would soon take up citizenship in the US, Mamoulian would move the camera and utilize sound in new ways. It was achingly obvious that he directed all dialouge scenes in a single shot with no cutting which would make certain shots awkward, but he also used long continuous static and moving shots so artistically it stands out from all films seen before. His use of shadows of people created a sense of atmosphere, whether in a burlesque theatre, a restaurant, or in a scene with dialogue where one charater is seen only in shadow while the other is on screen. His camera work was very mobile desprise the combersome task of sound recording at that time. His camera work would pull you deeper into the story, as seen in the poisoning scene where we follow Kitty as she walks through many doors at the rear of the set and the camera follows her as if you were with her watching as she makes a life changing decision of killing herself. Also utilized a was a keen sense of editing to create an uneasiness in a world April would see as evil with dirty men watching flirty, trashy women. One last aspect of his direction is the use of off screen voices as dialogue, not limiting the dialouge to only characters on screen but by people off it. Today we see this all the time, but in '29 this was very new in talking pictures as it discovered its new boundaries. Moumoulin was a very influential director in America, especially with this being his debut picture. He would in 1936 help found the Screen Director's Guild or as we know it today as the Director's Guild of America.

Appluase would be a picture that tested censorship in the late twenties as it dealt with burlesque, a Catholic girl being turned from a world of Christian ethics to the world of sleaz, the forceful pushing step-father on a teenage girl, and a suicide by way of overdose of strong sleeping pills. The film would be banned in parts of America and Canada, and even in areas where the movie played the bottle of sleeping pills was blurred to not encourage the idea of suicide. Due to the subjects of the film the recpetion of the movie was not too positive, but rather a mixed bag of reviews. The picture would not make much in box office revenue as within three weeks of the New York premiere the stock morket would crash sending business plummeting before its wide release in early 1930.

The film is quite enjoyable to watch not just for the greatly portrayed tragic story, but it also provides us a time capsule of a New York City in the year of 1929. This visual tour includes the beautiful old Penn Station (now site of Madison Square Garden), the Brooklyn Bridge, and a rooftop outlook upon the skyline of lower Manhattan. The picture is not a perfect one, but it has much to offer visually and with its elements of storytelling. Its a story of heartbreaking matters, but leaves you fulfilled as if you lived this tragedy along with April and Kitty. Of the few films I have discovered for the first time in this review of films this picture left me saying "That was a good film." The film would not garner any great notirity, probably because of its resque subject matter, with the exception of being named one of the top ten films of 1929 by the National Film Board, but in time has been discovered by those looking for good films, including being preserved by the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress as being a significant film in history. The film is hidden gem for those looking for something special from that era of film.