What Price Hollywood?(USA, 1932) 88 min B&W DIR: George Cukor. PROD: Pandro S. Berman, David O. Selznick. SCR: Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Jane Murfin, Ben Markson, Allen Rivkin, based on a story by Adele Rogers St. Johns and Louis Stevens. MUSIC: Max Steiner. DOP: Charles Rosher. CAST: Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton, Gregory Ratoff, Brooks Benedict, Louise Beavers, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. (RKO-Pathé)
The first day I went to The Nostalgic Cinema, that one guy in the loud, loud sports jacket (who seemed to be there every time I was) thanked the projectionist / owner for programming a certain film the night before. This was the movie. So, after finding a $1.99 VHS for sale at BMV’s Eglinton location (when they were blowing out a lot of interesting titles on VHS to make room for DVD), I see why. I am fascinated with movies about moviemaking, especially the peculiarly unflattering ones that Hollywood makes about itself. This effort is irresistible for its amusing look at how Tinseltown chews up and spits out its great talents, and as a glorious representation of the Hollywood schmaltz that it also satirizes. In a superb opening sequence, Constance Bennett is a waitress in the famed Brown Derby (what a great set!) who dreams of becoming a star. For now, she is basically serving coffee to the drunken movie execs. Then, a big Hollywood director (drunk at the time, naturally) gives her a small role in his latest picture. Her tiny scene is however woeful, and she is to be replaced by another starlet, until the completely implausible “Give me another chance” scene, in which she does a retake, and suddenly the Hollywood brass think they have a new major star on their hands! This slightly comic fare, with superb dialogue and great dreamlike sets is at first a witty satire on Hollywood (with a neat look at the filmmaking process), which suddenly turns tragic, as scandal ensues, and the once-great director who got her started hits the skids. Ms. Bennett is cute and spunky in the lead role, but Lowell Sherman positively steals the film as the drunken big shot director. With his sardonic wit, slightly lofty demeanour, his combination of humour and pathos is astounding, ranking as one of the best performances of its decade– no kidding. Pretty much any “Hollywood biopic” cliché you can think of is in full view here– in fact, this fictitious film probably invented them! (All it’s missing is the bottle-thrown-into-a-mirror sequence.) But What Price Hollywood? is a wicked satire on how stardom is easily attained (or lost), and the prices paid for it are indeed dear. If the ending suddenly becomes too schmaltzy and optimistic for its own good, remember that this is what the formula demanded, and that this is also a satire about those very pictures.
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #9.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.