Glorifying the American Girl

USA 1929
produced by
Monta Bell for Paramount
directed by John W. Harkrider, Millard Webb
starring Mary Eaton, Dan Healy, Kaye Renard, Edward Crandall, Gloria Shea, Sarah Edwards, Eddie Cantor, Helen Morgan, Rudy Vallee, Noah Beery, Irving Berlin, Billie Burke, Charles B.Dillingham, Texas Guinan, Otto Kahn, Ring Lardner, Jimmy Walker, Johnny Weissmuller, Florenz Ziegfeld, Adolph Zukor, Louis Sorin, Desha Delteil, Nancy Kelly, Bull Montana, Tony Sansone
written by J.P. McEvoy, Millard Webb, music by Irving Berlin, Walter Donaldson, Larry Spier, Dave Stamper, revue scenes supervised by Florenz Ziegfeld

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

Gloria (Mary Eaton) works at a department store in New York as a singer and is very much in love with her pianist Buddy (Edward Crandall) - much to the dismay of department store clerk Barbara (Gloria Shea), who's in love with him as well. Anyways, one day Gloria is discovered by vaudeville star Danny Miller (Dan Healy), and soon enough they tour the country, singing and dancing. However, when Gloria spurns his avances once too often, he is already preparing to replace her ... when he learns she might be considered for the latest Ziegfeld revue, Glorifying the American Girl. Before Gloria learns that as well, Danny contractually binds her to him - a contract that assures him 50 percent of her income for the next five years -, and when she's chosen for the revue, she has to realize she just can't break away from Danny.

Arriving in New York, Gloria immediately hooks up with Buddy, and even though he is now in a relationship with Barbara, the two hit it off just like in old times ... while Barbara has a near fatal car accident. When Buddy learns the news, he rushes to Barbara in the hospital, and promises her that he will never leave her alone again.

Gloria receives a note that Buddy and Barbara got married just before debuting in the Flo Ziegfeld extravaganza.

This backstage melodrama with an unusually sad ending is interesting not so much for its story (including its unusually sad ending) but for being one of the very few times a Broadway extravaganza supervised by top impresario Florenz Ziegfeld has been brought to the screen - and indeed, the musical numbers at the ending of the movie, despite destroying the narrative's paing, by far outshine the rather weepy central plot, and after those, and a comedy act featuring Eddie Cantor (no singing in this one), you really don't care all that much anymore what happens to the characters ... and wouldn't you know it, nothing happens to the characters after the show is over anyways.

In all the film is interesting not so much as a movie but as a historical document - though if you're not into musicals, there's probably no point for you to watch it.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Glorifying the American Girl at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Glorifying the American Girl here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Thanks for watching !!!