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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
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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.
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