Applause (1929), dir. Rouben Mamoulian. Monday, January 30, Movie Night at Tom’s.

Applause was one of the first sound pictures, and according to Tom (who should know) its stunning camerawork was an innovation–shots back then were really static because they had to sheath the cameras in order to keep them from being heard on the soundtrack. Applause is the melodramatic story of a woman of burlesque, and that woman’s daughter, and how they survive this sordid, male-dominated world. It’s very effective, if not thoroughly over-the-top.

And it’s stunning, too, in its depictions of burlesque in those years. It looks as though they didn’t recreate this world, but actually shot an off-off-Broadway burlesque, with these broken women and their sagging stockings, the men gaping at them (the close-ups seem reminiscent of Eisenstein–director Mamoulian was Russian), everyone singing out of tune, smoke everywhere, booze. At one point, we see the daughter try to walk the streets of New York, only to run a gauntlet of freaks openly leering at her. Then she’s saved by a kindly sailor, and they take in the sights of Gotham, admiring the Woolworth tower. What? Oh, that’s right, the Empire State Building wasn’t even up yet! So crazy.

Applause is not brilliant, but it is effective, depressing in the way that melodramas are at their best, and a fascinating look at pre-1930s New York City.