This second-tier feature from M-G-M is a real find. A sort of proto-GYPSY*, it moves in dramatic shorthand following hard-luck vaudeville artiste Alice Brady (in a blistering perf) as she goes thru a couple of husbands and dozens of cons & cutthroat measures to push talented daughter Maureen O’Sullivan into the big stage success she missed out on. Some of the shared elements with GYPSY/’62 are quite striking, but this film, strongly paced by fading director Charles Brabin, has backstage verisimilitude you can almost smell, and a thrilling, vicious dog-eat-dog theatricality that went missing in Mervyn LeRoy’s embalmed version of the great musical. Highlights include a wild Kiddie Cattle Call audition with scores of would-be child vaudevillians (look for ‘Little Rascal’ Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer and surely that’s an uncredited ‘Baby’ Rose Marie right before O'Sullivan's dance), and some stage-worthy production numbers for O’Sullivan (and her dance double). The last act is fearsomely overstuffed: three sabotaged romances (NYC politician; Boston Brahmin Franchot Tone; Phillips Holmes with a bad British accent); and a final Mother/Daughter showdown that really is right out GYPSY’s last act (did GYPSY librettist Arthur Laurents know this film?) before a hurried wrap-up. Dramatically, it’s plenty rough & tumble, and Brady’s magnificent perf (more Marie Dressler than ‘Method’) will shock modern realists, but this film is the rough-edged real deal in too many ways to miss, bumps and all.
DOUBLE-BILL/ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *GYPSY, the great Jules Styne/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents/Jerome Robbins/Ethel Merman musical about Mama Rose & daughter Gypsy Rose Lee triumphed five times on B’way and made one mediocre film. Long touted for remake, Barbra Streisand is planning on going into production when she turns 80. And with Lady Gaga, a dazzling age-appropriate choice for Mama Rose, as Gypsy.
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