1h 22min. // An aging burlesque star, worn down by cheap applause and cheaper gin, clings to the last shreds of her career in a tawdry New York theater. Behind the greasepaint and gaudy costumes, she hides a secret hope: that her sheltered daughter, raised far from the chorus-line grind, will never know the degradation of her mother’s world. When the girl is summoned back to the city, the backstage racket of drums, catcalls, and raucous songs collides with her convent-bred innocence.

As the daughter tentatively explores the city, she falls for a kind but struggling young man who offers a glimpse of a different life. Yet the lure of security and the pressure of circumstance pull her toward the very stage her mother has tried so hard to keep her from. The burlesque queen, watching her youth echoed and endangered in her child, is forced to confront just how far she will go to protect the girl from repeating her mistakes.

Love, sacrifice, and disillusionment play out under the harsh glare of footlights and the relentless rhythm of the band. The mother’s desperate attempts to save her daughter spark a wrenching showdown between tawdry showbiz survival and the fragile promise of respectability. In the end, the clamor of the crowd becomes a cruel counterpoint to a private tragedy, as the cost of applause is revealed to be far higher than the price of a ticket.

 

Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian

Writing Credits: Garrett Fort

Starring: Helen Morgan, Dorothy Cumming, Henry Wadsworth, Jack Cameron

 

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