What Price Hollywood?
Tribute to The Film Foundation 2021 / What Price Hollywood? / USA 1932
Often misjudged as a dress rehearsal for his famed 1954 adaptation of A Star Is Born, What Price Hollywood? is a drastically different beast. Neither an outright condemnation of movie culture nor a romanticization of Tinseltown, it offers a rare, clinical look at Hollywood, rendering it as an industrial machine, a corporate juggernaut, rather than a factory of dreams.
Synopsis
Often misjudged as a dress rehearsal for his famed 1954 adaptation of A Star Is Born, What Price Hollywood? is a drastically different beast – a demystification of the Hollywood myth that is far grittier and less sentimental than the Judy Garland musical. Constance Bennett plays a waitress who gets skyrocketed to stardom after a chance encounter with Lowell Sherman’s alcoholic director. Inevitable heartbreak ensues as the new-born star becomes disillusioned with Hollywood. Neither an outright condemnation of movie culture nor a romanticization of Tinseltown, What Price Hollywood? offers a rare, clinical look at Hollywood, rendering it as an industrial machine, a corporate juggernaut, rather than a factory of dreams.
Joseph Fahim
About the film
88 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director George Cukor
/ Screenplay Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown
/ Dir. of Photography Charles Rosher
/ Music Max Steiner
/ Editor Del Andrews, Jack Kitchin
/ Art Director Carroll Clark
/ Producer Pandro S. Berman, David O. Selznick
/ Production RKO Pathé
/ Cast Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton
/ Sales Park Circus Film Company Ltd
/ Contact Library of Congress
About the director
George Cukor (1899, New York City – 1983, Los Angeles). Selected filmography: Camille (1937), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1944), Born Yesterday (1950), A Star Is Born (1954), Let’s Make Love (1960), My Fair Lady (1964).
Contacts
Park Circus Film Company Ltd
14 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8HN, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 203 657 9507
E-mail: sales@parkcircus.com
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE, DC 20540, Washington
United States of America
Phone: +1 202 707 5000
E-mail: filmloans@loc.gov
