Academy Awards, USA 1954
| Nominated Oscar | Best Actress in a Supporting Role Marjorie Rambeau |
MGM
Directed by Charles Walters
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)
Joan is the tyrannical star of a new Broadway show who decides what songs she will sing, who gets hired and fired, and so forth. After the original piano player quits, he is replaced by a blind player who is the only one with enough guts to tell her what he really thinks. At first she is aghast and has him fired, but gradually falls in love. In a case of art imitating life imitating art, Joan essentially plays herself, or at least the public perception of it. The amount of alcohol consumed by the characters is astounding, foreshadowing perhaps Joan's own struggle in her personal life. Here, however, Joan looks fit and dances and sings with ease, including a number in black face that ends with her yanking off a wig in gaudy day-glow make up. Joan's singing voice is dubbed by India Adams. Hilariously entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons. Joan is well on her way to the tail end of her career, a shell of her former glory.
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