Dramatic School (1938)

"Dramatic School" had a lot going for it. Luise Rainer, fresh from winning Hollywood's annual Academy Award for Best Actress for two years running (1936 and 1937) is here somewhat inappropriately cast as a ham actress. Worse still, the screenplay rewards the character's false histrionics with applause rather than ripe tomatoes. Bob Sinclair's direction also presents a problem. Admittedly, he takes the first quarter-hour at an admirably snappy pace, but once the stage is set and the script's rather routine plotting gains the upper hand, Sinclair obviously loses interest. At least the excellent photography by William Daniels always remains a constant. The movie is stunningly and most beautifully photographed from start to finish. Producer Mervyn LeRoy, fresh from his triumphs at Warner Brothers and now making his debut at M-G-M, has okayed some really lavish sets and costumes. Alas, all this doesn't add up to a good movie when a sizzling script and appropriate acting are lacking.

If you can believe Dr. Kildare's receptionist (and Grandma Addams), Charlie Chaplin's protégée and Andy Hardy's girlfriend as Parisian thespians, then you can also place a bid on a certain tower in the city of lights as well. Of course, with Luise Rainer as the lead, there is some realism there, but very little. Of these stars attempting to be anything other than the artificial "Stage Door". Rainer shines as does Gale Sondergaard in a believable storyline that has the resentful older Sondergaard (as a drama teacher and professional actress) resenting Rainer's youth and potential for greater stardom. Paulette Goddard, Ann Rutherford, Lana Turner, Virginia Grey and Marie Blake just don't pass muster as French damsels no matter how much suspended dramatic belief you try to obtain. As talented as they are (with some of them believable in foreign settings in other movies), in a large group, it just doesn't work.The main plot has Goddard plotting revenge on the hard-working Rainer who tells a white lie about meeting a French nobleman while she's really working all night in a factory. The prank she plays along with Rutherford and Turner is mean-spirited and ridiculous in nature. Sondergaard attempting to play Juliet here while teaching her class only ridicules MGM's 1936 version with the far too old Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard, but Rainer really is striking as Joan of Arc in a brief audition sequence. Don't expect to be easily able to recognize Turner who gets no memorable material and has darker hair that hides the beauty she would explode with when dyed platinum. Margaret Dumont has a nice small role as the teacher who warns Sondergaard not to be too intensely jealous towards the promising Rainer.

Strangely, it's set in France, yet features a bevy of American actresses playing girls with names like Nana, Yvonne and Simone. It's not as good as the similar Stage Door, which was released by RKO the year before, and the story takes a while to get going. Lovely, dark-eyed Luise Rainer stars as the young woman who aspires to be a great actress; Paulette Goddard is cast to type as a cynical, knowing classmate; Gale Sondergaard is the teacher who resents Rainer for her youth and talent; and Alan Marshall is the wealthy cad who misuses Rainer, thus allowing her to experience the suffering required for her to achieve great dramatic success. It's not a bit credible but, when all is said and done, it's fairly entertaining. With Lana Turner in an early role, Virginia Grey, Ann Rutherford and Margaret Dumont, Henry Stephenson, Genevieve Tobin, John Hubbard, Marie Blake, Erik Rhodes and moist-eyed Rand Brooks.

DRAMATIC SCHOOL was obviously designed as a star vehicle for LUISE RAINER, the European actress whose career fizzled after winning two Oscars in the mid-'30s. Her acting here is even more mannered than usual, aside from seeming eccentric as compared to the more natural acting styles of others in the cast. And it's quite a cast--a whole bevy of up-and-coming young stars on the Metro lot.PAULETTE GODDARD gets most of the footage as a glamorous and scheming bad girl while LANA TURNER, VIRGINIA GREY and ANN RUTHERFORD play more conventional types.But oddly enough, in a film concentrating on its young female talent, the picture is stolen by ALAN MARSHAL in the film's only substantial male role--elegant, debonair, sophisticated and as handsome as any matinee idol. And the other scene stealer is none other than GALE SONDERGAARD as a drama instructor who lets jealousy get the upper hand in dealing with her students.It's all formula stuff, interesting only for the cast and offering very little in the way of a credible plot. LUISE RAINER's "magic" as a performer eludes me. I never cared for her artificial poses and her Joan of Arc sequence is ludicrous.Worth noting is RAND BROOKS (he was Charles Hamilton in GWTW) as a young actor who can't act. A clever bit of typecasting.