Glorifying the American Girl (2007)

An early all-star musical spectacular featuring Flo Ziegfield and the greatest names in show business. Product Description

A window into the Ziegfeld era & a fine Eddie Cantor skit are the highlights of this "film."

Gloria Hughes (played by Mary Easton), our glorified girl herein, perseveres through this film, going from a gal singing sheet music in a department store to a leading dancer on the stage. Just before she goes on at her biggest venue thus far she runs into Eddie Cantor backstage. Cantor tells her, "Don't be scared now. You'll make good. I was frightened a little too when I first came with Ziegfeld , but I'm over it now. Besides, they're a great audience. I've got all my relatives out there, and a few gentiles, too. Now, go after it kid. You'll make good." Then she goes and dances, but, as a viewer, one is more interested as to when Cantor himself is going to perform in this film, than in paying much attention to Gloria's dancing. There frankly isn't much in this "film" to hold one's interest. I used the quotes just now because this "film" is less a story than a vaudeville show of various performances. Helen Morgan and Rudy Vallee, who both have nothing to do with anything herein, do songs, for instance. A lot of what we see, actually, has the look, moreover, of "Movietone News," as if we are watching snippets of various doings that aren't really connected to one another---a Ziegfeld show, you could say, but then I'd argue that the "story" herein just gets in the way.

Finally, just before the last scene, we get Eddie Cantor. A portly guy and Eddie Cantor are working a suit store. A sap walks in and they go into their routine.
Cantor to the sap: "Don't listen to him, he's a damn fool."
Cantor's partner: "Don't you tell anyone I'm a damn fool."
Cantor: "I didn't know it was a secret."

This goes on for almost 12 minutes
Partner: "This is what I call a hunting suit, the finest hunting suit I've ever seen."
Sap: "A hunting suit? Why do you call it a hunting suit?"
Cantor: "We've been hunting for the pants for two years."

The scene is funny, but has absolutely no relevance to anything preceding, yet when it's over one is tempted to wish nothing will follow it either since it's the highlight of "Glorifying the American Girl." Gloria had a beau at the department store, but neither her nor him had any money. When she went on the road her guy began to feel he was being left behind and began seeing another gal. The two of them are in the audience during the final scene. The guy says to his new wife, speaking of the show, also called "Glorifying the American Girl": "You're glorified." To which she answers, "Not glorified, but happy." A final shot of our star makes it evident that such is a position Gloria would have preferred to be in herself. PS:Glorifying the American Girl (1929) is a much better version of this film. June 28, 2008

Get A Different DVD

I just watched it and the picture/sound are terrible, even making the obvious allowances. Another company's DVD is said by a reviewer on this site to be superior to this one, so you should take a chance...it certainly can't be worse than this one. June 25, 2008

well, that's show biz for ya...

Glorifying The American Girl turned out to be much better than I expected. The acting and dialogue at times weren't the best although the last 30 minutes of the film provides us with a superb idea of what Flo Ziegfeld's stage show must have been like before he was financially ruined in the stock market crash of 1929. Look for some great performances throughout the film from Mary Eaton as Gloria Hughes, Dan Healy as Danny Miller and Edward Crandall as Buddy Moore.

When the action begins, Buddy, Gloria and Barbara (Gloria Shea) work in Heimer's Department store as clerks in the music department. Gloria sings the songs for the sheet music that the store sells; and she's got a crush on Buddy who is very much in love with her. Barbara has hidden feelings for Buddy; but Buddy is too distracted with Gloria to even notice Barbara very much.

At a company picnic, Gloria is noticed by a sleazy unappealing guy named Danny Miller; and they eventually go on the road touring together as a dance duo. This pleases Gloria's pushy stage mother (Sarah Edwards) but Buddy Moore, stuck back at the department store, feels sad that Gloria left him for a show business career. Eventually Gloria gets noticed by one of Ziegfeld's talent scouts and Danny Miller claws his way into Gloria's profits when he signs her to a five year contract--before she finds out that Ziegfeld wants her and not him. Danny's now wealthy for doing nothing but keeping his eye on Gloria to make sure he gets his share of her earnings.

Of course, there's the unfinished business with Barbara and Buddy essentially living the same lives they always did before Gloria left. Barbara is critically injured when a car hits her; and that also creates even more of a mess for all involved.

But this is life, so the plot can still go anywhere from here. Will Gloria make it with Ziegfeld--he has pretty high standards? What happens once Barbara is injured--how does it affect their lives? Will Gloria ever come back to Buddy or will she stay in show business? No plot spoilers here, folks--you'll just have to watch the film to find out! One thing I will say, though--you do get the firm message from this film that fame comes at a price.

They note that this is an early "talkie" musical; and wow, are they right! The sound quality isn't always so good; and the quality of the print could still use more restoration. However, the camera plays some good tricks; the cinematography is especially outstanding. There are very brief cameos by then New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, Billie Burke and others as they enter the theater the night of Gloria's opening with the show. Eddie Cantor also does an excellent skit as part of the show.

The DVD has next to nothing in the extras department. You can pick scenes and look at the catalogue of the other movies sold by Alpha Home Entertainment but that's about it.

In short, Glorifying The American Girl is, despite its flaws, a strong example of an early musical filmed just after sound was truly introduced into film. I highly recommend this for film buffs; and classic movie aficionados will appreciate this one, too.
April 23, 2008

Enjoy the innocence of it all, as well as Eddy Cantor and Helen Morgan

We should encourage each other to smile indulgently at the antics and musical tastes of our great-grandparents. After all, our own great-grandchildren will soon enough be doing the same to us. In Glorifying the American Girl, the story of Gloria Hughes' ambition to be a musical star is appliqued onto the Broadway extravaganza of a Florenz Ziegfeld show. We get songs, dances, fabulous costumes, show girls, ukulele plucking, comedy skits, a near-fatal accident, lechery, tearful farewells, love lost and love found and, of course, a big finale where Gloria's success is tempered only by the sadness of a love too long delayed, yet still made satisfying by the happiness of her two best friends. In other words, there's much to snicker about...just don't take your own all-too-soon-to-be-dated enthusiasms too seriously.

Briefly, Gloria (Mary Eaton) works with Buddy (Edward Crandall) and Barbara (Gloria Shea) at Heiman's Department store. Buddy plays piano while Gloria sings the latest songs so that customers will buy the sheet music. Barbara is a clerk. Buddy loves Gloria. Barbara loves Buddy. Gloria thinks she loves Buddy. When Danny Miller (Dan Healy), part of the song and dance team, Miller and Mooney, fires his latest Mooney at the company picnic, he spots Gloria dancing. Before long Gloria has left Heiman's and become the replacement Mooney. While Buddy pines for Gloria and Barbara pines for Buddy, Miller and Gloria travel the country with their act. They're spotted by a scout working for Florenz Ziegfeld and arrive in New York with big hopes and big dreams. It doesn't work out. But Gloria fights for a chance to show her stuff and lands a spot in the show. Danny, who is something of a lech as well as a good dancer, hangs around because of a contract he had Gloria sign. Now opening night approaches. But wait. Barbara has been hit by a taxi and is in critical condition. Buddy realizes he loves Barbara. Gloria goes on with the show. In a miracle of careless editing, Buddy and Barbara are in their seats, part of the happy, applauding audience as Gloria, learning at the last minute that Buddy and Barbara are wed, achieves fame.

What makes all this dated nonsense watchable is the innocence of the acting, the songs and dances, and, during the last third of the movie, the Ziegfeld Follies on stage. The Follies were lush, fabulous variety shows. We have an odd tableau that features nuns, a bishop, scantily clad girls and half naked chorus boys probably doing something religiously questionable; there's Helen Morgan sitting on a piano telling us another sad story in song about her man; here's Rudy Vallee singing to us that he's just a vagabond lover looking for the girl in his vagabond dreams; front and center are high-kicking chorines with none of the self-conscious angst of A Chorus Line; they just keep slapping the leather to the floor. And just before Gloria's big starring number, here's Eddie Cantor with an associate and a stooge doing a long comedy bit about a customer unfortunate enough to enter the tailor shop where Cantor works. While Vallee looks much like the self-satisfied, dirty old man he turned into, Helen Morgan is great. She could deliver a torch song like few before or since. And Eddie Cantor gives all us aging youngsters a chance to see what made him such a big star in vaudeville and on Broadway. The humor is ethnic (e.g., broad and Jewish), the timing is perfect and the routine keeps building. I don't know who his stooge was or the fellow who played Cantor's boss, but they were first-rate second bananas.

This movie was supposed to have had the Ziegfeld Follies sequences shot in Technicolor. Perhaps somewhere there is a VHS or DVD version that reflects this. Most copies I've heard of have just been slapped together as cheaply as possible with no color and, often, with a lot of chopping. In the version I have, Barbara's auto accident, Buddy's promise of love, their marriage and then their being seated in the audience while Gloria triumphs is cut and edited incomprehensibly. The movie is in the public domain and looks every bit of it. Perhaps not much of a loss, but it would have been good to have seen Morgan and Cantor under better circumstances. July 21, 2007

Talking Curiosity

Two factors drew me into purchasing this product: that this film is an early talkie and Flo Ziegfeld. The film, like the curate's egg, is good in parts but has problems with long and boring dialogue, especially the speech made by the boss at the firm's outing. That said, it is a very interesting period piece showing life as it was for ordinary people in the late 20s. There are set pieces towards the end of the film of the Ziegfeld Girls arranged by Flo Ziegfeld himself (which are less spectacular than legend would have one believe) plus a rather over-long sketch by Eddie Cantor, probably hilarious in its day, but which is now very dated. The biggest disappointment of all is that the film is black and white throughout, whereas the opening credits promise the staged scenes in Technicolour. I think that had these colour scenes been restored, the DVD company could have charged that little bit extra and we would have been given a superb window on our cinematic heritage and I, for one,would not have been so stingy on the star rating! April 12, 2007

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