Dramatic School

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Movie
Original title Dramatic School
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1938
length 77 minutes
Rod
Director Robert B. Sinclair
script Ernest Vajda
Mary C. McCall Jr.
production Mervyn LeRoy for MGM
music Franz Waxman
camera William H. Daniels
cut Fredrick Y. Smith
occupation

Dramatic School is an American melodrama by Ronald B. Sinclair from 1938. It was the last film by leading actress Luise Rainer under contract with MGM, who prematurely terminated her contract after a dispute with her studio and left Hollywood. The film drama itself was also rather a failure with critics and audiences.

action

Budding, talented actress Louise Mauban attends the Paris School of Drama while she works in a desolate factory to finance her acting studies. Because of the hard work, she often falls asleep during acting lessons, which brings her constant trouble. She tells her fellow students at the drama school, whose offers for dates and meetings, because she still has to work, stories of her supposedly luxurious life and her handsome admirer, the Marquis Andre D'Abbencourt. Louise's fellow students, however, suspect that these stories stem from their imagination.

The scheming fellow student Nana, who is jealous of Louise's acting talent, hosts a birthday party to which she not only invites Louise, but also the Marquis D'Abbencourt, who doesn't even know Louise. However, Nana's malicious plan goes wrong when the Marquis and Louise meet: he immediately falls in love with her and the story, which was actually made up, becomes the truth. The enchanted marquis now gives Louise presents and goes out with her every evening. But the Marquis sees more and more that Louise is more interested in acting than in him. A little later, the Marquis D'Abbencourt falls in love with another woman and leaves Louise by letter. Acting colleagues visit the deeply sad Louise, who, out of spite, gives them the presents of the Marquis that were actually intended for them. Nana receives the Marquis' farewell letter as a present from Louise. Now that the Marquis is no longer between the two, they become friends.

The acting teacher of Louise and Nana is the aging theater star Madame Therese Charlot, who is especially adored by Louise. Madame Charlot learns from theater director Pasquel Sr. that she will not play the main role in the new play about Joan of Arc - she is now too old for the role. When Louise is again late for acting class, the embittered Madame Charlot wants to fire Louise from school because she sees Louise as a competitor for the role of Jeanne d'Arc. To Madame Charlot's surprise, she agrees to the dismissal: Louise explains that she believes that a great actor must go through crises beforehand, just as Madame Charlot should have gone through crises before her breakthrough.

Nevertheless, Louise returns to acting class the next day. Madame Charlot reconsiders her decision, takes Louise back to class and explains that she is satisfied with a supporting role. Louise, on the other hand, gets the role of Jeanne d'Arc and celebrates a furious success on the premiere night. After the performance, the marquis visits the actress backstage. Although Louise still has feelings for the Marquis, she refuses to continue the relationship. Her only true love would always be the theater anyway.

background

The role of Louise was initially intended for Greer Garson , who had to decline because of a back injury. Finally, the German-born Luise Rainer, who had won two Oscars in the previous years and made a meteoric rise in Hollywood , took over the role. However, she found herself increasingly in a dead end with her last films, because her roles - although main characters in expensive A-productions - mostly consisted of the same highly emotional, tearful elements. Rainer demanded better roles and came into conflict with her studio. This was her last real Hollywood film: at the end of the year, she canceled her current contract with MGM and left Hollywood. In addition, her then husband Clifford Odets is said to have regularly talked into career planning. Studio boss Louis B. Mayer called after her when she resigned: “We created you, we will destroy you!” To which Rainer allegedly replied: “God created me - in 20 years you will be dead, but I will be a famous actress . “That was practically the end of her Hollywood career.

For many of Rainer's co-actors, however, bigger careers followed: Paulette Goddard, the wife of Charlie Chaplin at the time , had previously only played a leading role in his film Modern Times (1936) and otherwise only played minor roles. With this film, Goddard's star potential was tested - apparently successfully, because MGM used the actress in a number of good roles and films in the following years. Lana Turner, who plays Mado here, was still at the beginning of her career. The comedian Hans Conried and the singer Dick Haymes made their film debut at Dramatic School .

reception

The reviews of Dramatic School were mediocre at best and many saw the film as an imitation of the film Stage Entrance with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers from last year. The industry journal Variety wrote: "The story is a very unwise choice for Miss Rainer, and it is obviously difficult for her film studio to provide her with adequate material." The film also made box office losses and failed to recoup the slightly above-average production costs .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Miller: Dramatic School (1938) - Articles. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved September 19, 2019 .