Archive of films What Price Hollywood? / What Price Hollywood?

USA
1932, 88 min

Section: Tribute to The Film Foundation Section includes annotation
Year: 2021

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

Restored by the Library of Congress and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

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
Tel: +44 203 657 9507
E-mail: [email protected]

Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE, DC 20540, Washington
United States of America
Tel: +1 202 707 5000
E-mail: [email protected]

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About the film

Black & white, 35 mm

Section:	Tribute to The Film Foundation

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