Page Miss Glory (1935)

Sadly Over-hyped

How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

...so if you are expecting a typical Marion Davies vehicle in which she is the center of attention most of the time you're going to be disappointed. However, if you're just looking for a fun fast moving comedy in the tradition of 1930's Warner Brothers this will hit the spot.There are two con-men (Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh) inventing the concept of Photoshop over 50 years before it is a practical reality by entering a composite photograph in a beauty contest and winning, Marion Davies being brave enough to parade around before the camera for almost a full hour as an overweight plain chamber maid, and Dick Powell as a Dudley DoRight type of ace pilot with a chest full of medals who proposes to the beauty contest winner, who is, of course, a girl he's never even met since she doesn't exist. Marion's chamber maid character returns the sentiment having fallen in love with the pilot's picture. Mary Astor plays the mismatched and possessive fiancée of Frank McHugh's character.In short this movie is intentionally ridiculous fun. It pokes fun at publicity campaigns and what makes people famous and interesting to the press and has plenty of that rapid fire dialogue for which Warners was famous in the 30's. Just take off your thinking cap and enjoy.

In no way can I be persuaded to think that MARION DAVIES was a brilliant comedienne. She delivers her lines in flat fashion, making everyone aware that she is acting--as if that in itself is supposed to be funny. Truth is, she was better in silents where we were not subjected to her strident speaking voice and the affected mannerisms on display in her later films.I go with the N.Y. Times reviewer who said: "Some of it is funny, some of it isn't, and a lot of it is speed and noise." For sheer speed and noise you can have PAT O'BRIEN, spouting all his dialog like a machine gun spitting out lines faster than the speed of sound. You can have ALLEN JENKINS being his lovable but dumb self, saddled with some of the film's sillier moments but at least drawing a chuckle. Or you can sympathize with MARY ASTOR who is supposed to be daffy about FRANK McHUGH--and that too is good for a laugh. And then we have poor DICK POWELL, trying to make something out of a thankless supporting role as Marion's true love.It's all done in the furious fashion typical of these screwball comedies from the '30s--only this one hasn't got enough wit in the script to please any discriminating viewer.For Davies fans only. Before it's over, you get the feeling you've seen it all before.

PAGE MISS GLORY is a first rate comedy, and possibly (if all the other films of Marion Davies vanished) would establish her as she would have hoped - as the leading female comedienne of her day. She apparently enjoyed having a good sense of humor, and in films like this and the silent film SHOW PEOPLE she demonstrated what she should have been doing in her film career. Ah, if only the man she loved (who equally loved her - it did not become a "Kane" relationship) could have let well enough alone Davies reputation in film would be so much higher than it became.The story has been mentioned in other reviews here. Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh have created the fictitious "Miss Glory" as the winner of a spurious Hollywood talent contest, making a picture of her based on parts of all the other great Hollywood leading ladies of 1935. Of course, in this film, the resulting montage picture looks like Davies. But their con may be collapsing - they have to produce Miss Glory and they can't. Then the see their hotel room cleaning lady, a young woman wearing drab clothes and glasses, and who is remarkably clumsy. Without her eyeglasses - why it's none other than Davies. Quickly O'Brien, McHugh, Mary Astor, and Patsy Kelly convince Davies to play Miss Glory. She dumb, but now she is dumbstruck! But the idea actually catches her fancy. Soon she is ready to be the putty in their hands.It was an early view of publicity and notoriety. The way the public chews up the fashionable, beautiful Miss Glory, without seeing a bit of evidence she can do anything at all is astounding - and was not really recaptured for another twenty years until George Cukor turned Judy Holliday into "Gladys Glover", the overnight celebrity on a huge Manhattan billboard, in IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU. Only one guy really doubts the ballyhoo - Lyle Talbot, a cynical newspaper reporter who does not trust O'Brien with his checkered past. But in the main the public love her, and when (in a radio interview) she mentions her admiration for a dumb aviator - hero played by Dick Powell, Powell hearing it on his radio decides she must be the girl of his dreams too!O'Brien is not happy about this relationship, and tries to stop it - it is possibly putting a halt to his making a killing in getting Davies' endorsements for advertising various goods. He orders McHugh to take her into the country so that Powell can't get into contact with her. This keeps McHugh from dating his girlfriend, Kelly, who is getting jealous. In one of the most touching moments of the film, McHugh and Davies kiss each other in the front seat of his car, each pretending the other is Powell and Kelly. But after a moment they both realize it just won't work!There are funny little moments of other performers in the film. Joseph Cawthorne and Al Shean play rival yeast manufacturers who are always arguing. Both want Miss Glory to advertise their particular yeast. O'Brien dislikes both men (they forced their way into the hotel room), and as the two "Dutch" dialog actors argue out loud, O'Brien (in total anger) yells to McHugh, "Get Weber and Fields out of here!". If only she had made more films like this - but W.R. wanted her in historical films and dramas. Sad for her career and her reputation.

Like "Front Page Woman," this is a comedy I'd never heard of and only discovered because of TCM. Fast paced dialogue played with relentless Looney Tunes energy make this a sharp spoof of media manipulation and public gullibility that holds up well nearly 70 years later. Marion Davies inhabits her slow witted small town girl thrust into the limelight. Dick Powell parodies himself as the Hero of the Air who falls in love with her picture and proposes before they've ever met. Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh share a wonderful rapport as the con artists behind it all. Only Mary Astor seems wasted as she has little to do though she does it with elan. Treads similar territory to `Nothing Sacred' or more recent offerings like `Simone' and `Wag the Dog.' Highly recommended.