King Vidor directed this bright and snappy ode to Hollywood stardom, featuring a who's who list of Hollywood superstars --including Charles Chaplin, Renee Adoree, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, William S. Hart, Mae Murray and Lew Cody -- playing themselves in cameo appearances. Marian Davies stars as Peggy Pepper, a young Hollywood hopeful, arriving in town from Kentucky with her father, Colonel Oldfish Pepper (Dell Henderson). When Peggy and her father arrive at a major Hollywood studio, Peggy gives a studio clerk an on-the-spot audition highlighting her range of emotions. The clerk is less than impressed. However, after having lunch with Billy Boone (William Haines), a rough-and-tumble performer in two-reel slapstick comedies, Peggy lands a role in a comedy needing a female lead. Although she is humiliated when she gets pies tossed in her face, she becomes a sensation when the two-reeler is shown. After her comedy success, Peggy is offered the lead is a more serious film. Not only does Peggy score a dramatic hit, she falls in love with Andre (Paul Ralli), the snobbish leading man. Changing her name to Miss Patricia Pepoire, she rises top the top of her profession. But she has forgotten her roots and how she arrived at success, shunning her family and Billy, all of whom she now thinks are beneath her. Billy, however, has fallen in love with her. When he hears that Peggy is planning to marry Andre at an exclusive wedding, he races to her mansion on the wedding day to try to prevent her marriage.
by Paul Brenner
synopsis
- Acting
- Ambition
- Ambitious
- Actress
- Actor
- Self-discovery
- Talent
- Love-conquers-all
- Star
- Hollywood
- Ladder To The Top
- Film-industry
- Behind-the-scenes
- Filmmaking
- Romantic