AllMovie

The inimitable Edna May Oliver makes a meal of the title role in the Technicolor backstage drama Fanny Foley Herself. The star is cast in the Marie Dressler-like role of a vaudeville performer who has trouble dividing her time equally between her career and her two daughters (Helen Chandler, Rochelle Hudson), and as a result she alienates both girls. Fanny Foley's true colors come through in the end, when she braves an airplane ride through a driving storm and makes a perilous parachute jump when she is led to believe that her daughter Carmen (Rochelle Hudson) has been sexually compromised by a cad. The fact that Carmen is living blissfully and respectfully with hubby Teddy (John Darrow) does not alter the fact that Fanny has proven her devotion to her progeny. The film was retitled Top of the Bill in Great Britain, where the name "Fanny" had an objectionable connotation.