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Marion Davies' reportedly possessed a rather charming stammer which nevertheless did not bode well for the arrival of sound. Happily, putting all her energy into faking a French accent for the title role in Marianne, a sort of lightweight musical rendition of The Big Parade (1925), Davies manages to turn a minor impediment into a non-issue. She had already made a silent version of the piece, co-starring Broadway singer Oscar Shaw, but when the production moved before the microphones, the entire supporting cast was jettisoned in favor of fresh talent, including the hapless Mr. Shaw, who found himself replaced by Hollywood's own Lawrence Gray. The end result survives as a museum piece but in comparison to other early talkies, Marianne does retain some vitality and Marion Davies remains a revelation whether delivering a stream of consciousness in seemingly fluent French or in charming duets with Messieurs Gray and George Baxter.