Show People (1928)
Peggy Pepper arrives in Hollywood from Georgia certain she is bound for great dramatic roles, but her break comes in low comedy at a slapstick studio. Success, a grand new stage name, and airs of prestige pull her away from the comedian who loves her, until she remembers what she is good at.
King Vidor’s affectionate satire of the movie business sends Marion Davies through a gallery of star cameos, playing herself among them, and lets her show a gift for comic mimicry that her prestige productions usually buried. Show People was selected for the National Film Registry.
Background
King Vidor directed Show People, a Hollywood satire starring Marion Davies, who was best known for comedy at the time, with William Haines as her leading man. The story follows a young woman from Georgia who hopes for dramatic stardom but finds her first success in slapstick comedy, and the film pokes fun at the pretensions of the silent industry. Cameo appearances by established stars, including Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and John Gilbert, give it the feel of an industry in-joke. It was released in 1928 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
What to watch for
Pay attention to the cameo sequences, which show established stars appearing as themselves and kidding their own public personas. Davies’s comic timing is the film’s main asset, particularly in the slapstick scenes where her character is pushed into broad physical routines. Haines plays the comedian who supports her career, and the romance is kept low-key next to the satire. The studio-lot scenes give a picture of how films were made in the late 1920s, and the film’s comedy about ambition and vanity still reads clearly today.
