Applause

Kitty Darling was once a star of the burlesque stage; she has aged now and lost her shine. She sent her daughter April to a convent school for years precisely so she would not live the same life. But when the girl grows up and comes back she steps into her mother's world, and Kitty tries to stop it. This is Rouben Mamoulian's first film. It was made in the first years of sound and pushed the technical limits of the period: while the camera was still imprisoned inside a soundproof booth, Mamoulian got it moving, shot scenes in the streets of New York and used overlapping sound. The telling neither pities Kitty nor judges her; it shows what a life on stage costs. The singer Helen Morgan plays Kitty. It was added to the National Film Registry in the United States in 2006.