
Four winners, out of 75,000 entrants, of a beauty contest supported by movie fan magazines appear in this film..

Celluloid orchids bloom only once; some shed perfume so intoxicating the audience forgets the thorns. A Dream of Fair Women is such a flower—an opiate sonnet stapled to newsprint, a beauty contest turned fever dream, a cultural x-ray smuggled inside a fan-magazine confection. Ninety-nine percent of 1924 moviegoers lap...


Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

Wilfrid North

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" Celluloid orchids bloom only once; some shed perfume so intoxicating the audience forgets the thorns. A Dream of Fair Women is such a flower—an opiate sonnet stapled to newsprint, a beauty contest turned fever dream, a cultural x-ray smuggled inside a fan-magazine confection. Ninety-nine percent of 1924 moviegoers lapped it up as froth. The remaining one percent—those who listened to the negative space between the title cards—felt the chill of prophecy. The Pageant That Ate Itself Start with t..."
Russell Ball
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Gladys Hall
United States


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