Summary
Peggy Malone, a luminous cog in the footlight machinery, shoulders two parasitic males—her gin-sozzled father and ambition-drained brother—while tapping through nightly revues that smell of greasepaint and unpaid rent. Marriage to wisecracking press agent Jimmy Parsons promises oxygen, but the menfolk transplant their lethargy into the honeymoon nest, turning connubial bliss into a boarding-house farce. Jimmy’s lungs collapse under the emotional tariff; he flees to Arizona’s dust-scorched sanatoriums. Peggy, refusing defeat, hitchhikes her dreams to Los Angeles where celluloid gods are minted overnight. A studio czar spots the bruised radiance beneath her eyes, catapults her into stunt-work Valhalla, and soon her silhouette graces billboards from Venice to Riverside. She bankrolls Jimmy’s convalescence, bankrolls her kin’s slovenly inertia, then bankrolls her own calamity when a cliffside gag snaps vertebrae and vanity in one crunch. Enter Martin Fox—velvet-gloved financier, collector of broken beauties—offering marble mansions and a future measured in carats. Jimmy re-enters, sun-cured and screenplay-rich, brandishing dialogues sharper than Fox’s cufflinks. The final reel is not a choice between wallets but between versions of self: commodity or collaborator, idol or woman. She limps toward Jimmy, the desert still in his hair, and the curtain falls on a kiss that smells of turpentine and second chances.
Synopsis
Chorus girl Peggy Malone, who supports her shiftless father and brother, marries press agent Jimmy Parsons. All goes well until Pop and Eddie practically move into Jimmy's flat, keeping him away from home and causing Peggy to return to stage work. Jimmy's health is jeopardized, and he leaves for Arizona to recuperate. Peggy also travels west, but to Los Angeles, California, where she is offered work by a film company. After becoming a star, Peggy continues to aid Jimmy while supporting her father and brother. She suffers an injury while performing a dangerous scene and is forced to choose between her wealthy admirer, Martin Fox, and Jimmy, who comes to Los Angeles to fight for her. She chooses Jimmy, now a successful scenarist, thus assuring their future.
Review Excerpt
"
The first time we see Peggy Malone she is only a ripple of calves and confetti beneath a proscenium arch that could collapse from indifference. Director George L. Cox tilts the camera upward so the chandeliers look like decapitated suns, and the gesture announces the film’s thesis: stardom is a cold constellation you reach by climbing over people who claim to love you.
What follows is a 65-minute silent cyclone whose every intertitle could double as ransom note. Earl Derr Biggers and Percy Hea..."
