Summary
Florence Maddis, a Broadway firefly whose tap-shoes once struck sparks against the proscenium arch, pirouettes straight into the gilded cage of Manhattan’s oldest banking dynasty when she pledges forever to Ross Van Beekman—an heir whose bloodline is older than the streetlights. The chorus-girl-turned-countess swan-dives into marble corridors dripping with ancestral daggers disguised as candlesticks, while Park Avenue’s harpies wager on how many weeks before the marriage collapses like a soufflé at dawn. Yet Flo, equal parts steel and sequin, learns to curtsy in Dutch lace, speak in subjunctive clauses, and sip consommé without slurping; she even begins to love the hush of old money more than the roar of a standing ovation. Enter Ned Ormsby, a louche impresario who once signed her paychecks and now signs love-notes slipped under ostrich-feather fans, goading the family’s matriarch—an Edwardian gorgon in pearls—into staging a pantomime of adultery that will vaporize Flo’s respectability. One midnight, Ross, marinated in jealousy and single-malt, fires his service revolver into the armoire; the bullet never touches flesh, but Ormsby is found elsewhere with a matching caliber in his spine. Ross, shackled by guilt as heavy as the family crest, confesses to a murder he only imagined, while Flo, branded scarlet, retreats to the Winter Palace—a frosty Broadway boarding house where ex-chorus girls warm their hands over memories. Salvation arrives in the form of Maddox, a racketeer with a vendetta, who spills the true confession like a shot of bootleg gin, springing Ross from the Tombs and Flo from exile. The film ends on the mansion’s snow-dusted steps: Flo’s ermine collar brushes Ross’s cheek, the butler bows lower than etiquette demands, and the chandelier’s thousand crystals sway in silent applause, as though even the house itself has forgiven her for once dancing to saxophones instead of violins.
Synopsis
After dancer Florence Maddis marries Ross Van Beekman, son of an aristocratic New York family, her friends predict that the union will not be successful, but she manages to fit into the family circle and has no desire to return to Broadway. Her mother-in-law disapproves of her, however, and persuaded by Ned Ormsby, one of Flo's admirers, she arranges for Flo to appear flirtatious. When Ross suspects Flo of harboring Ormsby, he fires a pistol at her closet; and since Ormsby is found shot in his house, Ross confesses, believing himself guilty, while Flo returns to the Winter Palace. Ross is freed, however, when Maddox, an enemy of Ormsby's, confesses to the crime, and Flo is happily reconciled with the family and Ross.
Review Excerpt
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The first time I saw Out of the Chorus I was seated beside an archivist who kept whispering that the nitrate could combust any second; the threat of fire became the film’s accidental soundtrack, each flicker a reminder that even celluloid aristocracy can turn to ash. Two reels in, Florence Maddis glides across a parquet floor polished by centuries of Van Beekman boots, and the camera—starved for light—catches the moment her satin heel betrays a microscopic scuff. That scuff is the entire pictu..."
