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6.7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Beauty for Sale remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a thing for pre-code Hollywood—where people act morally bankrupt and seem to have a great time doing it—then Beauty for Sale is a total blast. If you need your movies to have a clear moral compass or a plot that makes sense every single second, maybe skip this one. It’s for the people who want to watch pretty people ruin their lives over coffee and hairspray.
The movie moves fast. Like, really fast. One minute Madge Evans is just trying to make a living, and the next, she’s neck-deep in everyone else's dirty laundry. It feels less like a structured story and more like someone just kept recording the most scandalous conversations they could find in a beauty shop.
The salon itself is a weird, claustrophobic place. Everyone is constantly whispering. I found myself wondering if anyone actually got a haircut or if it was just 90 minutes of plotting.
There is a scene with Alice Brady that stands out for being incredibly frantic. She’s buzzing around like a hornet, and it’s honestly hard to look away. It’s these little moments of high-strung energy that keep the whole thing from feeling like a dusty relic.
The affairs start to stack up pretty quickly. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Unfaithful, though the tone here is way more gossipy and light-hearted. It’s not trying to be a deep, dark tragedy. It’s more like, "Oh, you're sleeping with his wife? That's nice, pass the tea."
Honestly, the movie gets better once it stops trying to justify why these people are doing what they’re doing. Just let them be messy. Hedda Hopper shows up and basically owns every room she walks into. She’s the perfect anchor for a movie that is otherwise drifting toward total chaos.
It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s fun. You can tell the actors were having a good time playing these self-destructive socialites. Sometimes that’s enough to carry a movie, even when the script feels like it was written on the back of a cocktail napkin.
Don't expect it to change your life. Just grab a drink and watch the chaos unfold. Sometimes, that's the best kind of cinema.
IMDb 6.4
1926
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