DbcultAccessing Vault...
4.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 4.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Peacock Alley remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you're looking for a polished masterpiece, you should probably just keep scrolling. But if you have a soft spot for those early talkies where everyone sounds like they are shouting into a tin can, you might actually like this one. 🎬
I think Peacock Alley is mostly for people who enjoy seeing how Hollywood struggled to move from silent films to sound. It's definitely for Mae Murray fans, though her 'bee-stung' lips look a bit odd when she's trying to pronounce heavy dialogue.
If you hate slow pacing or stories where characters make really dumb choices about who to marry, you will probably want to turn this off after ten minutes.
The whole plot is basically Claire (Mae Murray) begging Stoddard to marry her. He says marriage is 'stupid' and 'old-fashioned.' It's kind of funny how blunt she is about it. She literally tells him she wants to get married because she's tired of the 'uncertainty' of being a single woman. 💍
The movie feels very claustrophobic at first. Most of it happens in this hotel suite in New York. You can almost feel the heat of the studio lights on the actors' faces. The shadows are a bit heavy, too.
When she leaves his room at 'the crack of dawn,' the movie tries to make it look scandalous. By today's standards, it's just a woman walking out of a room, but back then, the music gets all dramatic like she just committed a crime.
Claire gets fed up and marries a guy from Texas basically five minutes after meeting him. It's the kind of movie logic that makes you blink twice. One minute she's crying over Stoddard, the next she's saying 'I do' to a guy she barely knows.
The Texan is... well, he's a Texan. He's got that 'moral' chip on his shoulder that was so popular in movies back then. 🤠
Then comes the house detective. I honestly think house detectives in old movies are the worst people on earth. This guy just walks up and tells the husband, 'Hey, your wife stayed in another man's room until sunrise.' And the husband just immediately believes him and leaves. No questions asked. Just 'Bye, I'm out.'
It's a bit like the plot of His Wooden Wedding, where a misunderstanding just ruins everything instantly. People in 1930 had zero chill.
The middle of the movie just stops so Claire can perform. This is the part that makes the movie worth sitting through. She plays the piano and sings 'In My Dreams, You Still Belong To Me.' Her voice is okay, but it’s the dancing that gets weird.
Suddenly, the movie switches to 2-strip Technicolor. It doesn't look like modern color. Everything is basically shades of pink, orange, and seafoam green. 🎨
It is so deeply strange. The costume looks heavy and probably smelled like old fabric. She’s spinning around and the color makes her look like a moving painting. It has nothing to do with the plot, but I couldn't look away.
It reminded me a bit of the energy in Sky High Corral, where the spectacle is more important than the actual story making sense.
The ending is rushed. Stoddard comes back and says he'll marry her because they are 'different.' I don't know what that means. Are they different because they like hotel rooms? Or because they both like bullfighting dances?
The movie doesn't really explain it. It just ends. 🤷♂️
Did you notice?
It’s a clunky, weird, slightly boring, but fascinating relic. If you like seeing the transition from silents like The Three Musketeers to the talkie era, give it a look. Just don't expect a tight script.
The 24-hour setting makes the whole thing feel like a fever dream. It’s a lot of drama for one day. I can barely finish my laundry in 24 hours, but Claire Tree managed to get rejected, married, divorced, and re-engaged while performing a Technicolor dance. Respect. 💃
IMDb 5.3
1921
Community
Log in to comment.
