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What Price Hollywood? Overview:

What Price Hollywood? (1932) was a Drama - Black-and-white Film directed by George Cukor and produced by David O. Selznick and Pandro S. Berman.

SYNOPSIS

Cukor's movie breakthrough was a film that producer Selznick considered to be a fairly straight reportage of backstage Hollywood. Bennett, a waitress at the Brown Derby, convinces sozzled director Sherman to squire her around Hollywood and get her a screen test, a toe in the movie waters that leads to Oscars, romance, suicide, marriage, separation, and reconciliation. Cukor revisited the scene of this early success with the more melodramatic A Star is Born (1954).

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Academy Awards 1931/32 --- Ceremony Number 5 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best WritingAdela Rogers St. Johns, Jane MurfinNominated
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What Price Hollywood? BlogHub Articles:

What Price Hollywood? (1932): Starring Constance Bennett

By 4 Star Film Fan on May 30, 2022 From 4 Star Films

Here is a film so completely attuned to Hollywood celebrity and fandom in its heyday. We open on Hollywood fashion magazines full of stockings and lipstick, and glossies of Greta Garbo & Clark Gable. Then, Mary Evans (Constance Bennett) pushes her retractable bed into the wall to head off to her... Read full article

WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? PART TWO

By Terry on Oct 25, 2015 From Stardust and Shadows

In the first part of this series I took a capsule look at the Studio System with a nod to the use of drugs in order to produce and package the huge amount of product. It was not a complete look as many smaller operations such as PARAMOUNT PICTURES, RKO and the Poverty Row companies such as PRC, and ... Read full article

WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? PART ONE

By Terry on Jun 21, 2015 From Stardust and Shadows

THE STUDIO GATES This is a slightly different look at the Hollywood myth – mainly because we are going to take a ‘hardboiled” look at some of the ideas that nostalgic sites gloss over. Not all sites do yet this is an important part of the Hollywood story.  Gloss over, just as the major st... Read full article

Pre-Code Crazy: What Price Hollywood? (1931)

By shadowsandsatin on May 2, 2015 From Shadows and Satin

In previous months, my Pre-Code Crazy pick has always been a film that I’ve seen numerous times before. And while I was initially quite certain that this month’s selection also fit into that category, it turns out that I’d actually never seen it before! Oh, I’d seen the film’s beginning co... Read full article

What Price Hollywood? (1932) (2)

on Mar 24, 2014 From Journeys in Classic Film

... Read full article

See More What Price Hollywood? Articles

What Price Hollywood? Quotes:

Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Well what's the riot about? Hello Mary, anything new?
Julius Saxe: It's going to be terrific! Weddings are my speciality!
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Wedding? What wedding?
Mary Evans: Mine. Darling aren't you going to congratulate me?
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: What for? It'll never last.
Lonny Borden: What won't last?
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: My liver and a movie star's marriage.
Mary Evans: We know your liver won't last darling!
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Say, do you think I'm doing this because I like it! How about you forget your husband for a few minutes and we might be able to finish this scene and go home.
Lonny Borden: Oh, it too late for the theater now anyhow.
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Or you stand the chance of seeing the last act. Might do her some good to see a competent actress.
Mary Evans: Say!
Lonny Borden: Is it necessary to insult Miss Evans Mr. Carey?
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Outsiders are not allowed on the set. Why don't you let me direct Miss Evans and you be... Mr. Evans.
Mary Evans: That'll be enough tonight Max. Come on Lonny!
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Would you mind reading that fan letter for me?
[it is written on the front of the shirt he is wearing]
James, Max's Butler: Mary Evans. Five foot four inches. Weight 102 pounds. Complextion blonde. Telephone Gladstone 5309. Sings and swims. Rides horseback.
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Well, I, I wonder who...?
James, Max's Butler: It must have been the young lady.
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Young lady? Did I bring some one home with me last night?
James, Max's Butler: No sir, some one brought you home this morning. She's downstairs asleep.
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: I must get a dressing gown!
[first lines]
[Mary Evans is admiring a magazine photo of Clark Gable]
Mary Evans: Hmmmm. Oh, boy!
[Mary places the magazine photo against her face and pretends Gable is her lover. She speaks in an exaggerated voice]
Mary Evans: Daaahling, how I love you my daaahling, I love you I do.
[she puts the magazine down and returns to her normal voice]
Mary Evans: It's getting late and I must scram.
Julius Saxe: Carey I like you. You're a fine director Carey.
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Alright, what have I done now?
Julius Saxe: Now see I'll tell you. Carey you are slipping. All the time with the "but". All the time you are drunk. No longer do you care whether the scenes are good. No longer do you care whether the scene is being wasted. All the time retakes. All the time over schedule.
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: Alright. Now let's see, who do we get to replace me?
Julius Saxe: Now listen. I'm saying that to you for your own good. You're even losing your memory with this drinking business. You're getting crazy. It's no good. You've got to stop it. Look here, five years ago you were ten years ahead of it and now you're not quite even with it. And what's the answer? Whiskey!
Maximillan 'Max' Carey: You're right. What the picture business needs is white wines and beers!
Julius Saxe: Ahhhhhh!
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What Price Hollywood? Facts
David O. Selznick wanted Clara Bow for the role of Mary Evans, but she turned it down when she was offered more money from Fox.
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson's first movie.
Max Carey was modelled after Lowell Sherman himself, who was known to be an alcoholic, as well as silent film director Marshall Neilan and actor John Barrymore (who was Sherman's brother-in-law at the time).
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