Helen Morgan gives a brilliant, beautifully modulated performance as an aging burlesque queen determined to prevent her convent-bred daughter from entering the sordid and oppressive world of striptease. Rouben Mamoulian's first film is a landmark in the early use of sound in films: it was Mamoulian's genius that he retained the expressive freedom of the silent film in his early sound films, and the revolution he promoted with Applause--putting the entire camera booth on wheels and using double-track sound--is chronicled in every history of cinema. Mamoulian can thus glide through the world he creates with his carefully chosen images like the cat that is his trademark; if he uses sound brilliantly, still his language is the visual image--shown at its finest in our beautiful 35mm nitrate print! Applause is one of the great “mother-daughter” films: the contrasting worlds of convent and cathouse are stunningly created, while their complex connections are subtly evoked.