Show People

During his association with MGM in the 1920s, King Vidor directed a series of delightful comedies with Marion Davies, who proves herself a superb comedienne in films like Show People and The Patsy. In the lovely Show People, she portrays a star-struck country girl who arrives in Hollywood with great fanfare, Southern Colonel father and all, only to find herself battling cream pies as an extra. Show People was intended as a gentle satire on the career of Gloria Swanson. The behind-the-scenes glimpses of Hollywood are fascinating, and well integrated into some first-rate slapstick in which Vidor presents, in no uncertain terms, the Hollywood con game, and “his view of its self-perpetuating chaotic energy, and of the impact it can have on individual characters” (Fred Camper).

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