Jon Mirsalis on Piano Allan Dwan was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors and some of his most appealing work is to be found in a series of films he made with Gloria Swanson-several of her best films, as well, including Manhandled, Stage Struck and What a Widow. Stage Struck, aside from being a beguiling comedy about a West Virginia waitress who takes up acting to prevent her boyfriend from taking up with actresses, is important as one of the first films to contain Technicolor effects, which are beautifully preserved in this Eastman House print. Dwan related this story in Peter Bogdanovich's book Allan Dwan: The Last Pioneer: "There was a dream sequence in which Gloria, playing a little punk who wants to be an actress, fancies herself a great person in the theater-and it was a magnificent pageant, all in color. But the sets, of course, were just ordinary, made for black-and-white and there wasn't much color on the walls, so I said to the Technicolor man, 'Let's project some color on the walls.' 'Oh, you can't do that.' 'Why? You do in the theater. Put magenta in front of the lamps and change everything from pink to blue. In fact, you can change it as you're shooting-'...Finally, we (tried it) and, gee, the effect was immense-just perfect...We would never dream of using (Technicolor) for a whole picture-but for a short sequence of that kind, I thought it might be effective."