Search for Beauty
Search for Beauty is a 1934 pre-Code dramedy film, with some musical Busby Berkeley-esque athletic sequences, directed by Erle C. Kenton and starring Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino. They play a pair of lovers and aquatic champion Olympians (he a swimmer, she a diver) who become the face of a health magazine, which over their objections is turned into a "skin" rag.[1] Armstrong and Michael portray ex-cons with the 'scheme' (and both have designs to break up the loving couple for themselves), and Gleason is their cohort. In his first few scenes Crabbe promotes exercise: "Get off your (pause) 'feet' and get on them!"
| Search for Beauty | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Erle C. Kenton |
| Produced by | E. Lloyd Sheldon |
| Screenplay by | Claude Binyon David Boehm Frank Butler Sam Hellman Maurine Dallas Watkins |
| Starring | Buster Crabbe Ida Lupino Robert Armstrong James Gleason Toby Wing Gertrude Michael Bradley Page |
| Music by | John Leipold |
| Cinematography | Harry Fischbeck |
| Edited by | James Smith |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cast
- Buster Crabbe as Don Jackson
- Ida Lupino as Barbara Hilton
- Robert Armstrong as Larry Williams
- James Gleason as Dan Healy, the 'publisher'
- Toby Wing as Sally Palmer, Barbara's cousin
- Gertrude Michael as Jean Strange
- Bradley Page as Joe Garrett
- Frank McGlynn, Sr. as Rev. Rankin
- Nora Cecil as Miss Pettigrew
- Virginia Hammond as Mrs. Archibald Henderson-James
- Eddie Gribbon as Adolph Knockler
- James B. 'Pop' Kenton as Caretaker
- Lynn Bari as Beauty Contest Entrant (uncredited)
- Maurice Costello as Health Acres Guest (uncredited)
- Joyzelle Joyner as Beauty Contest Entrant (uncredited)
- Ann Sheridan as Texas Beauty Winner (uncredited)
Notes
The magazine publishing company shown in the film has been interpreted as a parody of the publishing enterprises owned by Bernarr Macfadden at the time.
References
- Search for Beauty, tcm.com, accessed October 12, 2010.
- Doherty, Thomas Patrick. Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934. New York: Columbia University Press 1999. ISBN 0-231-11094-4