Dramatic School (1938) User Reviews

Dramatic Finish

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 12 January 2009]

Dramatic School is a kind of French version of Morning Glory with Luise Rainer as a continental version of Katharine Hepburn's Eva Lovelace. Luise sacrifices all for a career, going to the prestigious Paris School of Drama and working the night shift at a factory to make ends meet. She doesn't want fellow students like Paulette Goddard, Lana Turner, Virginia Grey, and Ann Rutherford to know what she's doing so she makes up stories about a more interesting life Luise wishes she were leading.

One day during class when a very strict acting coach Gale Sondergaard is giving a lesson she passes out and then tells the whopper of all time about going out with a well known man about Paris town in Alan Marshal. That sets off a nice chain of events that culminates in an ending typical of all backstage stories, I need not spell it out for you.

This was the last film Luise Rainer did under her MGM contract, it was dissolved by mutual consent between Luise and Louis B. Mayer. What Luise wanted and might have gotten at another studio were roles that were more challenging for her talent. She wanted what Greta Garbo had over at MGM and for Mayer there was only room for one Garbo on the lot. If Irving Thalberg had lived things might have been different, but who can say. In any event she and the rest of the cast acquit themselves admirably.

If anyone stands out though, for me it's Gale Sondergaard. She has a great part as a great actress who also teaches and is jealous of all the young ones coming through the school, especially Rainer. The acting profession is especially unkind to older women and Sondergaard channels a lot of resentment into her part.

Dramatic School was not a bad film for Luise to leave MGM on. It's not Camille or Ninotchka, but L.B. Mayer made it clear only one actress gets those parts on his lot.

Surprisingly good film

[lostto · 7/10 · 13 January 2010]

I was expecting a film barely worth the effort to watch, because of the other reviews,and the fact I'd never heard of it. I was surprised its reviews or obscurity were not true. The story was interesting, and I thought Luise Rainier brought a fey sort of innocence to the part. Her Louise was the perfect foil to the cynical, bitter characters of Nana and Therese. Ranier seems a combination of Hedy Lamar and Ingrid Bergman.

Gale Sondergaard was very good here, as was Goddard. It was interesting to watch such eventual major stars as Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford at the dawn of their careers.

Spend Some Time in School!

[JLRMovieReviews · 7/10 · 9 February 2010]

Luise Rainer feels herself an actress at heart. She is very serious at her studies and at being the best she can be. But, unfortunately, she is very poor and needs to work at a factory at night to make money. Therefore, she sometimes falls asleep in class. At work, she meets some rich society people and an stage actress, Genevieve Tobin, who is doing research for a role. Enter Alan Marshal, who is intrigued by Luise, when she refuses jewelry. (Long story! Watch the movie!)

Luise Rainer is the central character at this dramatic school, but there are lots of other recognizable faces in this movie. Other students are played by Paulette Goddard, Lana Turner, Virginia Grey, Hans Conried, Ann Rutherford and Rand Brooks. The latter two are both from "Gone with the Wind," Ann being Scarlet's sister and Rand, as Scarlet's husband who ultimately dies from scarlet fever in the civil war.

Gale Sondergaard, Margaret Dumont, and Henry Stephenson are the staff, with Gale being great as usual, especially as Juliet in her interpretation in class. Melville Cooper and Erik Rhodes (from Fred/Ginger movies with an accent, but here with absolutely none - shocking) round out the rest of the cast.

If you've never seen Luise Rainer before, this is nice little film that I have always liked for personal reasons, and she has the most serious eyes I've ever seen. Her strong demeanor yet fragile frame sets her apart from other actresses. I love the scene where she says to teacher Margaret Dumont, "Marie Antoinette was a queen. So she would walk like a queen."

Most of the other girls seem to be superficial or silly, like Lana, who's given practically nothing to do and Virginia Grey. Both Lana and Virginia would be in four other films together. Paulette Goddard who's known to have some spirit and fire about her is put to good use and comes across as three-dimensional. Besides Paulette and Luise, the only one who really shines is Ann Rutherford as Rand's girlfriend, who's only there because he thinks he can act, like his father and grandfather before him.

Ann Rutherford's character is happy to just be wherever he is and she is shown to great advantage. Ann Rutherford was a very beautiful actress, who always embodied to me a kind of quiet purity mixed in with sweetness.

So, spend some time with some pretty young ladies in a dramatic school. And, just be happy wherever you are!

"glory for one, oblivion for the other"

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 8 June 2005]

Unlike other posters, I found this film delightful and entertaining. But what was most fun was seeing all these stars as incredibly young people: Lana Turner, Paulette Goddard, Virginia Grey, Hans Conried. Luise Rainer was at her luminescent best with her big, soulful eyes, gorgeous bone structure, and beautiful speaking voice.

The story takes place in France, with those dissolves that translate French into English right away. It concerns a young dramatic school student whose fantasies become real due to a series of happy accidents. The end is particularly delightful.

I don't understand the backlash against Luise Rainer. She was a beautiful, principled actress who was discovered by Max Reinhardt, escaped Hitler, and came afoul of another dictator, Louis B. Mayer, who would not give her roles befitting the status of an actress who had won two Oscars. After an unhappy marriage to Clifford Odets, she found happiness in a marriage and left the U.S. She's still alive and works occasionally. You can't say that about many people born in 1910 or anyone in this film, including Ann Rutherford, who is still with us.

Moderately entertaining

[hrd1963-1 · 6/10 · 18 January 2010]

Strangely, it's set in France, yet features a bevy of American actresses playing girls with names like Nana, Yvonne and Simone. It's not as good as the similar Stage Door, which was released by RKO the year before, and the story takes a while to get going. Lovely, dark-eyed Luise Rainer stars as the young woman who aspires to be a great actress; Paulette Goddard is cast to type as a cynical, knowing classmate; Gale Sondergaard is the teacher who resents Rainer for her youth and talent; and Alan Marshall is the wealthy cad who misuses Rainer, thus allowing her to experience the suffering required for her to achieve great dramatic success. It's not a bit credible but, when all is said and done, it's fairly entertaining. With Lana Turner in an early role, Virginia Grey, Ann Rutherford and Margaret Dumont, Henry Stephenson, Genevieve Tobin, John Hubbard, Marie Blake, Erik Rhodes and moist-eyed Rand Brooks.

Plush cast in what is basically a B-film from MGM...

[Doylenf · 12 January 2004]

DRAMATIC SCHOOL was obviously designed as a star vehicle for LUISE RAINER, the European actress whose career fizzled after winning two Oscars in the mid-'30s. Her acting here is even more mannered than usual, aside from seeming eccentric as compared to the more natural acting styles of others in the cast. And it's quite a cast--a whole bevy of up-and-coming young stars on the Metro lot.

PAULETTE GODDARD gets most of the footage as a glamorous and scheming bad girl while LANA TURNER, VIRGINIA GREY and ANN RUTHERFORD play more conventional types.

But oddly enough, in a film concentrating on its young female talent, the picture is stolen by ALAN MARSHAL in the film's only substantial male role--elegant, debonair, sophisticated and as handsome as any matinee idol. And the other scene stealer is none other than GALE SONDERGAARD as a drama instructor who lets jealousy get the upper hand in dealing with her students.

It's all formula stuff, interesting only for the cast and offering very little in the way of a credible plot. LUISE RAINER's "magic" as a performer eludes me. I never cared for her artificial poses and her Joan of Arc sequence is ludicrous.

Worth noting is RAND BROOKS (he was Charles Hamilton in GWTW) as a young actor who can't act. A clever bit of typecasting.

Three on the way up, one on the way out

[jjnxn-1 · 7/10 · 3 June 2013]

Luise Rainer wrapped up her Hollywood career with this minor B movie that also served as an early showcase for Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford.

The Viennese Teardrop isn't bad but her habit of staring soulfully skyward comes across as a bit affected.

Paulette Goddard co-stars but she was in a transitional phase. After having recently been elevated from the ranks by Chaplin and featured in Modern Times she was a bit ahead of the other girls career wise but this was still before her period as a top star although that was right around the corner.

An interesting contrast can be made between the two other future stars featured. MGM was still experimenting with Lana and her look, her hair is still red not her signature blonde, her makeup is slightly different from scene to scene and her part is small although she is prominently billed. Ann Rutherford on the other hand who was at about the same point in her career already has her screen persona down. Of course she was always the girl next door so retained more of her natural attributes while by the time Lana reached the top there was little if anything girlish about her.

The picture itself moves at a decent clip and is mildly entertaining but has several large reality gaps in its story line. It's filled with familiar faces though to distract you from the holes in the script with Genevieve Tobin and Marie Blake both adding nice touches in small roles.

Rainer Seems To Be In A Different Movie Than The Rest Of The Cast!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 3 October 2012]

Even though she had won a Best Actress Academy Award two years in a row (1936, 1937) by 1938 all Luise Rainer's kittenish mannerisms, which had been so enchanting at her career's beginning, were now seen as a bore. "Dramatic School" was designed primarily to showcase all Rainer's quirky qualities in a view to making her popular once more but she was past caring. Her marriage was in trouble and she left Hollywood soon after in an effort to patch things up. Like the later "These Glamour Girls", this movie was a classy MGM release which also promoted their up and coming talent - Paulette Goddard (soon to go to Paramount) co-starred and down among the supporting players were Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford and Virginia Grey.

Louise Mauban (Rainer) is an intense, young would be actress at the prestigious National School of Dramatic Art - she seems to be the only dedicated student, as the other girls seem to think of the school as just a stepping stone to becoming a Ziegfeld or Earl Carroll showgirl. She works all night at a gas meter factory to pay her way and it is there she meets Andre (Alan Marshall) who is escorting dizzy society actress Gina Bertier (it was so nice to see the lovely Genevieve Tobin again) as she tries to find inspiration among the lowly factory workers. Back at school she has to contend with Madame Charlot (Gale Sondergaard), an embittered teacher who is especially vindictive towards the young and fresh student. Louise is a girl of mystery to the other students - where does she go at night and why is she so tired? When they won't believe the truth, she spins another of her famous dreams where she is caught up in a whirl of night clubs, luxury and penthouses with Andre at it's centre and of course word gets around that she is a wealthy girl.

Nasty Nana (Goddard) wants to catch her out so she organises a birthday party inviting both her and Andre, hoping to embarrass them but it backfires when Andre plays along. Rainer, all dramatic intensity seems to be in a different movie than the other girls. Goddard, as her usual sophisticated, catty self is far more at home night clubbing, in fact her character's function seems to be arranging parties for the students to meet eligible men about town. Critics were impressed and she got the best reviews. Lana Turner was still a "cute kid" and was still very much in the background. It would have been a far more interesting movie if the film concentrated on the dynamics between Louise, Madame Charlot and a kindly teacher (Margaret Dumont - having a break from the Marx Brothers), who only appears at the start as a posture teacher but still tries to advise Madame on her haughty and overbearing manner but to no avail.

Hollywood ingénues learn about the theater in Paris.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 28 January 2013]

If you can believe Dr. Kildare's receptionist (and Grandma Addams), Charlie Chaplin's protégée and Andy Hardy's girlfriend as Parisian thespians, then you can also place a bid on a certain tower in the city of lights as well. Of course, with Luise Rainer as the lead, there is some realism there, but very little. Of these stars attempting to be anything other than the artificial "Stage Door". Rainer shines as does Gale Sondergaard in a believable storyline that has the resentful older Sondergaard (as a drama teacher and professional actress) resenting Rainer's youth and potential for greater stardom. Paulette Goddard, Ann Rutherford, Lana Turner, Virginia Grey and Marie Blake just don't pass muster as French damsels no matter how much suspended dramatic belief you try to obtain. As talented as they are (with some of them believable in foreign settings in other movies), in a large group, it just doesn't work.

The main plot has Goddard plotting revenge on the hard-working Rainer who tells a white lie about meeting a French nobleman while she's really working all night in a factory. The prank she plays along with Rutherford and Turner is mean-spirited and ridiculous in nature. Sondergaard attempting to play Juliet here while teaching her class only ridicules MGM's 1936 version with the far too old Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard, but Rainer really is striking as Joan of Arc in a brief audition sequence. Don't expect to be easily able to recognize Turner who gets no memorable material and has darker hair that hides the beauty she would explode with when dyed platinum. Margaret Dumont has a nice small role as the teacher who warns Sondergaard not to be too intensely jealous towards the promising Rainer.

fine

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 4 June 2022]

Louise Mauban (Luise Rainer) attends drama school during the day while working a lowly factory job at night. She is obsessed with becoming a great actress and has no time for the fun-loving girls at school. They suspect that she's an arrogant upper class snob and that's exactly who she pretends to be. She tells them about dating Marquis Andre D'Abbencourt (Alan Marshal) which leads some to suspect her lies. Nana (Paulette Goddard) discovers the truth and plans to embarrass her. Andre turns those plans upside down.

Luise Rainer is an early acting star and this role asks a lot from her. She has to play a great actress, an enchantress who entices Andre at first sight, and be a lower-class every woman. She's mostly successful... mostly. In reality, she is a great actress. So that's a given. I can accept the love at first sight but it could be filmed better cinematically. She's not the type to stand out as typically the most beautiful. The camera needs to do more. She is also a little too old to be still in school. It is interesting that the teacher talks about Juliet's age and having to be older to play the part. The story meanders around. There are future stars like Lana Turner. It's fine but it's not holding me.

Disappointing

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 10 September 2014]

"Dramatic School" had a lot going for it. Luise Rainer, fresh from winning Hollywood's annual Academy Award for Best Actress for two years running (1936 and 1937) is here somewhat inappropriately cast as a ham actress. Worse still, the screenplay rewards the character's false histrionics with applause rather than ripe tomatoes. Bob Sinclair's direction also presents a problem. Admittedly, he takes the first quarter-hour at an admirably snappy pace, but once the stage is set and the script's rather routine plotting gains the upper hand, Sinclair obviously loses interest. At least the excellent photography by William Daniels always remains a constant. The movie is stunningly and most beautifully photographed from start to finish. Producer Mervyn LeRoy, fresh from his triumphs at Warner Brothers and now making his debut at M-G-M, has okayed some really lavish sets and costumes. Alas, all this doesn't add up to a good movie when a sizzling script and appropriate acting are lacking.

A gem for any closet sophisticate and old-school romantic. Miss. Rainer is MAGIC

[whitedudekickin · 9/10 · 21 July 2003]

(Sorry for any misspellings or grammar problems, I wrote this fast.)

I saw this film last night on Turner Classics. I was very touched by the film's romantic sensibility. Yes, the film has a B movie feel. Yes, the performances are typically surface in a 1930s outdated style. Yes, at times it was obvious this was not Paris but a studio sound stage. But I forgive all of those things because that's what one does in film and theater: suspend disbelief to experience the characters' journey.

Here, the characters are all drama students who are either utterly disenchanted (Paulette Goddard) or romantically idealistic (Luise Rainer). All of the characters share the dreams of stardom and I find that element a universal and timeless trait: To be a successful STAR.

I was captivated by Rainer. She's no different than how Marilyn Monroe (or any great artist) must have felt on her way up. Rainer is magical, almost like a silent screen star with her exagerated facial expressions. And also like Garbo with her dark, European voice. I think that Rainer is the film's heroine in the traditional sense of Heroism. She overcomes poverty, social criticism, and artistic limitations by just living through her own perspective and by her own rules. Also, she's a very young woman, a student. And young people do make mistakes like the ones she makes in the films. Yes, I felt she was a real character.

In all fairness, I am not used to the exagerated style of her acting. I much more related to the fast talking Lana Turner or Paulette Goddard. But that's because they are very American and so am I: I like fast-talking broads. However, Rainer's romantic quality is rooted in her unknowable otherworldliness and I love her for that. I was swept off my feet into her idealistic heart. She took me there. Exactly like how I felt when I watched Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. Pure fantasy, and I love this film because of that.

Not to sound elitist but a true gem for any closet sophisticate and old-school romantic.

Great 1938 Drama School Film

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 30 April 2007]

Always enjoyed the acting of Paulett Goddard who plays the role of (Nana) a young girl who is attending a Drama School in Paris, France along with Lana Turner,(Mado) who are striving to become actresses and have only one desire in their lives. Luise Reiner, (Louise Mauban) is a poor gal who attends the Dramatic School in the daytime and is forced to also work in a factory making gas meters. Louise tells her fellow classmates at the school all kinds of stories about her relationship with a rich playboy who finances plays and is a ladies man. The story gets rather interesting when Louise really gets involved with this playboy who spoils her to death with everything she wants, however, she does notice that he still has an eye for any hot chick that comes along. Great 1938 film with lots of laughs and plenty of dramatic acting. Enjoy.

Overly-dramatic school!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 1 February 2009]

It seems like I am the big meanie with this review. While several others were also not in love with this film, my views are the most negative. This film, despite its budget and MGM luster just didn't do much for me--mostly because the central character was rather tough to like.

Luise Rainer played, or shall I say "over-played" the role of a young student in film school who works late at night to pay for schooling AND has an over-active imagination (i.e., she likes to lie a lot). One reviewer who loved this film (whitedudekickin) loved Ms. Rainer for exactly the same reasons I disliked her. He said that she was "...almost like a silent screen star with her exaggerated facial expressions". I just couldn't help but feel that the character she played wasn't real in any sense--like Rainer was pretending to be a young star-to-be instead of a real person. For example, when she talked to people, she tended to stare off in space and talk in a very detached way--like she was trying out for a play with each conversation. This performance was much more affected even than Garbo in CAMILLE. I would have MUCH preferred she acted more like a real person.

An aspect of Rainer's character that was tough to take was that he was a habitual liar. Now had she panicked and lied (thus triggering a funny series of events), this could have worked. But Rainer lies throughout the film and yet the film wants the viewer to care about this lady. While Paulette Goddard's hard-as-nails character comes off as vicious, most of the time she is attacking Rainer, it is well-deserved--she IS a liar. Yet, time and again, the film rescues and rewards the waif-like Rainer from the quagmire created by her own lies. A great object lesson for the audience, huh?! As for the other actors, most actually did very well. Henry Stephenson is his usual affable self, Blossom Rock ('Grandmama' from "THE ADDAMS FAMILY" and also Jeanette MacDonald's real-life sister) has one of her best supporting performances and the ever-smooth Alan Marshal did so well as the handsome Marquis that you wonder why he didn't go on to stardom. But even with decent performances, they just couldn't make up for the film's inadequacies.

A film that is often annoying and hard to take--you may just find yourself turning it off when the film becomes too schmaltzy and over-played. Do yourself a favor--skip this one and try finding STAGE DOOR. It tackles pretty much the same subject matter but in a much more enjoyable and realistic manner.

some big names in this focus on stage actresses.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 12 December 2017]

In the very first scene, we see Margaret Dumont teaching a "movement" class. now.. anyone who has EVER seen a Marx Brothers film knows Dumont as the foil for the various Marx boys. I kept waiting for her to start joking around. Many big hollywood names in here -- Paulette Goddard, Lana Turner (at 17 !) , Henry Stephenson, Gale Sondergaard, Erik Rhodes. The usual antics of students learning their trade in school... in this case, drama. The girls play tricks on each other, but sometimes they backfire. SO many little subplots going on, and each of these great actors all seem to be the star in their own story. It really is an ensemble group, similar to an episode of Seinfeld. It's quite good, but I think they should have concentrated more on just one of the storylines. "Louise" (Luise Rainer) is acting, and over-acting all the way through; her character is always making up stories for appearance, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Some similarities to "Stage Door", with k. hepburn, but this one has far less tragedy... Directed by Robert Sinclair. This was one of the first films he did. Many years later, Sinclair would be murdered by a prowler on his own property. Hopefully they will show this one more frequently on Turner Classics; has some great names from early hollwood in here. It's pretty good!

Luise Rainer Takes a Bow

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 29 August 2011]

In Paris, acting student Luise Rainer (as Louise Mauban) works nights in a factory, but keeps it a secret from her dramatic classmates. The other worker women look like smudge-faced drudges, but Ms. Rainer wears glamorous MGM make-up to work. Her smooth features glow when the factory girls are visited by handsome Alan Marshal (as Andre D'Abbencourt). Rainer fantasizes about the man. Pretty full-time students Paulette Goddard (as Nana) and Lana Turner (as Mado) steal the film from the top-billed star...

This was Rainer's MGM swan song, after just winning back-to-back "Best Actress" awards from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Then, she left town. How could this have happened? "Oscar" royally goofed with Rainer's wins, and they wound up hurting a promising career in Hollywood pictures. Watch for an up-and-coming Dick Haymes as a student, listen for bushy-haired young Hans Conried to say "A shapely leg never hurt the box office," and don't miss Rainer's tragic turn as "Joan of Arc".

**** Dramatic School (12/9/38) Robert B. Sinclair ~ Luise Rainer, Paulette Goddard, Alan Marshal, Lana Turner

Memorable performances and a surprisingly subtle script

[ferenc_molnar · 8/10 · 23 January 2010]

It's somewhat indifferently directed but it has well drawn characters that the actors play to their advantage. Luise Rainer's romantic and urbane intensity can be off putting on film. She's too much of a stage actress and her Austrian accent, though charming, is too pronounced to successfully worm its way into our collective American movie-fan heart. We're always looking at her but we never start to look through her. Paulette Godard is great as a cynical fellow actress and rival to Rainer. She pulls off the moments where her hard boiled facade starts to crack beautifully. Another fantastic performance by character actor Henry Stephenson who has a scene where he has to tell his son that the he'll never be a decent actor because he doesn't have any talent. It's also great to see Lana Turner, who hadn't lost her baby fat yet, in a small role. But the surprise of the movie is how unsentimental it's take is on the realities of show business. Even thought the film pumps in the romantic music at the film's conclusion, it's clear to anyone who has been watching closely that Luise Rainer's character is not as ingenuous as she seems. Her character is a born actress and knows how to melt the hearts of not only an audience but anyone who stands in the way of her career.

Loaded with Stars Marking Their Debut

[guil12 · 10/10 · 4 November 1999]

DRAMATIC SCHOOL is just an ordinary film, without too much plot. The usual plot(poor girl wants to be an actress, struggles to make herself known and then finds success). What makes this early MGM film notable is seeing many famous stars-to-be having small parts. Notably Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Grey and Paulette Goddard in her first of two MGM films before going to Paramount and major stardom.

The star of the film, Luise Rainier, seemed right for the role, but somewhat distant in her performance. There wasn't too much difference in her playing of the poor starving actress or the role of Joan of Arc as the great actress she becomes.

Paulette Goddard, however, showed that lovable kitten she later became famous for. Playing the glamour go-getter, Goddard added that special kind of sophistication to her sharp-tongued role admirably.

However, as much weight as it had with the star-studded cast, to me, it never really made it out of the B-picture status.