ZAZA (1923) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Alan Dwan
Gloria Swanson, H.B. Warner, Mary Thurman,
Lucille La Verne, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Yvonne Hughes
Gloria Swanson pulls out all the stops as a temperamental music-hall headliner who falls (literally) for an elegant but stiff-mannered diplomat. Swanson was one of the great stars of the 1920s, and there's a reason for that - she was good - but in this one, she's way over the top: silent-movie acting that makes silent-movie acting look like silent-movie acting, a prelude to her classically deranged performance in "Sunset Blvd." Lucille La Verne steals a moment or two as Zaza's alcoholic aunt, and Gloria and Mary Thurman duke it out in a memorable catfight.
