Pulp Time title

Behind The Make-Up

A good-natured vaudeville clown takes in a penniless Italian comic and is repaid by having his act and his girl stolen. Robert Milton’s 1930 Paramount pre-Code drama (Dorothy Arzner uncredited as co-director) is built on Mildred Cram’s short story “The Feeder.” Hal Skelly is Hap Brown, the bicycle-riding clown who rescues Gardoni (William Powell, sporting a thick Italian accent) from the street and teaches him the ropes. Powell’s opportunist absorbs the material, rises, then returns to claim Hap’s waitress sweetheart Marie (Fay Wray, still brunette) as his wife while pursuing the wealthier socialite Kitty (Kay Francis). This was the first of seven Powell–Francis pairings. The story is slight and the early-talkie staging still a little stiff, but Powell’s smooth predator and the seedy backstage atmosphere give it bite. A minor but sharp look at how one performer’s success is built on another’s material—and another’s woman.