Stand-Ins

Despite a promising theme and a stylish beginning, this movie about internal tensions in a group of Hollywood female stand-ins for famous actresses circa the '30s never quite materializes. Perhaps the makeup is a little too thick, or the mincing steps and goo-goo voices a bit overdone. An imminent crime, foreshadowed as a newcomer stand-in is introduced to a group of stand-ins celebrating a birthday at a local bar, lacks tension prior to, during or after its commission. Ironically, the best performance is by Costas Mandylor, playing Jack, the bartender who gently goads the women into the alcoholic blur that facilitates the crime. The idea that women standing-in for famous actresses would have traits similar to the women they emulate is interesting, and the sets are attractive enough to make sitting through this movie tolerable, but to understand why I'm disappointed, one only has to see this film's ancestor: The Women, George Cukor's 1939 classic starring Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford as two tough dames duking it out. Now, that was melodrama! Optional. (K. G. Schneider)