Search for Beauty

Featuring a literal army of good-looking, scantily-clad young men and women - 1934's "Search For Beauty" was produced during Hollywood's pre-Code period (1929-1934). This was a unique era in American film-making when censorship barely existed and directors had free reign to make the movies they wanted (and the public demanded) where no subject was taboo, including adultery, murder, and yes, sex. So, if you enjoy viewing lots of beefcake and/or cheesecake, then, believe me, "Search For Beauty" is a film highlighting a delicious array of eye-candy that is sure to whet anyone's whistle.

Everything about this turkey was absolutely stupid -- the story, the events, the script (assuming there actually was one). Not even Joel and the bots could have saved this one. I got so bored and frustrated that I fast-forwarded several times, especially through the endless "musical" numbers. The phrase "marching morons" popped into my head. Too bad you can't award zero stars. Yuck!!!

I watched this thinking it might be one of those a silly, lightweight comedies from the early 30s. I did not expect anything as distasteful, dreadfully acted, poorly written, unevenly directed and so achingly unfunny when it's trying so desperately hard to be funny as this. It actually seemed promising at the beginning when shouty Robert Armstrong and Gertrude Michael (star of the equally awful MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS) meet up after release from prison but after about five minutes the wisecracks and come-backs are all exhausted. I am not surprised Ida Lupino was in disguise throughout, this would have been embarrassing had anyone back in England seen her in this. And as for the acting ability of Flash Gordon! I also did not expect for anything counter possibly be so boring - not just boring but amazingly the boredom factor grew exponentially as it went on. I had to endure pain to force myself to get to the end just for this unique experience of ultimate tedium. It felt like the crew had all started walking off set about half way through and had just left the cameras rolling. Was this really made by Paramount, a professional film studio or has someone grafted their logo on to the start of this. The plot has Robert Armstrong and Gertrude Michael setting up a "health" magazine essentially to turn it into a salacious type of magazine (photos of people in bathing costumes etc) and to give their rag an air of respectability they enlist a couple of high-profile athletes with high morals. The film then ping-pongs between scenes of people dressing in shower rooms and dressing rooms to scenes with the two athletes crusading against moral depravity, and * of the media......including films like this. It's a film which hates itself as much as the viewer does! One example of this is, depending on whether you're a teenage boy or not (or still think you are) is the best moment in the whole motion picture. Toby Wing (in a rare credited role, rather than being just an extra for a change), who was the prettiest, sweetest, cutest girl in the world (that's a fact, don't argue) is encouraged very easily by some drunk, older men at a party to strip down to her underwear and dance on a table. This clearly isn't just the best moment in this film but one of the greatest scenes in any motion picture ever, if not THE greatest. But what does the film then do - it becomes a moral crusade against any form of titillation, the two crusaders sweep in, rescue pretty miss Wing and physically throw those men out of the room for staring at the divine miss Wing....just like we've been doing. Is this film trying to make us feel guilty for actually looking at it? It has a very schizophrenic feel. One reason films from before 1935 are fun is there's often a few scantily clad ladies. There are quite a lot of scantily clad ladies in this but (apart from Toby Wing of course) they all seem to be part of a cult as they all look identical and all in some strange uniform. Whatever the opposite of sexy is, these are that. There are probably more scantily clad men than women: bare-chested, blonde haired Aryan youth marching in their tight shorts. Eventually these hundreds of white men join up with their blonde female compatriots and parade in military formation, waving flags to military music. At least Leni Raiefenstahl was a professional film maker ! I couldn't decide whether the complete amateurishness of this or the fact that I was watching a dry run of TRIUMPH OF THE WILL was worse. Eventually "those in control" catch up with Armstrong and Michael and their non-conformity is trampled under the iron boot of respectability. It is very possible that this is symbolic of the forthcoming implementation of Joseph Breen and the Catholic League of Decency's Motion Picture Production Code. It's also equally possible that this is just a terrible, terrible film - best just to rewind to Toby Wing dancing on the table.

This is not a particularly good film, but it's pretty entertaining, and I mean that in a bonkers kind of way, even by pre-Code standards. The premise is that a man fresh out of prison for his last scheme hatches a plan to run a fitness magazine ostensibly to promote health, but in reality to make money off of photos of beautiful young men and women, with some salacious stories mixed in. He and his female partner convince a publisher to front the money after they show him they've landed a couple of Olympians to work on the magazine, with the publisher's interest being further aroused by a blonde cousin who's along for the ride. The rub is that the Olympians are squeaky clean and truly want to promote exercise, and this central conflict proceeds from magazine to a 'fitness farm' that they begin to run. Part of the fun of the film is the casting, as a young Ida Lupino plays one of the Olympians, and it's notable that she only turned 16 two days after it was released. Late in the film to protect her cousin (Toby Wing) from a lecherous crowd, she gets up on top of a table and shimmies around in her silky pajamas, which on its own is worth the price of admission. Buster Crabbe, fresh off his gold medal in the 1932 games, plays the other Olympian, and there are a large number of real-life beauty contest winners from various American states and the British Empire, including Ann Sheridan in her first screen appearance. The three people out for money over decency are played by Robert Armstrong, Gertrude Michael, and James Gleason, and the banter between them has good pep to it. One of the most notable things about the raciness in the film is that the objectification is equal opportunity, and in fact there is probably more ogling of the male body here than the other way around. There are bare butt cheeks in a shower scene, and a woman training her binoculars on a swimmer's crotch and purring "ooh baby, you can come to mama!" There are countless scenes with muscular young men wearing nothing but shorts, and exchanges like this one from a group of women looking at photos of them: "We're using those boys in an idea we're working on - outdoor sports with indoor trimmings." "As far as I'm concerned, outdoors, indoors, or behind doors." "Think your customers might give him a tumble?" "Tumble? If they were like me, they'd give him a double somersault." "Give me a look. Might turn a couple of handsprings myself." (studying pictures) "Mmm, haven't seen anything like that since...well, just call it since." Somewhat out of left field, the film also includes an ensemble dance number with men and women in bathing suits prancing and jiggling about for five and half minutes near the end. The choreography is not up to the gold standard that is Busby Berkeley, but it's not bad, and definitely had me smiling. What a nutball of a movie this is, I was thinking while hoping no one would notice me watching this scene. It's also interesting how the film kind of thumbs its nose at the morality police, those who would begin enforcing the Production Code in the middle of 1934, five months after this was released. For one thing, there's the cynical exchange between the women talking about the magazine story "I Loved an Artist," where one says that unhappy endings that serve as morality lessons are "baloney," and that in real life women probably get ahead in life for their dalliances. The protagonists in this story are Crabbe and Lupino's characters to be sure, but it's interesting that the fitness farm they run gets a bit fascist in how they crack down on partying and force guests to abide by their rigorous schedule. The ending, with the tight shot on the old publisher's butt as he's forced to touch his toes and the words "The End" scrolling onto the screen, one word per cheek, had me chuckling too. While low-brow, I liked the silliness and audacity in the face of the looming end to the pre-Code era.

The difference between films from their start to the early '30s and the post-1934 era is astounding. In the '30s, you have femininely dressed women, single, dating, ogling men, and having sex. In the '40s, the clothes are stiff, tailored, the women are single and we're told they are unfulfilled and unhappy. Such was the code, which dictated morals to the movies and possibly to a lot of naive and unsophisticated people across the country. I know because my mother was one. This film is precode at its most outrageous. During the 1932 summer Olympics in LA, some con artists (James Gleason, Robert Armstrong, and Gertrude Michael), convince top athletes to endorse their health and fitness magazine. In order to find the best of the best, as a publicity stunt, they stage an international competition. They send one of the endorsing athletes, Don Jackson (Buster Crabbe) out to find the athletes and get their consent to be part of a magazine spread. While Don is conveniently out of the country, the cons publish the magazine they really intended to -- a tawdry cheesecake rag with lurid stories and plenty of sex. When one of the athletes, Barbara (Ida Lupino) finds out what they're up to, she summons Don. To appease him, a deal is made whereby Don is given a farm that he and Barbara can turn into a health farm. Well, the health farm as far as our erstwhile publishers are concerned is nothing more than a high-class bordello. This is a fast-moving, fun film with men showing their naked butts, and women drooling over mens' bodies, (with one set of binoculars focused on Crabbe's crotch) and plenty of suggestive clothing. Robert Armstrong and James Gleason are a couple of old pros and handle the dialogue well. Buster Crabbe was a gorgeous man, almost pretty, who was a two-time Olympic medalist in swimming, but he wasn't much of an actor. He played a lot of comic book heroes like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Captain Gallant, and did dozens of adventure films and westerns. This was an early American film for Ida Lupino, who plays a star swimmer. She still has her British accent and sports the style of the day, platinum blonde hair and penciled in eyebrows. She is barely recognizable but she does a fine job. The question is, was this film ahead of its time or was this the way things were? Well, my opinion is that this is the way things were in places like Hollywood and New York among the film and theater communities. I don't think the whole country was this way, nor do I think in the '40s the whole country was all THAT way. After all, men were going to war and might never see their girlfriends again. It was all somewhere in the middle, though the code would have had us believe differently. Fun, and really needs to be seen to be believed.

«Search for Beauty» is a curio today, as a "daring film" released shortly before the Hays Code came into effect in 1934. Based on the play «Love Your Body» by Schuyler E. Gray and Paul R. Milton, the movie contains beautiful bodies, dirty old men, procuring, racism, military propaganda, male nudity, a never-emerging gay undercurrent, and crude humor. Robert Armstrong repeats the role of the businessman in search of the easy dollar that had played a year earlier in «King Kong», but this time he does not take us on an adventurous trip to Skull Island in search of a giant ape, but instead he buys the businesses of an old bodybuilder who has just passed away. They include a health and beauty magazine, and a farm to keep the body in shape and healthy. For the magazine to be successful, he hires two young Olympic champions as directors (American Buster Crabbe and British Ida Lupino), but what he really wants to do is a publication with sexy photos and lewd stories. When the champions discover Armstrong's cheat, they pressure him to give them the management of the farm, where beautiful athletes of both sexes will arrive to participate in a contest to choose the healthiest (and most beautiful) body. However, Armstrong also arrives there and tries to turn the business into a white meat market. So the story goes for the white meat market, because the pattern of beauty that this film is looking for is Caucasian, "with 30 winners in the International Beauty Contest", in which only white and English-speaking athletes from "England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the United States" will participate and perform a horrible "Symphony of Health" with choreography a la Busby Berkeley and military marches by Sousa and other composers of similar music. «Search for Beauty» is not a transgressive or daring film, but it was out of circulation for a while. However, it seems to me that, with a few cuts, it would easily have passed censorship. No need to worry, because in the end everything returns to "order" (in a vulgar and rude way) and everything is conquered by... pure, chaste and white love. p.s. I should add that Ida Lupino here was not yet the beautiful actress-director she would become. Instead, Buster Crabbe, the Olympic champion and star of the Flash Gordon serial, was a splendid male specimen. They did not need to search for beauty: it was there, leading the film cast.

Search for Beauty (1934) You won't mistake this for a great movie, but it's fast and just perky enough to be fun. And it has Ida Lupino in an early American role. The premise is a diluted sex hook—dozens of great beauties, male and female, are gathered together for a contest and a weekend of health and exercise. So naturally there is, eventually, a lot of skin and buff bodies. Unlike most movies like this, however, it's pretty evenly split between men and women. There is even a massive dance number at the end rather like a Busby Berkeley number. (His first famous dance extravaganza was the previous year.) If the plot is a bit canned, it isn't quite obvious so will keep you guessing. The dialog is so fast it's frantic, and you'll never hear so much word play so relentlessly spoken. It's fun and funny—you can tell they had a blast writing the screenplay. The leading man opposite Lupino is Buster Crabbe, a hunk of a pretty man who just didn't have the acting ability to turn it into stardom. A former Olympic gold medal swimmer, he has a short swimming role here, which is fun. He stuck to athletic roles most of his life—like a serialized version of Tarzan—and is stretched a bit thin for this part. Not that this is a demanding movie. The two sidekick males are both character actors who you'll either enjoy or find irritating (because they push their schtick in well worn ways). Lupino is the highlight overall, still with some of her British accent. As the backstabbing and conniving builds, and the big last third of the movie takes off at a resort camp for fitness and beauty, the scenes get wilder and more chaotic. Love will have its final say, however, and its satisfying enough—more so than that silly last shot as "the end" appears, with a small amount of relief.

One of the Last Pre-Code Movies to Exploit Film Freedom with Cheesecake in the Busby Berkeley Fashion and Beefcake (rarely seen) with Verbal Gags and Innuendos. It is a Film Version of the Real Life Girlie Magazines that were Popular at the Time, some Using a Come On that it was All About Health and Fitness (wink wink). It is Full of Eye Candy for Both Sexes and is Really Nothing but an Excuse for Bawdy Pageantry. Unlike the Berkeley Movies that were Infinitely Better, this Uses the Male as well as the Female Form to get a 1930's Audience Aroused. Couples who went to the Theatre in 1934 to See this "Musical-Comedy" Spoof, Probably couldn't wait to Indulge in a bit of Post Movie Petting. Ida Lupino (a role against type) is Unrecognizable as a Platinum Blonde Eye Filler and Buster Crabbe at the Beginning of a Tarzan, Flash Gordon-Buck Rogers, Cowboy Career that would Span Decades and Give Him a Substantial Place in B-Movie and Television History is in this Bit of Fluff. Also On Hand is Robert Armstrong (a year after King Kong) and James Gleason. They are the Non-Pretty Actors here and Provide the Comedy Relief with Some Racy Dialog. Overall, if You are an Oggler of the Female or Male Physique, and Find this Type of Spicy Stuff Fun, Enjoy.

Buster Crabbe, Ida Lupino, James Gleason, and Robert Armstrong, from the original King Kong, star in this film about an opportunist who tries to profit from people trying to learn how to get thin and make themselves beautiful and sexy-looking. Armstrong and Gleason are the leads who start a health magazine, with the endorsement of an athlete, played by Crabbe. Ultimately a health "farm" and resort are built to help people learn the healthy lifestyle. Made in 1934, right before the Hays Production banned explicit and amoral or immoral material in films, this films gets away with a lot. So, obviously this film has a place in American film history. But watching it, I'm sure, most people will not be thinking of it in terms of being historically important. There's cheesecake and beefcake and risqué innuendos in this film to satisfy anyone, except those brought up on "American Pie" movies, maybe. It's like a cross between circus and a car wreck; you can't not look. This film delivers human drama (Ida falling for Buster) and wry humor and quick one-liners like James Gleason's "I have nothing against sex. Either you have it or you're looking for it." There's really nothing left to say!

I have to weigh in on this deliciously fun, kitschy movie. Perhaps one needs a historical perspective to appreciate the fun and absurdity of this very game film. The detracting comments have missed the boat. The appreciative comments have laid out the story and gimmicks well. I'd like to add that the big production number, which looks like the concoction of marching band instructor from a military background who saw a Busby Berkeley movie while stoned, has to be seen to be believed. And, yes, the nudity and sexual innuendo seems risqué enough for the time to be very entertaining. Though short on talent, Buster Crabbe is fun to watch, as is a young Ida Lupino who certainly made good from this unpromising start. For me, James Gleason is the treat. Though not nearly as sharp as later performances -- particularly his great drunk scene in MEET JOHN DOE -- it's interesting to see a pro finding his sea-legs on film in 1934. A diamond in the rough!