Despite a background in the theater, Mamoulian wasted no time making the most of the cinematic medium for his first film foray. Feeling stifled by the generally still camera of early cinema, Mamoulian was determined to free both image and sound—still in its infancy—from the usual constrictions and is not only credited for the first use of a moving camera in a sound picture, but also for one of the earliest uses of a multichannel soundtrack. These are just a few of the pleasantly unpolished delights that buttress this backstage peek into the lowbrow theater lifestyle. In the midst of a circus-like atmosphere with all of its sleaze and grotesquery as well as its charms and camaraderie, Helen Morgan strikes raw gold with her portrayal of Kitty Darling, a washed-up actress blind to the machinations of her shady boyfriend and devoted to a daughter whose Catholic boarding school upbringing makes their reunion more complicated. Together, they suffer through a variety of desperate improvisations on and offstage, until finally answering a tangled, bittersweet curtain call.