Applause is a 1929 American backstage musical "talkie" directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Helen Morgan, Jack Cameron, and Joan Peers.

[1] Applause is adapted from the 1928 novel by Beth Brown, a former chorus girl, about an aging burlesque queen who sacrifices herself for her daughter so that the latter can escape her mother’s sordid fate.

In 2006, Applause was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation.

For her first film role, Morgan put on 25 pounds (11 kg) and donned wigs and “unflattering” outfits, concealing her actual attractiveness, and producing a haggard, bloated appearance.

[12][13] Morgan, notorious for her drinking, abided by director Mamoulian's demand that she restrict her alcohol consumption during filming.

April roams the city and meets a lonely young sailor named Tony (Henry Wadsworth).

Knowing that Kitty cannot perform in the show, the producer berates her, mistaking her reaction to the overdose for delirium tremens.

He wrote "The opening chapters are none too interesting and subsequently one anticipates pretty much what's going to happen...however, Mr. Mamoulian commits the unpardonable sin of being far too extravagant.

[19] Rather than merely satisfying the public’s clamor for “talkies” dominated by dialogue, Mamoulian revisited the cinematic elements of the silent era in Applause.

A combination of mixed reviews, misleading advertising (the publicity focused on glamour shots of Helen Morgan, not what she looked like in the film), downbeat subject matter, and the Stock Market Crash caused the movie to fade significantly as soon as it left the Criterion.