DAILY BEAUTY RITUALS

Year Published: 1937

Format: 16mm

Description: This 1937 color film, in which Hollywood actress Constance Bennett "presents her daily beauty rituals" provides general tips for women’s skin care and makeup application in a plush and colorful setting (TRT 5:10). Bennet's most famous Hollywood hit was Topper, in which she starred opposite Cary Grant. Opening titles (0:06). A small glass clock sits on a nightstand (0:17). Pan to a woman in full hair and makeup tossing and turning in blue bed sheets (0:21). Constance Bennett rises from a bed with dual padded headboards and stretches her arms with a flourish. She greets us in a rose colored nightgown 0:37). Constance, still in makeup, sits at a mirror in a blue bedroom. She opens a jar of cold cream cleanser and produces a handkerchief. She applies cold cream to her face and discreetly mentions that it "doesn’t grow fuzz" (0:52). A maid in traditional dress with a white headpiece approaches our host from a doorway (1:17). They enter the bathroom. Constance applies a second layer of cream while the maid draws a bath, then wipes it away with a cloth (1:26). She adds a "complexion mask" which lightens her face. The maid announces the bath is ready (2:17). Constance, her back turned, undoes the sash of her nightgown. Wipe to Constance in the bath up to her shoulders. She addresses the camera, washing soap suds across her forearms (2:33). Wipe back to Constance returning to the vanity mirror. She sits, produces a hand mirror, and smooths her makeup, applying a "glow base" (3:05). Rouge is applied and blended next (3:25). Constance picks up a powder puff. A reverse shot from the opposite angle shows her smiling powder application and her admission that sometimes she only uses a glow base (3:55). Constance swivels away from her table and applies lipstick before rising for an important declaration, hands outstretched (4:10). She picks stockings and high heels off an adjacent striped couch, then sits and ties her nightgown sash (4:30). Fade to Constance, fully dressed in a dark suit jacket with shoulder pads and a modest skirt (4:38). Voice over from an unseen child beckons our host (4:47). She blows a kiss goodbye wishing "loads of luck." Dip to black (4:46). Constance Bennett is best remembered for her roles in the films "What Price Hollywood?" (1932) and "Topper" (1937). She made her debut in the silent era while working for Samuel Goldwyn, but transitioned to the sound era with great success. At the time of this film, she was widely known for earning record-breaking salaries from MGM, Warner Brothers and RKO, as well as co-producing two feature films under the Bennett Pictures Corp. banner with her then-husband Henry de la Falaise, a French nobleman. This film was photographed in Cinecolor, an early subtractive two-color process. Cameras were loaded with two film stocks: One was dyed red and recorded the colors blue and green, while red light was filtered through to a second film stock. Each strip was then toned red or cyan during the photochemical printing process, often resulting in vibrant blues, reds, and flesh tones, as illustrated here. It competed with the patented Technicolor process.

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