Please note: This was screened in Feb 2024
Beatrice Lillie was already a stage superstar and billed as ‘the funniest woman in the world’ when she made her Hollywood debut in this film.
In Exit Smiling, she plays a maid working for a travelling theatre company who dreams of becoming a leading lady. But there’s a snag. Unlike Lillie, she can’t act!
Various reviewers describe Lillie as ‘wonderful, hilarious, mesmerising”. Watch out too for Franklin Pangborn in a laugh-out-loud role which earned this film a place in TCM’s Gay Images in Hollywood series.