Search for Beauty

{{short description|1934 film by Erle C. Kenton}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox film | name = Search for Beauty | image = Search for Beauty poster.jpg | alt = | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = [[Erle C. Kenton]] | producer = [[E. Lloyd Sheldon]] | screenplay = [[Claude Binyon]] [[David Boehm]] [[Frank Butler (writer)|Frank Butler]] Sam Hellman [[Maurine Dallas Watkins]] | starring = [[Buster Crabbe]] [[Ida Lupino]] [[Robert Armstrong (actor)|Robert Armstrong]] [[James Gleason]] [[Toby Wing]] [[Gertrude Michael]] | music = [[John Leipold]] | cinematography = [[Harry Fischbeck]] | editing = [[James Smith (film editor)|James Smith]] | studio = [[Paramount Pictures]] | distributor = Paramount Pictures | released = {{Film date|1934|2|2}} | runtime = 78 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''Search for Beauty''''' is a 1934 American [[Pre-Code Hollywood|pre-Code]] [[dramedy]] film with some musical athletic sequences in the style of [[Busby Berkeley]]. It was directed by [[Erle C. Kenton]] and stars [[Buster Crabbe]] and [[Ida Lupino]]. The film was released shortly before Lupino's 16th birthday.

==Plot== Jackson, a swimmer, and Hilton, a diver, are [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] champions and a romantic couple who become the face of a sleazy health magazine.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121102185301/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/89346/Search-for-Beauty/ Search for Beauty], tcm.com, accessed October 12, 2010.</ref> A pair of ex-cons team with the magazine's publisher to bring them down.

==Cast== {{Cast listing| * [[Buster Crabbe]] as Don Jackson * [[Ida Lupino]] as Barbara Hilton * [[Robert Armstrong (actor)|Robert Armstrong]] as Larry Williams * [[James Gleason]] as Dan Healy, the 'publisher' * [[Toby Wing]] as Sally Palmer, Barbara's cousin * [[Gertrude Michael]] as Jean Strange * [[Bradley Page]] as Joe Garrett * [[Frank McGlynn, Sr.]] as Rev. Rankin * [[Nora Cecil]] as Miss Pettigrew * [[Virginia Hammond]] as Mrs. Archibald Henderson-James * [[Eddie Gribbon]] as Adolph Knockler * James B. 'Pop' Kenton as Caretaker * [[Lynn Bari]] as Beauty Contest Entrant (uncredited) * [[Maurice Costello]] as Health Acres Guest (uncredited) * [[Joyzelle Joyner]] as Beauty Contest Entrant (uncredited) * [[Ann Sheridan]] as Texas Beauty Winner (uncredited) }} [[File:Buster Crabbe in Search for Beauty.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Buster Crabbe]] in a publicity still for the film.]]

==Production== To promote the film and to find some of the cast, [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] sponsored a worldwide beauty contest. One of the winners, who made her first appearance in the film, was [[Ann Sheridan]].<ref>{{cite book|page=94|title=Encyclopedia of Film Stars|first=Douglas|last=Jarvis|publisher=Gallery Books|year=1985|ISBN=9780831727956}}</ref>

Some have considered the magazine publishing company depicted in the film to be a parody of the publishing enterprises owned by [[Bernarr Macfadden]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Erickson |first=Hal |title=Any Resemblance to Actual Persons: The Real People Behind 400+ Fictional Movie Characters |publisher=McFarland |year=2017 |ISBN=9781476629308 |page=276}}</ref>

==Reception== The film was widely panned. ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' critic [[Andre Sennwald]] wrote: "''Search for Beauty'' is the film that Paramount manufactured as the climax of an international exploitation stunt in which thirty young men and women from various parts of the world received a free trip to Hollywood and an opportunity to get into one picture. The result is a tribute to the studio's ingenuity but a less than thrilling tidbit for the man in the street."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/02/10/95473488.html?pageNumber=20|website=The New York Times|date=February 10, 1934|title=Those Contest Winners|accessdate=June 14, 2023}}</ref> [[Variety (magazine)|''Variety'']] agreed: "Story is just so much applesauce ... Miss Lupino, to save her kid cousin from the clutches of a roomful of evil-minded stews, does a snakehips atop a table. She didn't learn that in England."<ref>{{cite magazine|date=February 13, 1934 |title=Search for Beauty |url=https://archive.org/details/variety113-1934-02/page/n97/mode/2up?q=%22search+for+beauty%22+crabbe+armstrong+lupino+1934 |magazine=Variety|access-date=June 14, 2023}}</ref>

==See also== * [[National Recovery Administration]] (NRA), the logo displayed at start of film

==References== {{reflist}}

==Sources== *Doherty, Thomas Patrick. ''Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934''. New York: Columbia University Press 1999. {{ISBN|0-231-11094-4}}

==External links== *{{TCMDb title|id=89346|title=Search for Beauty}} *{{IMDb title|id=0025755|title=Search for Beauty}}

[[Category:1934 films]] [[Category:1934 comedy-drama films]] [[Category:American comedy-drama films]] [[Category:Films directed by Erle C. Kenton]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:1934 American films]] [[Category:Films scored by John Leipold]] [[Category:1934 English-language films]] [[Category:English-language comedy-drama films]]