Hometown

Mizoguchi's first sound film (some of it's talkie, some with music and intertitles) may feature a fairly crude Star Is Born-style melodramatic story, broad humour and some distinctly unsubtle cutting, but it still impresses for its fluid camerawork and its sympathy for the woman whose singer husband, attracted by fame, fortune and a femme fatale, gradually grows more distant and uncaring. Very much of its time, but memorable for a dazzling party scene with jazzed-up Dvorak. (Original running time 107 minutes, but all extant copies 86 minutes.