IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021273/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,0
Director: Augusto Genina
Main Cast: Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia
"Louise Brooks is stunning as ever in her final starring role in the early sound melodrama Prix de Beauté, also known by its alternate title, Miss Europe. After becoming a European sensation in her classic silent films for German director G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl), Brooks' career began a tragic decline as alcoholism took its toll, but she's still in fine form here as Lucienne, a lively Parisian typist who enters an international beauty contest against the wishes of her disapproving fiancé André (Georges Charlia), only to find herself swept up in a whirlwind of fame and publicity when she unexpected wins the contest.
One of France's earliest sound features, Prix de Beauté was originally filmed in a silent version and quickly dubbed when sound films grew popular, and although Brooks' voice is dubbed (along with her singing, which was dubbed by the legendary vocalist Edith Piaf), the film's technical crudeness doesn't detract from Brooks' astonishing beauty, which far surpasses a performance that was, according to director Augusto Genina, seriously compromised by Brooks' off-screen drinking. Based on a story by René Clair (who was originally slated to direct), Prix de Beauté offers fascinating glimpses of vintage fashion shows and Parisian high society, but it's the divine Miss Brooks who makes it all worthwhile."
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