Divine

The camerawork in this film is more graceful than some of the chorus girls in the third-rate revue where the heroine finds work. That includes the heroine, a big ox of a country maiden whose stage name (the title) seems more than a bit optimistic. But no to worry, the action gets off with a bang--the country girl is tilling the fields, whatever that is, when a cute blonde in an even cuter open-topped car drives up, and whom should it be but her friend, who left the country for Paris four years ago. "But how," she asks in bewilderment, "can you afford a car and such clothes from being a chambermaid?" In Paris, Divine wises up, but has no wish to do likewise. Yet, while she is protecting her virtue, the other chorus girls are running a cocaine racket and plotting to make her the goat. This racy theme, combined with girls going topless and swearing, as well as plenty of backstage feuds and catastrophes, more than make up for the negligible story, as does Ophuls's beautifully lit and choreographed movement.