RetroClips

Applause was one of the first sound films to break out of the static, camera-locked-in-a-booth phase early talkies were stuck in, since Mamoulian insisted on a moving camera and even rigged two separate soundtracks so dialogue and singing could overlap, something the studio's engineers told him was technically impossible. He came to Hollywood straight from directing Broadway, and it shows in how the film treats the stage number itself as the point rather than as a scene to cut away from, holding wide on the full house the way a live audience actually would have seen it.