Are You Listening?

Is it possible to combine a soap opera, a send-up and a melodrama in one neat little package? That was no problem at MGM back in 1932. The sudsy part is devoted to three sisters, the "good girl" who's madly in love with a married man, the playgirl who stays out all night boozing and the wide-eyed kid who can't tell a marriage proposal from a con job. The satire is set at a radio station where the lovers, scriptwriter William Haines and actress Madge Evans, work with an inept sound effects man, a lovelorn crooner and mindless sponsors of ludicrous products. As for the melodrama, that's provided by Karen Morley as Haines' hellion of a wife who pays dearly for her continual nagging. Watch "Are You Listening?" and you'll realize how radically movies changed within the next few years.