Behind the Make-Up is a 1930 drama film starring Hal Skelly, William Powell

William Powell

William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...

, and Fay Wray

Fay Wray

Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...

. It is based on the short story "The Feeder" by Mildred Cram

Mildred Cram

Mildred Cram was a popular American writer.Her short story "Stranger Things" was included in the O. Henry Award story collection for 1921. A number of her stories and novels were made into films...

. A vaudeville performer takes advantage of his partner, even to stealing his girlfriend.

Cast

• Hal Skelly
  Hal Skelly
  Hal Skelly was an American Broadway and film actor.-Biography:J. Harold Skelly was born in Alleghenyville, Pennsylvania and spent his early years in Davenport, Iowa. He left home at the age of 15 and joined the circus. He acted in his first stage production, The Time, the Place and the Girl, at...
  
   as Hap Brown
• William Powell as Gardoni
• Fay Wray as Marie Gardoni
• Kay Francis
  Kay Francis
  Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
  
   as Kitty Parker
• E. H. Calvert
  E. H. Calvert
  E. H. Calvert was an American film actor and director. He appeared in over 170 films, as well as directing a further 60 titles...
  
   as Dawson
• Paul Lukas
  Paul Lukas
  Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...
  
   as Boris
• Agostino Borgato as Chef
• Jacques Vanaire as Valet
• Jean De Briac
  Jean De Briac
  Jean De Briac was a French film actor. He appeared in 122 films between 1920 and 1962.He was born in France and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:*Around the World in Eighteen Days...
  
   as Sculptor
• Torben Meyer
  Torben Meyer
  Torben Emil Meyer was a Danish character actor who appeared in over 190 films in a 55-year career.-Early career:...
  
   as Waiter
• Bob Perry as Bartender

Critical reception

Mordaunt Hall

Mordaunt Hall

Mordaunt Hall was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for The New York Times, from October 1924 to September 1934....

, film critic of the New York Times, praised the performances of Powell ("excellent"), Wray ("pleasing"), Skelly ("goes about his part with earnestness and intelligence"), and Francis ("does nicely"), but noted "the story is rather limp and disappointing."