This movie is dated -- a time capsule -- well worth seeing.
The acting is (with a few exceptions) surprisingly naturalistic for 1932. Some of the accents seem over the top now, but they were real then.
Jimmy Durante tells the same jokes he told for 45 more years, but the movie explains how he got away with it -- he's fun to watch, and deserves his ample screen time.
The Buster Keaton character is funny too. Stodgy and wordy, he's his own straight man -- acting ridiculous with a straight face. Possibly no one did that act better until Peter Seller's Clouseau. The stodiness is too much sometimes, but also hilarious in others (when shows showgirls how to perform authentic dances of ancient Greece).
Possibly the movie influenced Mel Brooks "The Producers." Like that movie, Speak Easily uses the idea of mistakes and actor conflicts as inadvertently make a show a comedy and a success (Bogdanovich used the idea too -- in Noises Off). Also like that movie, there's a plan to save the day by shooting actors.
The acting is (with a few exceptions) surprisingly naturalistic for 1932. Some of the accents seem over the top now, but they were real then.
Jimmy Durante tells the same jokes he told for 45 more years, but the movie explains how he got away with it -- he's fun to watch, and deserves his ample screen time.
The Buster Keaton character is funny too. Stodgy and wordy, he's his own straight man -- acting ridiculous with a straight face. Possibly no one did that act better until Peter Seller's Clouseau. The stodiness is too much sometimes, but also hilarious in others (when shows showgirls how to perform authentic dances of ancient Greece).
Possibly the movie influenced Mel Brooks "The Producers." Like that movie, Speak Easily uses the idea of mistakes and actor conflicts as inadvertently make a show a comedy and a success (Bogdanovich used the idea too -- in Noises Off). Also like that movie, there's a plan to save the day by shooting actors.