Alice White was a unique comet of a movie star in the early talkie years. She played floozies in an brief era when a bimbo could be the movie's heroine. Alice was quite cute though only slightly pretty and her odd delivery of her lines often suggest she had never seen a play - or a director - in her life, nevertheless she was quite endearing and likeable and her earthy shopgirl personality apparently resonated with a lot of people in the early Depression though not for long, her time at the top was very short. "Show Girl in Hollywood" was one of the best movies she ever made, a mixture of music, comedy, and pathos with a blunt look at the Hollywood industry where a director could be in a meeting while his name is being scraped off the other side of his office door.
Dixie Dugan (Alice) is a New York showgirl featured in a Broadway musical that has just flopped. The playwright Jimmy Doyle (Jack Muhall) blames the producers for not casting her in the lead but in a supporting role. Dixie and Jimmy go on the town to drown their troubles at a nightclub when famous Hollywood director Frank Buelow (John Miljan) is also there. Dixie doesn't have to be asked twice to perform a song at the nightclub in front of the director and while her half-song is sung in a wobbling voice, Buelow is impressed and promises her a movie contract at a major film studio. Jimmy sneers (with accuracy) that Buelow is the type to "feel a girl's ribs as he offers her a screen test" but Dixie sees this a chance to crash Hollywood and agrees to go back to his hotel room to "talk business" (a scene we don't see). Presumably, Buelow got what he wanted and Dixie's now out to get what she wants, showing up in Hollywood unannounced at the studio. She learns studio executive Sam Otis (Ford Sterling) knows nothing about this idea and that it's long been Buelow's habit to promise young girls such roles. Defeated, she runs into Buelow at the studio and he convinces her his promise was legit. Later, she spots veteran actress Donny Harris (Blanche Sweet) on the lot. Donny had been Dixie's childhood idol and they hit it off like gangbusters, both of them needing a friend. Donny is now unemployable in Hollywood at the grand old age of 32 but still clings to hopes of a comeback and knows the hard times in store for Dixie. She also happens to be the abandoned wife of playboy dirtbag Buelow.
Tried of Buelow's stunts, Otis fires him after he learns his newest screenplay is plagiarized from a Broadway musical, that very musical being the one Dixie was in that had bombed. Sterling signs original author Jimmy to a contract who then insists Dixie get the lead. Only weeks into filming, Dixie gets a diva mentality and insists on script changes and other demands even though she hasn't yet had a single film released! Urged on by Buelow to walk off the picture to get her demands accepted, she follows through, unaware he is being vengenful against the studio, knowing fully well she will canned and unemployable and the studio will lose a fortune with the aborted film.
This little movie is a frank look at the film industry with all it's postives and negatives, one of the first films to do so. There are several snappy lines in the script like my review's title and there's one priceless scene where the viewer might be presuming to watch a bad guy committing murder only to have Dixie walk by the background window - she'd been snooping around a film set on her first day in Hollywood and walked into a scene being filmed!! It's one of the most hilarious bits ever.
Alice White is terrific in her own adorable little way in a role that runs to gamut from star-eyed wannabe to delusional hot-head, but the movie is stolen by legendary silent film actress Blanche Sweet as the fairly tragic Donny. For those disbelieving you could be washed up at 32, one only has to look at Miss Sweet's actual career in this period. With no offers for a lead role for a while, this supporting part was really her "comeback" and sadly, it lead to nothing more than another supporting role or two although she is sensational here, quite moving and even putting over the film's best song, "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood". A similar fate happened to Miss Sweet's longtime rival, Mae Marsh, who was reduced to being an unbilled extra within a few years. Also very good are Jack Mulhall as the devoted Jimmy and John Miljan as one the first on-film examples of a Hollywood sleazeball (you know he's going to be a creep by the way he chews his food in his first scene). I also enjoy seeing silent movie comedian Ford Sterling in a change of pace role. Well-directed by Mervyn LeRoy, "Show Girl in Hollywood" is not on the level of "Sunset Blvd" and "A Star is Born" as a drama or "Bombshell" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" as a comedy yet definitely deserves to be acknowledged when discussing some of the best films made about behind the scenes Hollywood.
Dixie Dugan (Alice) is a New York showgirl featured in a Broadway musical that has just flopped. The playwright Jimmy Doyle (Jack Muhall) blames the producers for not casting her in the lead but in a supporting role. Dixie and Jimmy go on the town to drown their troubles at a nightclub when famous Hollywood director Frank Buelow (John Miljan) is also there. Dixie doesn't have to be asked twice to perform a song at the nightclub in front of the director and while her half-song is sung in a wobbling voice, Buelow is impressed and promises her a movie contract at a major film studio. Jimmy sneers (with accuracy) that Buelow is the type to "feel a girl's ribs as he offers her a screen test" but Dixie sees this a chance to crash Hollywood and agrees to go back to his hotel room to "talk business" (a scene we don't see). Presumably, Buelow got what he wanted and Dixie's now out to get what she wants, showing up in Hollywood unannounced at the studio. She learns studio executive Sam Otis (Ford Sterling) knows nothing about this idea and that it's long been Buelow's habit to promise young girls such roles. Defeated, she runs into Buelow at the studio and he convinces her his promise was legit. Later, she spots veteran actress Donny Harris (Blanche Sweet) on the lot. Donny had been Dixie's childhood idol and they hit it off like gangbusters, both of them needing a friend. Donny is now unemployable in Hollywood at the grand old age of 32 but still clings to hopes of a comeback and knows the hard times in store for Dixie. She also happens to be the abandoned wife of playboy dirtbag Buelow.
Tried of Buelow's stunts, Otis fires him after he learns his newest screenplay is plagiarized from a Broadway musical, that very musical being the one Dixie was in that had bombed. Sterling signs original author Jimmy to a contract who then insists Dixie get the lead. Only weeks into filming, Dixie gets a diva mentality and insists on script changes and other demands even though she hasn't yet had a single film released! Urged on by Buelow to walk off the picture to get her demands accepted, she follows through, unaware he is being vengenful against the studio, knowing fully well she will canned and unemployable and the studio will lose a fortune with the aborted film.
This little movie is a frank look at the film industry with all it's postives and negatives, one of the first films to do so. There are several snappy lines in the script like my review's title and there's one priceless scene where the viewer might be presuming to watch a bad guy committing murder only to have Dixie walk by the background window - she'd been snooping around a film set on her first day in Hollywood and walked into a scene being filmed!! It's one of the most hilarious bits ever.
Alice White is terrific in her own adorable little way in a role that runs to gamut from star-eyed wannabe to delusional hot-head, but the movie is stolen by legendary silent film actress Blanche Sweet as the fairly tragic Donny. For those disbelieving you could be washed up at 32, one only has to look at Miss Sweet's actual career in this period. With no offers for a lead role for a while, this supporting part was really her "comeback" and sadly, it lead to nothing more than another supporting role or two although she is sensational here, quite moving and even putting over the film's best song, "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood". A similar fate happened to Miss Sweet's longtime rival, Mae Marsh, who was reduced to being an unbilled extra within a few years. Also very good are Jack Mulhall as the devoted Jimmy and John Miljan as one the first on-film examples of a Hollywood sleazeball (you know he's going to be a creep by the way he chews his food in his first scene). I also enjoy seeing silent movie comedian Ford Sterling in a change of pace role. Well-directed by Mervyn LeRoy, "Show Girl in Hollywood" is not on the level of "Sunset Blvd" and "A Star is Born" as a drama or "Bombshell" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" as a comedy yet definitely deserves to be acknowledged when discussing some of the best films made about behind the scenes Hollywood.