The best things about this lame little comedy are that you actually get to briefly hear Louise Brooks talk (she did mostly silent films) and that it is a short film, not full-length! It just isn't very funny and is a dud in so many ways--especially since the lead, Jack Shutta ("Windy Riley") is about as entertaining as Ebola! Plus, it really doesn't help that the script is pretty limp and poor Miss Brooks is given practically NOTHING to do in the film--she's just there! However, despite all the shortcomings, this is interesting because it's one of the very few times you get to hear Miss Brooks speak on film. Most of her famous films were either silents or poorly dubbed films that were originally silent (MISS EUROPE). However, this isn't a great film if you want to hear her talk because the film quality is very, very poor---which is the case with so many early nitrate films. This film is included with DIARY OF A LOST GIRL and the producers of the Kino video admit that the film quality is a mess but include it because of its significance. Interestingly enough, although you can't hear her perfectly, Miss Brooks appeared to possibly have either a speech defect or perhaps an odd accent--either way, her voice might just be the reason she retired soon after this film.
14 Reviews
After "Beauty Prize" - This??
kidboots15 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The fact is that Louise Brooks was completely broke and desperately needed the $500 that appearing in this short would bring her. So instead of a memorable, magnificent feature to proclaim "Lulu Speaks", we have this dreary, unfunny comedy made by lowly Educational which gave the production to their low budget comedy unit "Mermaid Comedy Company". Many famous comedians (Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon etc) worked for Educational but they were usually on their way down. Jack Shutta wasn't going anywhere (up or down) - his sister Ethel had more fame, being featured in a show stopping number ("Stetson") in "Whoopee" and also being married to band leader George Olsen.
Windy Riley was a comic strip character created in 1929 and in this short comes across as a brash braggart with no winning qualities. He is in a New York to San Francisco car race but takes a wrong turn and ends up in Hollywood where he is given a job as publicity agent for Hollywood Studios to keep him off the streets.
Louise Brooks makes her appearance at about 6 minutes in as giddy Betty Grey (and it's as dire as the other reviews say) - a starlet who is being given her marching orders - if she can't keep herself off the front pages. Enter publicity man Windy who has a great idea to boost her career - yes!! it's let's get her onto the front pages, the juicier the headline the better!! And when you realise that the director of this embarrassment was William Goodrich, a pseudonym for Fatty Arbuckle - how ironic the plot was. Arbuckle had been stripped of his career as the result of a murder trial where a starlet, Virginia Rappe died of injuries sustained at a weekend party held in Fatty Arbuckle's hotel suite in 1921. The lurid headlines kept America glued to Hearst's tabloids but over the years, though the public as well as good friends fought for his film return, the studios didn't forget hence, 10 years later, he was still working under an alias at a little hole in corner studio, hoping desperately for a comeback that never eventuated.
Louise said he was like a dead man during production and there was no attempt at directing - Louise's beauty and grace were not captured. There is a dance scene in the short where a chorus line up was conventionally filmed doing a routine but when Louise floats on to the set she is filmed from the back of the stage and worse, when she finally gets to the front, the scene cuts out. Like Fatty Arbuckle, the film industry found it hard to forgive Louise for being a vibrant part of the 1920s!!
Windy Riley was a comic strip character created in 1929 and in this short comes across as a brash braggart with no winning qualities. He is in a New York to San Francisco car race but takes a wrong turn and ends up in Hollywood where he is given a job as publicity agent for Hollywood Studios to keep him off the streets.
Louise Brooks makes her appearance at about 6 minutes in as giddy Betty Grey (and it's as dire as the other reviews say) - a starlet who is being given her marching orders - if she can't keep herself off the front pages. Enter publicity man Windy who has a great idea to boost her career - yes!! it's let's get her onto the front pages, the juicier the headline the better!! And when you realise that the director of this embarrassment was William Goodrich, a pseudonym for Fatty Arbuckle - how ironic the plot was. Arbuckle had been stripped of his career as the result of a murder trial where a starlet, Virginia Rappe died of injuries sustained at a weekend party held in Fatty Arbuckle's hotel suite in 1921. The lurid headlines kept America glued to Hearst's tabloids but over the years, though the public as well as good friends fought for his film return, the studios didn't forget hence, 10 years later, he was still working under an alias at a little hole in corner studio, hoping desperately for a comeback that never eventuated.
Louise said he was like a dead man during production and there was no attempt at directing - Louise's beauty and grace were not captured. There is a dance scene in the short where a chorus line up was conventionally filmed doing a routine but when Louise floats on to the set she is filmed from the back of the stage and worse, when she finally gets to the front, the scene cuts out. Like Fatty Arbuckle, the film industry found it hard to forgive Louise for being a vibrant part of the 1920s!!
Lulu meets Roscoe, but the results are dismal
wmorrow5929 June 2006
Fans of Louise Brooks will want to see her in this, her talkie debut, but be forewarned: Windy Riley Goes Hollywood is a sorry excuse for entertainment, that is, unless you can persuade yourself to enjoy a primitive comedy without any laughs, featuring a deeply unappealing leading man. Our hero Windy Riley (played by Jack Shutta) is a pompous, cigar-chomping jerk who messes up everything he touches, and never realizes that everyone thinks he's a fool. Shutta's performance won't leave you begging for more, but the actor can't be blamed. Who could have done any better with this feeble script, or with such a deeply exasperating character? The Windy Riley persona was originally created for a comic strip, and perhaps the strip was funny, I don't know, but based on the evidence at hand I have my doubts.
Windy is on an unexplained cross-country trip from New York to his hometown of San Francisco, but he winds up in Hollywood instead, and is soon working at a movie studio . . . as a messenger boy. He attempts to get ahead by boosting the career of movie star Betty Grey (our Miss Brooks), which he tries to accomplish by means of a dangerous and genuinely idiotic publicity stunt. Instead of boosting Betty's career he nearly ruins it, and is ultimately chased out of the studio -- and Hollywood -- before he can do any further damage.
Louise Brooks made this film after returning from Europe, where she'd appeared in the three movies that constitute her most significant contribution to the cinema. She'd left Hollywood in 1929 on bad terms, having offended the Powers That Be at Paramount, and returned with a well-earned reputation for being headstrong and uncooperative. On top of that, the talkie revolution was under way. Lots of old favorites were falling by the wayside, and all bets were off. None of the big studios wanted to deal with Brooks, so she wound up making her talkie debut here, in a low-budget short cranked out at Educational Pictures under the direction of another fallen star, Roscoe Arbuckle. The former top comedian had been banned from the screen almost ten years earlier, but was making a decent living directing comedies for other performers under the name of William Goodrich. When he was inspired by his material Arbuckle was a gifted director of comedy, but it's obvious from the outset that the director found no inspiration in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood. Roscoe phoned this one in.
So all we're left with is the sight of the leading lady, earnestly trying to play her part and deliver her clunky lines. It's a disheartening thing to experience. She gets to dance briefly, but of course her dance is quickly interrupted by the unstoppable, insufferable Windy Riley. In her best silent films Louise Brooks was (and is) almost ethereal, but here she looks and sounds all too human, thanks to the shoddy material. In her introductory scene, Brooks is presented with a publicity poster of herself and delivers her first line in a talkie: "Oh Mr. Snell, I think it's great! A photograph like that oughta do me a lotta good, doncha think?" That sound you hear is an ex-goddess, crashing to earth with a dull thud.
Windy is on an unexplained cross-country trip from New York to his hometown of San Francisco, but he winds up in Hollywood instead, and is soon working at a movie studio . . . as a messenger boy. He attempts to get ahead by boosting the career of movie star Betty Grey (our Miss Brooks), which he tries to accomplish by means of a dangerous and genuinely idiotic publicity stunt. Instead of boosting Betty's career he nearly ruins it, and is ultimately chased out of the studio -- and Hollywood -- before he can do any further damage.
Louise Brooks made this film after returning from Europe, where she'd appeared in the three movies that constitute her most significant contribution to the cinema. She'd left Hollywood in 1929 on bad terms, having offended the Powers That Be at Paramount, and returned with a well-earned reputation for being headstrong and uncooperative. On top of that, the talkie revolution was under way. Lots of old favorites were falling by the wayside, and all bets were off. None of the big studios wanted to deal with Brooks, so she wound up making her talkie debut here, in a low-budget short cranked out at Educational Pictures under the direction of another fallen star, Roscoe Arbuckle. The former top comedian had been banned from the screen almost ten years earlier, but was making a decent living directing comedies for other performers under the name of William Goodrich. When he was inspired by his material Arbuckle was a gifted director of comedy, but it's obvious from the outset that the director found no inspiration in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood. Roscoe phoned this one in.
So all we're left with is the sight of the leading lady, earnestly trying to play her part and deliver her clunky lines. It's a disheartening thing to experience. She gets to dance briefly, but of course her dance is quickly interrupted by the unstoppable, insufferable Windy Riley. In her best silent films Louise Brooks was (and is) almost ethereal, but here she looks and sounds all too human, thanks to the shoddy material. In her introductory scene, Brooks is presented with a publicity poster of herself and delivers her first line in a talkie: "Oh Mr. Snell, I think it's great! A photograph like that oughta do me a lotta good, doncha think?" That sound you hear is an ex-goddess, crashing to earth with a dull thud.
Brooks' Entrance into Talkies
nycritic5 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Had she been given a second chance in Hollywood, Louise Brooks might not have been so quickly dismissed into forgettable B-pictures that were the only thing she made after returning from Europe. But as is the case with performers who have either left the studio in a bad way, or were known for being erratic, disruptive, or plain uncooperative, or could not make the transition from one period of their career to the next (in this case, silents to talkies), they were immediately replaced with performers who could fill their shoes. The remarkable thing is how quickly Louise Brooks fell. Not three years before this little movie she was considered the hottest woman in Tinseltown -- the personification of the flapper and an icon of the times, a more sophisticated counterpart for the full-blooded carnality that was Clara Bow. However, her disdain for the Hollywood scene and her refusal to record the voice-over for her character for the movie THE CANARY MURDER CASE proved to be her undoing. Plus, her success in the European scene might have buried her even further down, since Hollwyood might not have taken too well to this occurrence in foreign lands. In any case, Louise Brooks was over, whether she knew it or not, and had she returned to Europe she might have continued her career as an actress. She didn't, and this is her entrance into talkies, awkward, stiff, with little to do but enunciate corny lines. WINDY RILEY GOES Hollywood exists in an extremely bad print, with truly grating sound and dirty images. A sad plunge into the void, hardly a way for an actress to enter a new phase in her career.
disappointing
claudecat3 August 2004
This poorly scripted short adds nothing positive to Roscoe Arbuckle's career. There are a few good moments, but the storyline is weak, and the direction uninspired. Arbuckle uses the same presentational style he employed more than a decade before, but without the inventive comedy of those years. The character of Windy Riley, an obnoxious buffoon who endlessly boasts, earns no sympathy. One of the few grace notes is Louise Brooks, who all-too-briefly gets to show off her smooth speaking voice and winning dance talent. But she is frustratingly underused and even her face is often hidden by poor blocking. It's too bad that fallen stars like Arbuckle who ended up at the lower-grade Educational Pictures didn't do--or weren't able to do--more with what they had left.
Wrong Place
tedg8 November 2006
The story is about a fellow who ends up in the wrong place, directed by someone (fatty Arbuckle) who was in the wrong place because he previously was in the wrong place. And the reason to watch it is Lousie Brooks of course. She had already had an amazing rise and fall in the US, then to Europe where she found her greatest roles. Then immediately back here in this meatball, this weedpatch.
Its her first talkie. She had been in a Philo Vance mystery that was horrid. (One of the subsequent ones is on my list of films you must see.) Like there, as here, she's charmless, which is darn interesting.
She's the same beauty, but its a different eye. This eye isn't looking for the afterglow, the savor of the lingering survey, the woman hidden beneath the woman who pretends she is seductively visible.
Wrong place. Its as interesting as being in the right place.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
Its her first talkie. She had been in a Philo Vance mystery that was horrid. (One of the subsequent ones is on my list of films you must see.) Like there, as here, she's charmless, which is darn interesting.
She's the same beauty, but its a different eye. This eye isn't looking for the afterglow, the savor of the lingering survey, the woman hidden beneath the woman who pretends she is seductively visible.
Wrong place. Its as interesting as being in the right place.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
People will believe anything they read
planeetarjan5 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The most interesting aspects of this forgettable enterprise are the circumstances which brought actress Louise Brooks and director Roscoe Arbucle into this project. Arbucles career and reputation destroyed by gossip and gutter journalism -this is why I find the line (spoken by a Hollywood-reporter) "People will believe anything they read" rather poignant - and Brooks, after making three wonderful films in Europe - finds every door shut in America. It gives this short an air of tragedy. Brooks was only 25 years-old at the time, she ends up marrying a character that could easily be her father. Horribly lame, from a modern perspective, maybe from a thirties perspective also. I wonder what kind of audience this short was aimed at.
Forgettable short with an even more forgettable Brooks
bbmtwist13 May 2017
Pedestrian early talkie short about a loud-mouth crashing Hollywood without a clue. If one had never before seen Louise Brooks, one would think from her 8 scenes here, she was a talent-less extra picked up on the street and thrown into this production. There is nothing about her to indicate she ever knew a thing about acting, either facially or vocally. A totally vapid performance in an entirely forgettable film.
Despite the Bad Reviews, a Funny Comedy
claudio_carvalho4 October 2011
The arrogant driver Windy Riley (Jack Shutta) is crossing from New York to San Francisco in his car. However a wrong traffic plate in the desert misguides him and her goes to Hollywood instead. Windy loses his car to the bank since he has not paid the last installment, but the Repo Man runs into the car of a Hollywood executive and falsely blames Windy for the accident. The man sends Windy to work in the Publicity Department to pay for the damages in his car.
Meanwhile, the actress Betty Gray (Louise Brooks) is in trouble with the studio due to bad publicity and the studio will call off her contract if she gets in trouble again. When Windy Riley arrives in the department, he believes that he is expert in publicity and he kidnaps the film director Joseph Ross expecting to promote the film and Betty Gray. But the snoopy reporter Lane finds that the director is missing and Windy needs to bring the director back in the studio otherwise Betty Gray will be fired.
Despite the bad reviews, "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" is a funny comedy and the first talkie of Louise Brooks. The lead character, Windy Riley, is a non-charismatic, imbecile and pretentious man and maybe this is the reason why many viewers do not like this short. Another point is that the talented and gorgeous Louise Brooks is wasted in a small role. But for a 1931 short, I found it enjoyable and funny. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Windy Riley Vai para Hollywood" ("Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood")
Meanwhile, the actress Betty Gray (Louise Brooks) is in trouble with the studio due to bad publicity and the studio will call off her contract if she gets in trouble again. When Windy Riley arrives in the department, he believes that he is expert in publicity and he kidnaps the film director Joseph Ross expecting to promote the film and Betty Gray. But the snoopy reporter Lane finds that the director is missing and Windy needs to bring the director back in the studio otherwise Betty Gray will be fired.
Despite the bad reviews, "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" is a funny comedy and the first talkie of Louise Brooks. The lead character, Windy Riley, is a non-charismatic, imbecile and pretentious man and maybe this is the reason why many viewers do not like this short. Another point is that the talented and gorgeous Louise Brooks is wasted in a small role. But for a 1931 short, I found it enjoyable and funny. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Windy Riley Vai para Hollywood" ("Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood")
Transition to Talkies
valfedox30 August 2022
Enjoyable as a document of the voice of Louise Brooks. Her voice was fine. The problem of transition was more complex. After becoming an icon of the age in silent movies, the sudden appearance of her voice along with her filmed image shattered the imaginary of her silent movie acolytes, who had imagined but not heard her voice in photoplays. We perceive the same artistic surprise when a novel is transposed in a movie, when a B&W picture is colorized, and an innovation in sight and sound is introduced. Along the same lines, 1080p when introduced on home TVs and DVD Blu-ray sources had the unexpected effect to "show the set" on some old movies and especially on some old TV serials like MASH, Friends and ER, because lightning and direction was for 480i video sources.
Another example is the transposition of comic strips into movies or cartoons: it was very difficult for me to appreciate The Peanuts in movies after an extensive and prolonged love for The Peanuts comic strip: my imaginary of Snoopy and Charlie Brown was shattered once motion and voice was added, and the pleasure I felt reading the strip simply was not there in the least while watching the cartoon.
So, in the end, it is true that Louise Brooks career was damaged by the sound recording of her voice, however the problem was not her voice quality, but the sudden appearance of the voice in an imaginary context where she had become a silent icon and allowed countless movie viewers to have a personal and imaginary idea of what her voice should have been.
Louise Brooks is an eternal icon of intense and complex feminine sensuality, transcending time. Any photoplay, including this badly preserved short talkie, is worth watching and collecting as a timeless artistic expression and document of her contribution to adding joy and pleasure to this world.
Another example is the transposition of comic strips into movies or cartoons: it was very difficult for me to appreciate The Peanuts in movies after an extensive and prolonged love for The Peanuts comic strip: my imaginary of Snoopy and Charlie Brown was shattered once motion and voice was added, and the pleasure I felt reading the strip simply was not there in the least while watching the cartoon.
So, in the end, it is true that Louise Brooks career was damaged by the sound recording of her voice, however the problem was not her voice quality, but the sudden appearance of the voice in an imaginary context where she had become a silent icon and allowed countless movie viewers to have a personal and imaginary idea of what her voice should have been.
Louise Brooks is an eternal icon of intense and complex feminine sensuality, transcending time. Any photoplay, including this badly preserved short talkie, is worth watching and collecting as a timeless artistic expression and document of her contribution to adding joy and pleasure to this world.
Shades of 1918 and the Arbuckle/Keaton era!!!
lreese7835-122 March 2007
This is the plot for this 'Short Subject': Windy Riley is on a non-stop automobile race from New York to San Francisco when he gets mixed up and winds up in Hollywood. Betty Grey is a movie star that happens to be getting a rash of bad publicity. Windy's car runs into the car of a movie executive. In order to work off the damage, the executive sends him to the Publicity Director of his studio. Naturally, Windy thinks of himself as a publicity expert rather than the errand boy he is supposed to be. With a big picture coming out, the studio to avoid any inadvertent publicity for Miss Grey, but Windy takes it upon himself to put her in all the papers, - in the worst way.
For certain, this was not a good film for the beautiful Louise Brooks, but I think its a mistake to pan this as a bad film. 'Fatty' Arbuckle was making a short subject film as he and Buster Keaton were making them just 12 years earlier. This is very typical of their previous efforts. You should easily picture, Buster Keaton at the wheel of the car when he looks at the sign and makes the wrong turn to Hollywood. And you can imagine the look of that deadpan face when he gets blamed for the accident. And you can just see Buster seeing that lone freight card in the railroad yard and then later the look he would have had when he noted the thousands of cars surrounding it. And that would be typical Buster that would get blasted by the steam from the locomotive.
No, this is not a bad film. It is quite enjoyable if you watch it in the context of the period of when it was made!!!
For certain, this was not a good film for the beautiful Louise Brooks, but I think its a mistake to pan this as a bad film. 'Fatty' Arbuckle was making a short subject film as he and Buster Keaton were making them just 12 years earlier. This is very typical of their previous efforts. You should easily picture, Buster Keaton at the wheel of the car when he looks at the sign and makes the wrong turn to Hollywood. And you can imagine the look of that deadpan face when he gets blamed for the accident. And you can just see Buster seeing that lone freight card in the railroad yard and then later the look he would have had when he noted the thousands of cars surrounding it. And that would be typical Buster that would get blasted by the steam from the locomotive.
No, this is not a bad film. It is quite enjoyable if you watch it in the context of the period of when it was made!!!
Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood
dreverativy31 December 2006
The sole value of this film is for viewers to wonder how a star like Louise Brooks should have fallen so far so fast. This is a short, made by the poverty row studio Educational Pictures. Brooks appears for at most five minutes out of twenty, and she has almost nothing to say. She seems bemused by the situation - almost as if she is watching herself in her own train wreck. Perhaps she was just drunk.
That aside, this picture has no merit whatever. Jack Shutta as Windy Riley is painfully unamusing. The premiss that he has, due to the machinations of his rivals in a trans-continental road race, ended up in Los Angeles rather than San Francisco, is feeble. Two years earlier Brooks had been earning $1,000 a week for Pabst. Now her earnings on this short were to be paltry (by 1938 they would be a mere $300 for an entire feature). However, she desperately needed all the cash she could get as she had no savings and no credit. Paramount and the other majors had banished her to the cinematic equivalent of Nome.
The only other point worthy of comment is that the 'director' of this flick was Roscoe Arbuckle, masquerading under the knowing name of William B. Goodrich (will be good - geddit?!). Brooks described the experience of working with Arbuckle as 'floating in the arms of a huge doughnut'. The dismal couple were both no doubt intoxicated, and in Arbuckle's case it wasn't just drink. A nadir for both parties.
That aside, this picture has no merit whatever. Jack Shutta as Windy Riley is painfully unamusing. The premiss that he has, due to the machinations of his rivals in a trans-continental road race, ended up in Los Angeles rather than San Francisco, is feeble. Two years earlier Brooks had been earning $1,000 a week for Pabst. Now her earnings on this short were to be paltry (by 1938 they would be a mere $300 for an entire feature). However, she desperately needed all the cash she could get as she had no savings and no credit. Paramount and the other majors had banished her to the cinematic equivalent of Nome.
The only other point worthy of comment is that the 'director' of this flick was Roscoe Arbuckle, masquerading under the knowing name of William B. Goodrich (will be good - geddit?!). Brooks described the experience of working with Arbuckle as 'floating in the arms of a huge doughnut'. The dismal couple were both no doubt intoxicated, and in Arbuckle's case it wasn't just drink. A nadir for both parties.
Arbuckle to the Rescue!
JohnHowardReid3 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
For twenty-eight years, in fact for just about all of his forty-five pictures' Hollywood career (1930-1957), Jack Shutta (1899-1957) played a succession of small, bit parts, usually unbilled. This little movie, in which – would you believe? – he actually plays the lead, is one of the few exceptions. But Dame Fate, as usual, has the last laugh! I'm pretty sure few moviegoers will want to see this movie in order to acquaint themselves with Jack Shutta, but rather they will be seeking either to see his radiant co-star – none other than one of Hollywood's most charismatic favorites, Louise Brooks -- or they will want to satisfy their curiosity and acquaint themselves with the directorial work of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (posing here as William Goodrich). I wanted to do both! Fortunately, both Brooks and Arbuckle are in near-top form, so I have no hesitation in heartily recommending this little novelty, "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" which is now available on an Alpha DVD, coupled with an irritatingly cutdown and now hard-to-follow version of "Pleasure" (1931), originally starring not-so-luminous names like Conway Tearle, Frances Dade, Lina Basquette and Carmel Myers.
Brooks and Roscoe
Michael_Elliott2 March 2008
Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931)
** (out of 4)
Rather forgettable but I guess historically interesting short, which features Louise Brooks just after being kicked out of Hollywood. This was also directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who was working under a fake name. A cigar chomping idiot (Jack Shutta) takes a trip to San Fran but ends up in Hollywood where he gets work trying to resurrect the career of a fallen star (Louise Brooks). This short features only two laughs but it remains mildly entertaining due to Brooks in her first talky. Paramount ruined her career by saying she couldn't do talkies due to a bad voice but she sounded fine here. She certainly brought a lot more energy than this film deserved.
** (out of 4)
Rather forgettable but I guess historically interesting short, which features Louise Brooks just after being kicked out of Hollywood. This was also directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who was working under a fake name. A cigar chomping idiot (Jack Shutta) takes a trip to San Fran but ends up in Hollywood where he gets work trying to resurrect the career of a fallen star (Louise Brooks). This short features only two laughs but it remains mildly entertaining due to Brooks in her first talky. Paramount ruined her career by saying she couldn't do talkies due to a bad voice but she sounded fine here. She certainly brought a lot more energy than this film deserved.
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