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43 out of 44 people found the following comment useful :-
"Hooray for Hollywood", 1 August 2003
Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (Warner Brothers, 1937), directed by Busby Berkeley, capitalizes on the current trend of Hollywood stories that were made popular starting with David O. Selznick's dramatization of A STAR IS BORN, followed by the light comedy STAND-IN (both United Artists) and the musical, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT (Grand National), just to name a few, even though films about Hollywood and the behind the scenes in movie making were anything but new by the time HOLLYWOOD HOTEL went into release in January 1938. However, Warner Brothers spoofs Hollywood the best way it knows how, spotlighted by the singing of Dick Powell, and the musical festivities by Benny Goodman and his Swing Band, whose popularity was then at his peak.

For the plot, Dick Powell plays Ronnie Bowers, a saxophone player in Benny Goodman's band who has won a talent contest with a trip to Hollywood. In spite of a big sendoff at the St. Louis Airport, Ronnie has little confidence in himself, feeling that after ten weeks, he will be back with the band. Maybe. Before heading off in the TWA airplane, he bids farewell to his teary-eyed girlfriend and band vocalist, Alice Crane (Frances Langford). After arriving in Hollywood, Ronnie is greeted by Bertie Walton (Allyn Joslyn), a studio press agent for All-Star Pictures, and Joe (Eddie Acuff), a photographer, who escort him to the Hollywood Hotel. After heading to his hotel room 312, the story shifts over to Mona Marshall (Lola Lane), a tempermental movie star who shares the room with her wacky kid sister (Mabel Todd), her even more bewildered father, Chester (Hugh Herbert), and her personal secretary, Jonesy (Glenda Farrell). Because another glamous girl was given the part she had wanted, Mona decides to leave Hollywood. With Mona's new film, GLAMOUR GIRL, opening that evening, Walton comes upon an idea to hire a look-alike, Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane), a waitress, to fill in to impersonate Mona, and instructs Ronnie to accompany the actress to the premiere. Confusion lurks afterwards when Ronnie falls in love with Virginia, and, after Mona finds out that she has been misrepresented in public, returns to the studio where she has a temper tantrum, and causes Ronnie, who believes her to be the other girl, to be fired. Ronnie finds himself a new agent, Fuzzy (Ted Healy), and together they seek employment at various studios, but the only job they could get is working at Callahan's (Edgar Kennedy) drive-in eatery where they serve the public and wash dishes, with the broken dishes coming out of their salary. Ronnie's singing is heard by Walter Kelton (William B. Davidson), a movie director of All-Star Pictures, and decides to use his voice in a musical, unaware that Ronnie's singing is to be dubbed for Alexander DuPre (Alan Mowbray), Mona Marshall's hammy co-star and stuffy escort, for the upcoming production of LOVE AND GLORY. In spite of numerous setbacks for both, Ronnie and Virginia hope on making good at the gathering that is to take place in the Orchid Room of the Hollywood Hotel, hosted by Louella Parsons, and broadcast coast-to-coast on radio.

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL'S first hour emphasizes mostly on comedy, with three tunes spread far apart, but for the second hour, tunes in more on the music, with new songs by Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer, and specialties from the orchestras of Benny Goodman and Raymond Paige. The Hollywood Hotel musical program includes: "Hooray for Hollywood" (performed by Benny Goodman's Band, sung by Johnnie Davis, Frances Langford, cast); "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water" (sung by Dick Powell and Rosemary Lane); "Silhouetted in the Moonlight" (sung by Rosemary Lane at the Hollywood Bowl); "Let That Be a Lesson to You" (introduced by Johnnie Davis and played by Benny Goodman's Band, sung by Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Ted Healy, Mabel Todd, and drive-in patrons at Callahan's Eats, with occasional interruptions by the nervous Edgar Kennedy); Benny Goodman Band instrumental medley: "Sing, Sing, Sing" and "I've Got a Heartful of Music," "I Hitched My Wagon to a Star" (sung by Alan Mowbray, with voice dubbed in by Dick Powell); "Silhouetted in the Moonlight" (sung by Jerry Cooper and Frances Langford); "Dark Eyes" (O Tchonia) A Russian folk song performed instrumentally by Raymond Paige and his Orchestra, participated by chorus humming the score; "I Hitched My Wagon to a Star" (sung by Powell); "Sing You Son-of-a-Gun" (sung by Powell and Rosemary Lane) and "Hooray for Hollywood" (sung by Johnnie Davis and cast). Of the handful of songs heard, especially during the final half of HOLLYWOOD HOTEL, the only lowpoint turns out to be Jerry Cooper's rendition to "Silhouetted in the Moonlight," who does a duet with Frances Langford. It would have worked out better had Langford either performed the duet with Powell or done it as a solo.

In the motion picture soundtrack to HOLLYWOOD HOTEL, compliments of Hollywood Soundstage, distributed in 1981, the record not only includes the entire musical segments, but outtakes as well, featuring the complete version to "Silhouetted in the Moonlight" which, after Rosemary Lane's solo, which exists in the final print, is joined in singing by Dick Powell, whose rendition and duet with Lane is cut, which explains the sudden blackout following Lane's first version to the song; and Benny Goodman's Band playing to "I Got a Heart Full of Music" and "House Hop," portions that were later used in the 1938 musical short, FOR AULD LANG SYNE, a tribute to Will Rogers.

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL, under Busby Berkeley's supervision as director, is a musical of lavish scale, with none of his trademarks of surrealistic choreography for which he is famous. There is much singing and no dancing, which gives this production the appearance of a big budgeted 1940s musical, especially when it comes to Benny Goodman's Band, consisting of future legends as Lionel Hampton, Harry James (on the clarinet), and Gene Krupa (on the drums). Ronald Reagan, another future lead actor at Warner Brothers and future U.S. President, can be seen briefly as a radio announcer during a movie premiere.

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL is a far cry from being the best of the Warner Brothers musical cycle, but in many ways it's a nostalgic look to its bygone golden age, giving a glimpse of makeup artist, Perc Westmore, appearing as himself, glamourizing the ordinary waitress Rosemary Lane into movie star quality. With the exception near the conclusion of the story, Rosemary (then a newcomer to films making her second screen appearance) shares no scenes with her older but look-alike sister, Lola. As for the gravel voiced comedian Ted Healy, this became his final screen role. He died proir to the film's release.

Interestingly, the one thing missing in HOLLYWOOD HOTEL which was common place in films about Hollywood on Hollywood is the use of major stars doing surprise guest bits. Imagine Dick Powell's Ronnie Bowers entering the Hollywood Hotel and coming across briefly such big named actors as Bette Davis, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, or even the use of some inside humor in having him meeting up with Joan Blondell (Powell's off-screen wife). Instead, it has radio announcers, Ken Niles and Duane Thompson, and newspaper columnist, Louella Parsons, appearing as themselves. Parsons, who was then a noted personality, is a far cry from being a natural performer.

As a spoof, HOLLYWOOD HOTEL purposely finds the tempermental Lola Lane overacting all over the place; Hugh Herbert "woo-wooing" in and out of scenes; and in a movie within a movie, the premiere of LOVE AND GLORY, a Civil War story, is noticeably a disguised version to Margaret Mitchell's then best selling novel "Gone With the Wind," with the central character called Captain Cutler (in place of Rhett Butler). Although the movie itself is a bit overlong (109 minutes), it's worthy screen entertainment.

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL can be seen occasionally on cable television's Turner Classic Movies.

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30 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
A Terrific and Neglected Musical Comedy, 5 December 2005
9/10
Author: Randy Skretvedt (forwardintothepast@yahoo.com) from United States

"Hollywood Hotel" is a fast-moving, exuberant, wonderfully entertaining musical comedy from Warners which is sadly overlooked. It should be remembered if only for providing the official theme song of Tinseltown -- "Hooray for Hollywood." The score by Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer has a number of other gems, however, including the charming "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water," and "Silhouetted in the Moonlight." The best musical number is "Let That Be a Lesson to You," in which Dick Powell and company detail the misadventures of people who found themselves "behind the eight-ball," a fate which literally befalls slow-burning Edgar Kennedy at the number's end. The picture celebrates Hollywood glamour and punctures it all at once, as it gets a lot of comic mileage out of pompous and ego-maniacal actors and duplicitous studio executives. The cast includes a gaggle of great character comedians--Allyn Joslyn as a crafty press agent, Ted Healy as Dick Powell's would-be manager, Fritz Feld as an excitable restaurant patron, Glenda Farrell as Mona Marshall's sarcastic Gal Friday, Edgar Kennedy as a put-upon drive-in manager, Mabel Todd as Mona's goofy sister, and Hugh Herbert as her even goofier dad. The "racist" element mentioned in another review here is a ten-second bit where Herbert appears in black-face during a pseudo-"Gone With the Wind" sequence. It's in questionable taste, but it shouldn't prevent you from seeing the other delights in this film, notably the Benny Goodman Quartet (including Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton!) in what I believe is the only footage available on this incredible jazz combo. The "Dark Eyes" sequence goes on a bit too long and comes in too late, but otherwise "Hollywood Hotel" is a gem, well worth your time and certainly a film which should be considered for DVD release.

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26 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
A partly immortal movie, 14 July 2000
Author: Micu from Paris, France

It was a hell of a job to grab a video tape of that movie, still but seldom shown on TV in the States, but invisible in France since it was contradictorily issued, in the late forties. Well, the beginning with the Goodman band's motorcade is a landmark, saluted by many critics as the sweeping entrance of the Swing Era in motion pictures. Lead by Benny and Johnnie Davis, plus Frances Langford (still alive in Florida and just re-married at 80), the band gives a tremendous start to a picture which soon looses its impetus, occasionally rewinded by the hilarious appearances of Hugh Herbert plus the wits of Glenda Farrell or Ted Healy. As a little pest, Mabel Todd is not convincing. After two syrupy tunes, we get a good staged crowd number at the Callaghan's restaurant, with allusions to Columbus, before the real gem comes, from the Orchid Room: the second part of SING, SING, SING (Christopher Columbus), with Krupa, Goodman and James at their best, unfortunately for just three minutes (but they weigh ten times more than the 5'30" of the same standard, as re-created in BENNY GOODMAN STORY. It's the difference between genuine music and re-heated soup). But Berkeley gets our pardon by setting immediately after a brilliant number with Benny's Quartet (HOUSE HOP, not I'M A DING DONG DADDY FROM DUMAS, as stated in IMDB's credentials). That makes five GREAT minutes for the millions of jazz fans still in love with swing. A second quartet number, GET A HEARTFUL OF MUSIC, was deleted by the production. Then the movie keeps moving, with an astonishing performance of DARK EYES, by Raymond Paige and his "battalion" of musicians and singers - what critics would call "jazz symphonique" - before everybody gets together for the finale,with SING, SING, SING, YOU SON OF A GUN. The 6.7 mark is severe, because the beginning and the five minutes of pure swing are invaluable. I urge TIME WARNER to issue this movie in video, for people who lack my courage to hunt for copies. henry caraso

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Still entertaining due to the energy of the performances and the music., 2 July 2008
9/10
Author: theowinthrop from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Hollywood Hotel" has relationships to many films like "Ella Cinders" and "Merton of the Movies" about someone winning a contest including a contract to make films in Hollywood, only to find the road to stardom either paved with pitfalls or non-existent. In fact, as I was watching it tonight, on Turner Classic Movies, I was considering whether or not the authors of the later musical classic "Singing In The Rain" may have taken some of their ideas from "Hollywood Hotel", most notably a temperamental leading lady star in a movie studio and a conclusion concerning one person singing a film score while another person got the credit by mouthing along on screen.

"Hollywood Hotel" is a fascinating example of movie making in the 1930s. Among the supporting players is Louella Parsons, playing herself (and, despite some negative comments I've seen, she has a very ingratiating personality on screen and a natural command of her lines). She is not the only real person in the script. Make-up specialist Perc Westmore briefly appears as himself to try to make one character resemble another.

This film also was one of the first in the career of young Mr. Ronald Reagan, playing a radio interviewer at a movie premiere. Reagan actually does quite nicely in his brief scenes - particularly when he realizes that nobody Dick Powell is about to take over the microphone when it should be used with more important people.

Dick Powell has won a Hollywood contract in a contest, and is leaving his job as a saxophonist in Benny Goodman's band. The beginning of this film, by the way, is quite impressive, as the band drives in a parade of trucks to give a proper goodbye to Powell. They end up singing "Hooray For Hollywood". The interesting thing about this wonderful number is that a lyric has been left out on purpose. Throughout the Johnny Mercer lyrics are references to such Hollywood as Max Factor the make-up king, Rin tin tin, and even a hint of Tarzan. But the original song lyric referred to looking like Tyrone Power. Obviously Jack Warner and his brothers were not going to advertise the leading man of 20th Century Fox, and the name Donald Duck was substituted. In any event the number showed the singers and instrumentalists of Goodman's orchestra at their best. So did a later five minute section of the film, where the band is rehearsing.

Powell leaves the band and his girl friend (Frances Langford) and goes to Hollywood, only to find he is a contract player (most likely for musicals involving saxophonists). He is met by Allen Joslyn, the publicist of the studio (the owner is Grant Mitchell). Joslyn is not a bad fellow, but he is busy and he tends to slough off people unless it is necessary to speak to them. He parks Powell at a room at the Hollywood Hotel, which is also where the studio's temperamental star (Lola Lane) lives with her father (Hugh Herbert), her sister (Mabel Todd), and her sensible if cynical assistant (Glenda Farrell). Lane is like Jean Hagen in "Singing In The Rain", except her speaking voice is good. Her version of "Dan Lockwood" is one "Alexander Dupre" (Alan Mowbray, scene stealing with ease several times). The only difference is that Mowbray is not a nice guy like Gene Kelly was, and Lane (when not wrapped up in her ego) is fully aware of it. Having a fit on being by-passed for an out-of-the ordinary role she wanted, she refuses to attend the premiere of her latest film. Joslyn finds a double for her (Lola's real life sister Rosemary Lane), and Rosemary is made up to play the star at the premiere and the follow-up party. But she attends with Powell (Joslyn wanting someone who doesn't know the real Lola). This leads to Powell knocking down Mowbray when the latter makes a pest of himself. But otherwise the evening is a success, and when the two are together they start finding each other attractive.

The complications deal with Lola coming back and slapping Powell in the face, after Mowbray complains he was attacked by Powell ("and his gang of hoodlums"). Powell's contract is bought out. Working with photographer turned agent Ted Healey (actually not too bad in this film - he even tries to do a Jolson imitation at one point), the two try to find work, ending up as employees at a hamburger stand run by bad tempered Edgar Kennedy (the number of broken dishes and singing customers in the restaurant give Edgar plenty of time to do his slow burns with gusto). Eventually Powell gets a "break" by being hired to be Dupre's singing voice in a rip-off of "Gone With The Wind". This leads to the final section of the film, when Rosemary Lane, Herbert, and Healey help give Powell his chance to show it's his voice, not Mowbrays.

It's quite a cute and appealing film even now. The worst aspects are due to it's time. Several jokes concerning African-Americans are no longer tolerable (while trying to photograph Powell as he arrives in Hollywood, Healey accidentally photographs a porter, and mentions to Joslyn to watch out, Powell photographs too darkly - get the point?). Also a bit with Curt Bois as a fashion designer for Lola Lane, who is (shall we say) too high strung is not very tolerable either. Herbert's "hoo-hoo"ing is a bit much (too much of the time) but it was really popular in 1937. And an incident where Healey nearly gets into a brawl at the premiere (this was one of his last films) reminds people of the tragic, still mysterious end of the comedian in December 1937. But most of the film is quite good, and won't disappoint the viewer in 2008.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
"Try Your Luck, You Could Be Donald Duck, Hooray For Hollywood", 2 April 2009
8/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

When we talk Hollywood Hotel we could be talking about one of three things, the actual hotel, the radio program, and this film which was partially inspired by the first two. Dick Powell was the host of the Hollywood Hotel program on CBS radio network in which Louella Parsons dished out the weekly scoop on the stars.

Powell and Parsons debuted the Hollywood Hotel program in 1934 so by 1937 it had its fair share of the radio audience. Powell hosted, sang, and kibitzed with Louella and her movie star guests. With the power she had with her column, she was able to get the various stars to go on and plug their latest films for nothing.

Then the American Federation of Radio Artists stepped in and demanded she pay wages accordingly and they won the case. That ended the Hollywood Hotel program in 1938. Of course both Powell and Louella went on to other radio venues. The whole story is covered in the Tony Thomas book, The Films Of Dick Powell.

But before the plug was pulled this film came out from Powell's home studio of Warner Brothers inspired by the radio program. Powell plays a singer/saxophonist with the Benny Goodman band who gets signed to a Hollywood contract. But when he gets out to Hollywood he gets himself tangled up with an egotistical film star Lola Lane, her lookalike double real life sister Rosemary Lane, and a ham actor in Alan Mowbray.

When Mowbray is called upon to sing in a Civil War epic he's making with Lola Lane, it's Powell's voice they use. Then Mowbray develops a Lina Lamont problem when he's asked to go on the Hollywood Hotel radio program, broadcast from the Hollywood Hotel. That's got the studio in a tizzy. Let's say the problem isn't solved the way it is Singing In The Rain, but Powell's manager Ted Healy proves to be resourceful.

Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer provide a really nice score for the film. The big hit song comes right at the beginning as the Benny Goodman band with scat singing Johnnie Davis sing Hollywood's anthem, Hooray for Hollywood. My favorite however is Powell and Rosemary Lane singing, I'm Like A Fish Out Of Water. Just listening to Johnny Mercer's lyrics about Ginger Rogers running the Brooklyn Dodgers or Sally Rand without her fan, it's a compendium of American popular culture in the Thirties.

Busby Berkeley does the choreography here and while the film doesn't have the soaring imaginary stuff that his earlier work with Warner Brothers has, the numbers are well staged. Berkeley's big moment is in a drive-in eatery where Powell and Healy have been forced to take jobs. The number starts with Benny Goodman broadcasting from the Hollywood Hotel doing Let That Be A Lesson To You and then at the drive-in Powell, Lane and the entire place start joining in song to the exasperation of owner Edgar Kennedy. And you know what you can expect from Edgar Kennedy exasperation.

Benny Goodman gets to show why he was named the King Of Swing when the band with drummer Gene Krupa and xylophonist Lionel Hampton as part of his ensemble. That together with Frances Langford singing as well. And possibly the last surviving cast member of the group was a fellow who had a small bit as a radio announcer. He died in 2004, but not before he became the 40th President of the United States. Ronald Reagan always credited Dick Powell and Pat O'Brien as being the two guys on Warner Brothers who were the most helpful to an eager young player looking to make his mark.

Hollywood Hotel is one delightful and entertaining motion picture, dated, but charmingly so.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Dick Powell is just fine, and Richard Whiting's and Johnny Mercer's 'Hooray for Hollywood" is great, 15 October 2008
6/10
Author: Terrell-4 from San Antonio, Texas

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It may be that Hollywood has made a musical with a more energetic, dynamic opening than Hollywood Hotel, but I haven't come across it. Right off the bat there's Benny Goodman and his orchestra, all dressed in white suits, each standing in a convertible, all being driven down a highway led by motorcycle cops to the St. Louis airport, and all playing loud and fast one of Richard Whiting's and Johnny Mercer's greatest songs. They're sending off to Hollywood the orchestra's saxophonist, Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell), who has just won a ten-week contract in Tinsel Town. Without skipping a beat, Johnnie Davis, a mug-faced trumpet player, starts singing the lyrics, then Frances Langford picks up a chorus or two.

Hooray for Hollywood! / That screwy, ballyhooey Hollywood!

Where any office boy or young mechanic / Can be a panic with just a good-looking pan!

And any barmaid can be a star maid / If she dances with or without a fan!

Hooray for Hollywood! / Where you're terrific if you're even good!

Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple / To Aimee Semple is equally understood!

Come on and try your luck, you could be Donald Duck! Hooray for Hollywood!

It would be hard to top this, and Hollywood Hotel doesn't come close. The problem is the plot -- it's too complicated and goes on too long -- and, surprisingly, since Whiting and Mercer wrote the songs -- the songs they wrote. With the exception of Hooray for Hollywood, their songs in my opinion are pleasant but not especially memorable. "Let That Be a Lesson to You" has a clever Mercer lyric but is staged with great corn by director Busby Berkeley. It's no accident, I think, that Hooray for Hollywood not only became a smash but Tinsel Town's de facto anthem. It's that good.

Hollywood Hotel is stuffed with mix-ups, misunderstandings and mistaken identities, but none of them are worth remembering. The plot has to do with the naive and enthusiastic Ronnie and his adventures thinking he'll be a star. There's the snooty leading lady (Lola Lane) who takes a walk, the waitress substitute who looks like her and fools Ronnie (Rosemary Lane, doing a nice job imitating an uber-gracious leading lady), the dense and egotistical leading man (Alan Mowbray) and on and on. Ronnie loses his big break, winds up selling hamburgers and malts, but then he comes back big. Mowbray is just fine, especially when he's miming "I've Hitched My Wagon to a Star" with Powell's voice. Dr. Benny Goodman and his orchestra provide a number of musical injections, including "Sing, Sing, Sing." Several of his key players such as Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, and Teddy Wilson are featured. There are the uncredited-and-very-young-future-stars to spot, such as Susan Hayward, Ronald Reagan and Carole Landis. On the other hand, there's Hugh Herbert to endure (he's even in a black face bit), Mabel Todd (a kind of bargain basement Cass Dailey) and Luella Parsons playing herself. Parsons is particularly awful.

And there's Dick Powell, who manages to give the movie some energy as the likable, singing Ronnie Bowers. Powell seemed always to play cocky, confident guys. Here's he's an innocent in Hollywood, but just as energetic and confident. By now, 1937, he could see the writing on the wall...namely, the ruin of his career if he couldn't get out of playing light romantic singing leads in brainless musicals. He finally managed with Murder My Sweet in 1944 when he was 40, but it took him seven years. During that time he was placed in silliness with titles like The Cowboy from Brooklyn, Hard to Get, Going Places, Naughty But Nice and I Want a Divorce. He might have been a bit lucky with Murder My Sweet, but he also was persistent, ambitious and smart about what he needed. One of these days I hope we'll see DVD versions of two movies of his I like a lot. One is The Tall Target (1951). Powell is a detective out to foil a conspiracy to kill Lincoln as the President-elect travels to Washington for his first inaugural. It's a well-made, taut period mystery. Then there's You Never Can Tell (1951), a wry comedy about a German Shepherd who inherits millions and is promptly poisoned. He comes back to earth for a few days as a human to find who killed him and to protect the young woman who'd cared for him. Powell plays the temporary human, named Rex of course.

Renting Hollywood Hotel may be the only chance you'll have to hear all the choruses to Hooray for Hollywood. It's one of Mercer's best sets of comedy lyrics.

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"That screwy, ballyhooey Hollywood/Where any office boy or young mechanic/Can be a panic/With just a good-looking pan!", 14 November 2009
5/10
Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Fake show biz, courtesy director Busby Berkeley. Saxophone player from the East is called out to Hollywood for work in the movies (though we have no idea why or how this brainstorm transpired); he's immediately set up as a pigeon, taking a lookalike-starlet to a lavish premiere--but when the real actress gets wind of the deception, she orders the greenhorn be fired (and the studio dutifully complies, though the date was their idea!). Ridiculous musical-comedy padded with Big Band numbers and pop-ups from buxom columnist Louella Parsons (touted as "The Queen of Hollywood"). Dick Powell has an ingratiating manner and a handsome profile, but we never learn anything about his character except that he's easily fooled. The Johnny Mercer-Richard Whiting songs run the gamut from fine ("Hooray For Hollywood", "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water") to awful ("Sing, You Son of a Gun"), while the point of the whole thing seems to be: no matter how big of a star you might be, you can always be replaced. ** from ****

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3 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Patchy, 6 July 2008
5/10
Author: dougdoepke from Claremont, USA

Too bad the high-point comes so early. It's a rousing performance of that zippy tune "Hooray for Hollywood" with Benny Goodman's marching band comin' at ya. The remaining 100 minutes is best taken as a spoof on Hollywood's over-sized ego's and cut-throat film industry, which would work fine except too many of the scenes go on too long, way past the point of diminishing returns. Do we really need 12 minutes of Lola Lane acting the pampered, self-centered movie goddess. But then I gather she was dating the movie's producer, Hal Wallis. Then too, poor Dick Powell gets one of his sappier roles, all wide-eyed grin and much too foolish for even a spoof like this.

The best moments are Goodman's numbers which are nevertheless too few to compensate, but do include a good look at vibraphonist Lional Hampton and premier drummer Gene Krupa, along with a quick peek at jazz trumpeter Harry James. On the other hand, the Raymond Paige version of "Dark Eyes" amounts to a textbook example of gaudy over-orchestration, yet gives legendary director Busby Berkeley a chance to swoop his camera around in trademark fashion. The drive-in musical bash is both well staged and unusual, with a few clever touches (the falsetto-voiced thug), but again goes on too long. And of course Berkeley does keep everybody in motion, so if some of the routines get wearisome, at least they never drag. But then he's got to work in a lot of second-rate comedy acts (Herbert, Todd), most of which may raise a chuckle but not much else.

No, in my book, it's a disappointing movie, both patchy and undistinguished, except for the knock-out title tune and a winsome Rosemary Lane. Then again, what other film of the day provided a role for movieland's queen of gossip, Louella Parsons, with a cheerless smile that never seems to fade. Somehow, that seems fitting.

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3 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
So-so movie helped by appealing leads and good songs, 25 November 2006
7/10
Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

Saxophonist Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell) wins a studio contract and goes to Hollywood. He stays at Hollywwod Hotel (of course). At the same time big egotistical star Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) has a tantrum and refuses to attend the premiere of her new picture. In a panic the studio hires lookalike Virginia (Rosemary Lane) to impersonate her and have Bowers take her to the premiere NOT telling him it's not Marshall. Naturally they fall in love. You can pretty much figure out the rest of the plot yourself.

The plot is old (to put it nicely) but Powell and Rosemary Lane make a very likable pair and have beautiful singing voices. The score is good (highlighted by "Hooray for Hollywood") and director Busby Berkeley shows off his unique visuals in a really fun drive-in musical sequence (with Edgar Kennedy doing his patented slow burn). Also Glenda Farrell has a few funny bits as Monas sister Jonesie.

Still the movie isn't that good. The rest of the cast mugs ferociously and most of the humor is just not funny. Lola Lane especially is just lousy trying to play Mona for comedy. Also there is racism--a stereotypical black maid is played for laughs and there's some truly appalling racist "humor" at one point. That's probably what keeps this off TV most of the time. I realize it was accepted at the time but it comes across as revolting today.

All in all a so-so movie with some serious problems helped by a good cast and some great songs. I give it a 7.

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2 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
So-so songs, lame script, lavish production and some good Busby Berkeley touches..., 2 July 2008
5/10
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

This is really a lemon of a musical from Warner Bros. with DICK POWELL as a boy singer who wins a contest that sends the naive guy to Hollywood where he ends up escorting a movie star imposter (ROSEMARY LANE) to a Hollywood premiere. Seems Rosemary is impersonating a temperamental diva (LOLA LANE), who overacts in awful style the role of a spoiled movie star who refuses to attend the premiere of her latest musical.

None of the songs are the least bit memorable but occasionally director Busby Berkeley gets to improvise and put some of his touches on the camera-work and choreography of assorted group numbers. Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra with Gene Krupa on the drums and a visible Harry James as a member of the band, gets to have a couple of big band segments, and Frances Langford gets to do a brief song with Dick Powell. Raymond Paige and his orchestra do a nice job on a Russian number with chorus and orchestra. These are the film's only highlights.

Comedy relief is supplied by Hugh Herbert, Ted Healy, Edgar Kennedy, Allyn Joslyn, Curt Bois, Glenda Farrel and Grant Mitchell, weak as it is. You can catch a glimpse of Ronald Reagan as the MC at the premiere of a new film, Carole Landis as a hatcheck girl in the background of a scene with Hugh Herbert, and Louella Parsons plays herself as a columnist who thinks she's getting the scoop on things. It's a good thing she didn't give up her day job.

On the plus side, ROSEMARY LANE is lovely and has a nice singing voice, DICK POWELL does a passable job on some innocuous songs, and GLENDA FARREL has a winning way with some sharp wisecracks. ALAN MOBRAY is painfully bad as an overbearing actor that Powell is hired to sing for, and just about all of the comedy efforts are handicapped by a bad script.

LOLA LANE overdoes the diva bit to an almost irritating degree at the start of the film and it all goes downhill from there.

Good camera-work, some nice B&W photography of plush interiors, and a few nice touches by Busby Berkeley can't compensate for a cliché-ridden story of boy meets girl in Hollywood, set to some "moon and June" songs that can hardly be called inspired.

Summing up: Disappointing musical.

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