It Happened in Hollywood (1937)

Director:

Harry Lachman

Writers:

Ethel Hill (screen play), Harvey Fergusson (screen play),

Stars:

Richard Dix, Fay Wray, Victor Kilian

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Dix	...	Tim Bart
Fay Wray	...	Gloria Gay
Victor Kilian	...	Slim
Franklin Pangborn	...	Mr. Forsythe
Charles Arnt	...	Jed Reed
Granville Bates	...	Sam Bennett
William B. Davidson	...	Al Howard
Arthur Loft	...	Pete
Edgar Dearing	...	Joe Stevens
James Donlan	...	Shorty
Bill Burrud	...	Billy - The Kid (as Billy Burrud)
Zeffie Tilbury	...	Miss Gordon
Harold Goodwin	...	Buck
Charles Brinley	...	Pappy
Zeni Vatori	...	Joe Spogoli

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

actor | hollywood

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 September 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

Once a Hero

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

67 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The car used by Tim Bart (Dix) during the making of his film as a gangster about to hold up a bank and the car used later by the three robbers in an actual hold-up attempt bears the same license plate number 6W 4079.

User Reviews

We didn't need words...we had FACES!

There haven't been many movies on the subject of THE most fascinating and terrifying era of Hollywood history - the chaotic and brutal transition from Silents to Talkies (that period ended WAY more Hollywood careers than the McCarthy blacklist era). The best known, of course, are "Singin' In The Rain" (the most complete treatment of the subject, and DAZZLINGLY funny), and "Sunset Blvd" (oh-so-dark, and with razor-sharp teeth), and they were both 20+ years after the fact. Here's one that's less than 10 years removed, when the wounds of the victims were still pretty fresh and oozing, and it's flawed but TERRIBLY fascinating in that light. This page categorizes it as COMEDY, but I didn't detect any (intentional) laughs, except perhaps in the bizarre (and tacked-on-feeling) party sequence near the end featuring actual stand-ins for many major stars of the day. One suspects that Dix played a major role in bringing this story to the screen, and that it might have represented his own story (his thinly-fictionalized character fails to make the switch to talkies because of a mild drawl, and because, supposedly, Westerns are finished due to the inability to take the new technology outdoors). As I studied his filmography on this site, I'm seeing that he was never unemployed during that era, but that he DID go from making 5 or 6 films a year in the mid-'20s to 1 or 2 a year in the early thirties, so I guess that might have been a sufficient jolt to his lifestyle to embitter him a bit. REALLY interesting stuff, and Fay Wray is GORGEOUS and memorable (as always). Absolutely recommendable to any Hollywood history buff.