Follow Thru (1930) User Reviews

Vintage Early Musical

[westegg · 8/10 · 12 August 2007]

A few corrections to the other comments...Busby Berkeley was already doing overhead shots the very same year in WHOOPEE. Also, Zelma O'Neal's number was "I Want to Be Bad," not "Turn Up the Heat," which was from 1929's SUNNY SIDE UP.

Anyway, this is an exceptional musical from the era which is inexplicably missing from view other than museum-type showings. Why can't TCM get a hold of it? The colors are well preserved, the cast is excellent, and it does have a wonderful sense of fun and charm. It really deserves to be rediscovered, as do so many other movies from this overlooked era.

Button Up Your Overcoat!

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 7/10 · 5 July 2005]

I viewed UCLA's restored print of this musical, an early example of two-strip Technicolor. Much of the action takes place on golf links and fairways, so I expected to see vibrant greens ... and I DID see some bright hues of green in the actress's costumes. But the foliage and fairways were strangely subdued. All of the flesh tones are very pink, and the women appear to be wearing too much rouge. All the man-made objects have got nice vibrant Easter Egg colours, though.

This is one of those candyfloss 1920s musicals where strangers instantly fall in love as soon as they clap eyes on each other. All the gals are man-hungry and randy with it, and the comedy lead (Jack Haley) is frightened of women. Haley's character has 'trick eyebrows' which force him to pull a face whenever he thinks about sex. There's plenty of innuendo here ... and lots and lots and lots of expository dialogue. I kept expecting someone to enter with a racquet while saying 'Tennis, anyone?' ... except that the action takes place at a golf course.

SPOILING ONE PUNCH LINE. For the comedy set piece, Haley and Eugene Palllette must infiltrate the women's changing room to retrieve a McGuffin. I expected them to go in disguised as women, but this movie fooled me: they go in disguised as plumbers, and then they get OUT disguised as women.

The male lead in this movie is former silent-film star Buddy Rogers, who once took the trouble to answer my questions when I briefly met him. It pains me to report that his singing voice is just tolerable, and he shows no skill with dialogue.

Surprisingly, this crude musical spawned one hit song: 'Button Up Your Overcoat', performed enthusiastically by Haley and Zelma O'Neal. A couple of the other songs have dull melodies enlivened by lyrics that just occasionally turn risqué. The choreography is wittier than I'd hoped, and one chorus number features a brief overhead shot ... several years before Busby Berkeley made this device his personal trademark.

Thelma Todd is quite good as the villain, in a role outside her usual range. The very English character actor Claude King is cast here as a stage Scotsman, lumbered with Harry Lauder's 'hoot mon' accent. Nancy Carroll is quite fetching in a mini-kilt.

I must disagree with IMDb reviewer Arne Andersen, who says that the character dubbed Dinty Moore in this movie is named for a famous restaurateur. That name originated with a *fictional* character in George McManus's comic strip 'Bringing Up Father'. Eventually, a restaurant was named after the comic-strip character ... but there never was a real person named Dinty Moore, just as there isn't a real person named Beefsteak Charlie.

'Follow Thru' is really more interesting as an historical artefact than as a musical, but I enjoyed it. I'll rate this early musical 7 out of 10.

Stagy and old fashioned...but also very well made for 1930 and fun if you give it a chance.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 29 May 2018]

Back when "Follow Thru" debuted, it must have been an incredibly prestigious film. After all, very, very few films were all-color productions and only a few others had color sequences buried within the picture. Yet, somehow, the studio scraped up the money to make this one color...albeit the old Two-Color Technicolor system...which looks pretty grotesque today. Part of it is that you never got true colors with the system...and everything tended to look orangy or greenish. But it's made worse because of nitrate stock degradation...and the print I saw on YouTube could use restoration.

Another shortcoming of the film is the sound. While the speaking sequences are just fine, the singing, at times, sound rather tinny...and it was obviously recorded using primitive sound technology. This is no one's fault...it's just that sound movies were a relatively new thing and compared to films from just a year or two later, "Follow Thru" has sound that could be better. This, by the way, is probably why the movie was made on a sound stage instead of outdoors (which you'd expect in a film set on a golf course)....getting good sound was not easier...and would have been MUCH harder to do outdoors.

The story finds Lora (Nancy Carroll) working hard to be a top golfer. She gets help from nice-guy, Jerry (Buddy Rogers) and the two fall in love. However, somehow Jerry is like catnip to the ladies and other women seem to want him as well...including Lora's nemesis! While all this is going on, Jerry's friend, Jack (Jack Haley) is there for comic relief and spends most of his time AVOIDING Angie...as he apparently doesn't like women.

Throughout the film are a variety of songs and a few song and dance numbers. Most of them are very pleasant and enjoyable. The ones I noticed most were the devil and angel dance numbers....you just have to see them to believe 'em!

Overall, this is a stagy old film...but an enjoyable one as well. Worth seeing...particularly if you love early talkies and don't mind that they lack the polish films Hollywood brought us just a year or two later.

Worth seeing for color and "I Wanna Be Bad"

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 10 September 2017]

The soft, dreamy early Technicolor (Nancy Carroll has the rosiest cheeks!), as well as some overhead camera angles at the golf course, make "Follow Thru" look like a more recent film than it is, and starting at the 54th minute there is a bizarre musical extravaganza, "I Wanna Be Bad", which, while no threat to Busby Berkeley, is quite imaginative. But the film goes on for 93 minutes although it has no story, and Jack Haley's comic shtick is dismally unfunny. **1/2 out of 4.

Charming

[fredf · 10/10 · 16 July 2000]

This film has no great meaning and no real point, but is one of them most charming films I have ever seen. Written in the mid 20's, made in 1929 and released in 30 it still has the flavor of the Roaring 20's. From a stage play, it contains musical numbers and crazy dance sequences that could be from no other era. The girls are pretty, and the guys are handsome. The comics are foolish and endearing. The whole cast is full of the kind of youthful daring and exuberance that can't be acted. It has a delightfully naughty 20's feel about it, especially in numbers like "Turn up the heat" that features chorus girls dressed (if you can call it that) as devils, and the 2 strip Technicolor gives the film an almost fairy tale quality.

Sadly it is unavailable (I saw it years ago at the UCLA restoration festival, but they show it again every once in a while). If you every get a chance to see, bring your girl/boyfriend; especially if you are young, in love and a little nuts.

The Boyfriend, of (golf) course...

[ptb-8 · 9/10 · 14 January 2011]

This dizzy delight is a Paramount musical made in the snazzy jazzy days of 1929 and filmed in delicious two strip Technicolor. How much do I just love this funny silly film? 9/10 funny.... and a complete wish come true to see the modern fashions and elite life of the flapper 20s. Very stagy in its tone and just like a dream come true for anyone who also loves WHOOPEE and other dawn of sound Technicolor talkies FOLLOW THRU remains a modern film today and especially because of the fashion style and use of color. Filmed outdoors at a real golf hacienda which would have cut down costs considerably allowing for expensive use of color and great clothing designs, FOLLOW THRU is the real jazz flapper 20s at it's most silly funny best. Zelma O'Neal is terrific and Buddy Rogers handsome boyfriend stuff, the drag sequence with Jack Haley and Eugene Palette is literally a howler... and dance numbers, especially I WANT TO BE BAD hold up well. FOLLOW THRU is a must for your DVD collection if the restored UCLA tech print is given a proper transfer. The masquerade party sequence is enough to make anyone swoon with glee. Add this to your art deco musical wish list along with THE BOYFRIEND and ROBERTA and WHOOPEE and GOOD MORNING EVE and AT LONG LAST LOVE (which shares an especially uncanny resemblance) and VOGUES OF 1938.

Nancy's Peaches and Cream Complexion, Red Hair and Green Eyes Made Her a Natural for Technicolor!!!!

[kidboots · 9/10 · 11 May 2011]

Less than a week after MGM programmer "Love in the Rough" opened another golf themed musical was released (advertised as "All Singie - Talkie - Dancie - Golfie"), although this one was far more prestigious. The all Technicolor "Follow Thru" was based on the Broadway hit of 1929 (401 performances) and paired Paramount's singing sweethearts - Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Nancy Carroll. Apart from the two stars, it followed it's stage roots with Jack Haley and Zelma O'Neal repeating their roles as the secondary comic couple and also a teen couple, Don Tomkins and Margaret Lee.

To me the movie is dazzling but reviewers weren't impressed as it came so late in the early musical cycle, at a time when the public was starting to keep away from musicals. Firstly, it was a complete shock how gorgeous Nancy Carroll looked in Technicolor. The colour was very harsh - all pinks and greens but even the garishness couldn't make Nancy look anything less than spectacular!!!

Lora Moore (Nancy Carroll) the champion golfer at the Mission Country Club is defeated at an important tournament by her arch rival Ruth Van Horn (Thelma Todd). She doesn't care - she has caught the eye of handsome golf pro Jerry Downs (Rogers) and begins to wonder if there is more to life than golf!! He is, unfortunately, just passing through so Lora persuades her bubbly friend Angie (Zelma O'Neal) to use her charms on his boss, girl shy Jack Martin (Jack Haley). Haley is the hit of the film, in my opinion, he is hilarious and has a "head twitch" that happens whenever he sees a girl he likes!! Anyway, Angie tries her best with the lively "Button Up Your Overcoat" (it left you wanting more!!) but it doesn't seem to work. Lora and Jerry do their courting to the beautiful "We'd Make a Peach of a Pair" - and they do!!! but wiley Ruth is determined to win Jerry away.

Babs and Dinty (the teen couple from the stage show) sing and dance an eccentric number "Then I'll Have Time for You" ("when I'm with my kid brother and they think I'm his mother!!!", "When my spirit is broken and I live in Hoboken - then I'll have time for you")!!! At the Masquerade Ball Lora looks very fetching in kilts but the night belongs to Angie as she performs the over the top fantasy number "I Want to Be Bad" - it rivals "Turn on the Heat" for sheer outrageousness. After Angie tells the little devils that "let a lady confess, I want to be bad", down come the angels, but their dancing is so hot they turn into devils and have to be hosed down by a celestial fire truck!!!

Ruth spreads stories about Jerry and Lora, upset, challenges her to a golf tournament but with all the agitation is completely off her game until Jerry takes charge at the last hole and orders her to "Follow Thru"!!!

As often happened with those "taken from Broadway" musicals, some of the original songs were ditched - among them was "You Wouldn't Fool Me, Would You?" that was a big hit for Annette Hanshaw. She sang it in a "Helen Kane" way and it is really cute. The big hit of the movie was one especially written for it. "A Peach of a Pair" was given top treatment by Nancy and Buddy and proved to be the song people were humming on their way home from the cinema.

Highly, Highly Recommended.

I was surprised that it was finally released on DVD

[cynthiahost · 9/10 · 30 December 2010]

I have had an long term obsession with this two strip Technicolor musical classic. I first saw a clip from it back in 1989 on Entertainment tonight when they were talking about the preservation film festival at u. c. l. a. Then in the first annual AMC preservation film festival, way before the movie channel went down hill , I had assumed the next festival they would show it. They never did. Back in the mid nineties , I had written MCA home video if they can take consideration of possibly releasing that picture or the vagabond king , 1930 version, on VHS home video and that there was an audience for either of these preserved two color classics. But I met with deaf ears. Mca is greedy and only serve the casual fans of classic films than us serious fans cause we are a minority although big. They only want to put out their so called best classics only for the fast buck. Thus they have neglect film history. Then all of a sudden I found on the internet that they had finally put it on DVD. I was surprised. It is the fully restored version a above board print. It figures MCA copy rights had ran out and did not bother to relicense cause they just don't think it would make quick fast buck. This gave opportunity for other small companies to distribute it . Since they focus on profit in the long run.It is presented non enhanced two color Technicolor. Now the problem is the pacing it shifts from being fast in some moments to slow. Actress Zelma Oneal, who was married to actor Warren Williams, playing Angie Howard, carries the whole picture unintentionally . She's fast pace and natural with her acting and she can sing. The rest of the actors. like Buddy rogers and Nancy Carol over acts a bit and can't sing. Thelma Todd over acts too and Jack Haley. But this was 1930 and the talkies were just here since 1929. It's still fun to watch. The problem is the director Lloyd Corrigan. He was a character actor and good at that . But as a director he was only fair. If they could have used Ernest Lubitsch , it could have been as fast paced as the Broadway version of it , which originally starred Elenor Powell and was her first Broadway success. Ever since she was a baby her father Matt more, played by Claude king, has been teaching his daughter Lorna, played by Nancy Carol, to be a champion golfer.In the mean time new golfing instructor, Jerry ,played by Charles Buddy Rodgers , and Friend and boss, Martin, played by Jack Haley, Who's father runs a department store chain. To start his work , Jerry, as a golf instructor. They come up at the time of a golf championship. Lorna , champion is battling against snotty wealthy widow and slutty Mrs van Horn, played by very funny but overacting Thelma Todd. Lorna's Brother Dinte Moore, played by possible actor who was in Broadway version, Don Tompkins, who's plays a caddy. He is in love with the Daughter of the head of the country club Martin Bascomb, played by Albert Gran, and who's mother is a social director,played by Kathryn Givney. Their daughter Babs,played by Margaret Lee.It seems that Jack. played by Jack Haley , lost his pinky ring. It seems at a party he had proposed to a girl, who was Angie, at a party, while he was drunk. An heir loom.As they observe the golf Lorna notices Jerry and jerry her,As Jack gets to know Angie and she gets to know him,He notices that she has the ring and that she was the girl he proposed to her . He tries to get the ring back by telling him he a friend of the guy he proposed to her. she resist. With the help of new golf club member J.C Efingham played by Eugene Pallete, who produces Girdles , Angie tries to get her man. In the mean time Jerry is hired to improve Lorna's swing and follow thru. They become romantic to each other. While Mrs van horn chases both Jerry and jack suggesting that they both are invited to her place on the weekend at pebbles beach. All the golf members are invited to Mrs Van horns costume party in Mexico at her new house. Jerry and Lorna meet near the radio again. Later on Mrs van horn undermines the love between Jerry and Lorna by telling her that he agrees to an invitation to her house. Lorna gets mad and gets drunk. The next day she tries to undermined them again and Lorna challenges her to another game. In the mean time Jacks father finds out that he was lying about taking the heir loom to the jewelers , to get it clean,and threatens him to cut him off unless he gets the ring back.So with the Help of J.C. they pretend to be plumber to go into the girls locker room and sneak that ring back when Angie taking a shower. They managed to get it with the girls thinking that the plumber gone. Angie gets suspicious but she is called for the tee. The boys end up leaving the locker room in drag when a bunch of women are coming back. Angie gets Jack to try to get Jerry back to help her since they are both mad at each other. Well he immediately helps Lorna and she wins the championship Jack and Angie decides to get married. Lorna and Jerry get back together . big music hits of the twenties like,Take good care of yourself ,"I want to be bad,"are a part of the movie. The DVDs are available at www.ecrater.com ebay www.loving theclassic.com DVD and VHS and www.ioffer.com

Fore!

[GManfred · 12 August 2015]

All reviewers seem to love this picture and I, too, tried to love it. The early Technicolor looked great and the whole production showed a lot of energy from all parties. True, several of them were in the Broadway musical and recreated their roles, chief among them were Jack Haley and Zelma O'Neal. I thought Haley hammed it up outrageously and was a grating presence much of the time. Zelma O'Neal, on the other hand, was terrific. She was energetic and showed a great deal of talent and overall ability; "Button Up Your Overcoat" belonged to her and Haley was just along for the ride.

Buddy Rogers was the nominal star and looked heavily made up for some reason and didn't give one of his better performances. Nancy Carroll, on the other hand, was in her element and didn't disappoint. But the story was over the top and grew tiresome despite the short running time of 92 minutes. I appreciate comic zaniness but I felt this one ladled it on with a trowel. Tragic comedienne Thelma Todd was on hand but was largely wasted and Eugene Palette was too old for his part. To top it all off, the music was ordinary, except for the "Button Up Your Overcoat" number.

As I said, I tried. Judging from the reception it got at Capitolfest in Rome,N.Y., I must have been the only wet blanket. "Follow Thru" is a Paramount picture, which could explain its absence from the public forum, as all early Paramount films are owned by Universal and are kept under lock and key.

Rare Total Color 1930 Movie, and on Women's Golf, Too

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 14 August 2022]

Rare in cinema is there a movie focusing on women's golf. Rarer still is an existing feature film made in 1930 produced totally in color. And with early microphones still evolving during the first couple of years of talkies, September 1930's "Follow Thru" was one of the few outdoor sound films to be made during that time.

"Follow Thru" was Paramount Picture's second completely color film movie, and it's the earliest such surviving motion picture today viewable by the general public. Adapted from the successful (401 performances) 1929 Broadway musical of the same name, "Follow Thru" delivered an ofttimes saucy look at women's golf along with the men in those golfers' lives.

Movies shot in Technicolor and other competing companies' color film stock systems were fairly popular when musicals were introduced in the early stages of synchronized sound. The devastating toll of improper storage as well as a series of fires inside studio film warehouse facilities have erased most of those early color movies or at least large segments of them. "Follow Thru" was an anomaly in cinema where a print was preserved in a pristine state. The Technicolor used by Paramount was its third process, two strip system offered at the time. Blues and yellows were muted, but Technicolor was more focused on achieving realistic flesh tones than anything else. It would be a couple more years before Technicolor came out with the more realistic three strip process.

Capturing audio outdoors, especially the actors' dialogue, was also an extraordinary feat for Hollywood during this time. There are several noticeable sequences, especially during the golf competition, where the actors delivered their dialogue in a studio sound booth. The editors then looped, or dubbed, their voices during post-production onto the shot film strip's audio track. In other scenes, blimps, a fairly new innovation of padded sleeves wrapped around the camera to muffle its noisy motors, kept the area quiet while audio was being recorded.

"Follow Thru" focuses on a country club's best woman's golfer, Lora Moore (Nancy Carroll), who loses to her opponent at another country club. Looking to improve her game, she meets golf pro Jerry Downs (Charles "Buddy" Rogers). He teaches her a few lessons, including how to love. Jerry's friend, Jack (Jack Haley), a wacky but lovable Teddy Bear-type guy, falls for Lora's friend Angie Howard (Zelma O'Neal). Both Haley and O'Neal were in the Broadway play and marked their second film appearance in "Follow Thru." Boston born and raised Haley is known to today's viewers for his portrayal of the Tin Man in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz."

Nancy Carroll is a prime example of how a very popular and an acknowledged talented actress could sabotage her career by being difficult on the set. Carroll's musical skills on the stage resulted in receiving several movie roles at the dawn of talking pictures. From 1927 until the mid-1930s, Carroll was one of the more active actresses for Paramount. But she constantly complained at the type of characters she was forced to play, and was quite vocal to management and the directors on the movie sets about it. She was such an irritant that, despite her enormous box office appeal, Paramount released her. She received some minor parts in low budget films after that before returning to the stage.

"Follow Thru" was produced during the so-called "Pre-Code" era, where the censors took a more relaxed view of movie situations than later. The scene where voyeurs Haley and Eugene Paulette are hiding above the women's lockers in the club house dressing room would never pass the more restrictive censor board from 1934 onwards. The scene has been pointed out by many viewers as one of the highlights of the film. Says reviewer Nora Fiore, "consider the sequence where Haley and scene-stealing Eugene Pallette sneak into a locker room full of lingerie-clad ladies with the intention of retrieving a ring. After many shocking revelations for girl-shy Haley, the pair sneak out wearing ladies' clothes. And, believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen Eugene Pallette in a striped day dress."