Les travailleurs du chapeau

How revealing when Joan Crawford goes into her "drama queen" act and then admits she does that in all her movies. Or when Edward G. Robinson does his tough guy routine after persuading the studio guard to please let him act tough or they'll all be out of work. Good for a laugh. But it's also a little unsettling to see these super-stars as just ordinary folks, after all.

I gather (from TMC) the production was rushed through to meet certain obligations. If so, they did a cracker-jack job. Sure, the plot is about as shopworn as they come—provincial girl (Day) breaking into show business, helped (or hindered) by two fast-talking smoothies (Morgan & Carson). But it's done up with great bounce and energy. The youthful Day sparkles with the kind of winning luster that made her a movie star perennial. Carson mugs it up in amusing Carson fashion, while his buddy Morgan sings and looks handsome.

Then, of course, there are the star cameos from the Warners 1940's stable, including a "yup- ified" Gary Cooper sipping a malted through a straw, of all things. (Note how the famously boozy Hollywood suddenly prefers malts and ice cream to scotch and water—perhaps the movie's most amusing fiction.) Personally, though, I like Bill Goodwin's discombobulated producer best. His shtick with Day is a good running gag and I kept hoping he wouldn't get his glasses fixed.

Anyway, the movie's full of amusing bits cleverly woven together, including a behind-the- scenes look at the studio (to save time instead of building sets—TMC). In my book, it's the kind of pleasure that comes as a reward to old movie buffs and should not be missed.