Starring Marion Davies, Bing Crosby, Fifi D'Orsay, and Patsy Kelly
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Music by Nacio Herb Brown; Lyrics by Arthur Freed
Of course, not every story about Hollywood ends with show-must-go-on heartache and tears. For over a hundred years, Hollywood, California has mainly been a place of adventure and dreams, where a little teacher from the hinterlands can wind up a star in pictures when she was really following the man of her dreams. Marion Davies was a talented mimic and comedienne, but her sponsor and lover William Randolph Hearst was determined to shover her into whatever type of film was popular at the moment...and in 1933, that was Busby Berkley-style backstage musicals. How well did he succeed? Let's start at a private school for girls in New York, where French teacher Sylvia Bruce (Davies) dreams of falling in love, and find out...
The Story: Sylvia's real interest is in handsome crooner Bill Williams (Crosby), whom she fell in love with the moment she heard him sing on the radio. She's so smitten, she follows him cross-country to Hollywood on the same train, and even briefly becomes a maid for his French fiancée Lili (D'Orsay). Lili is supposed to be starring in Independent Art's next big musical, but she's temperamental and not really much of a performer. Lili and Sylvia cat fight when Lili overhears her rival doing a dead-on impersonation of her. After that, producer Ernest Pratt Baker (Stuart Erwin) gives her Lili's role. Bill's starting to fall for her, too, but he's moving a little too fast for Sylvia and ends up leaving for Fifi. Now it looks like Sylvia may be ready to really go Hollywood...but maybe not for the advances of her leading man.
The Song and Dance: Marion Davies may have top billing, but Bing's the one you'll remember. He sings most of the songs, including two of Brown and Freed's bigger hits, "After Sundown" and "Temptation." Even at this early point in his career, he's relaxed and charming, even projecting a little hint of danger. MGM's shiny production values shows with huge sets depicting Grand Central Station and a major movie studio, huge ruffled gowns for Davies and feathered ones for D'Orsay, and some large-scale production numbers.
Favorite Number: The song that makes Sylvia to fall for Bill is "Our Big Love Scene," which we hear her listen to on the radio in the girls' dormitory. Considering Bing's sexy and vibrant performance of that song, you really can't blame her for falling for a voice. The title song covers the move crew leaving for LA, as Bing sings to everyone that he's "Going Hollywood" and they all do some nifty choreography on the massive Grand Central Station set. He performs "Beautiful Girl" at a radio station in the morning while half-dressed and shaved.
"We'll Make Hay While the Sun Shines" is Sylvia's dream sequence midway through the film, as she imagines herself and Bill riding through a bucolic country setting, with farmers tossing their daughters in hay and bizarre scarecrows dancing. Bing sings "Temptation" while getting increasingly drunk after Lili leaves him and he's walked out on the studio. The song has some fairly absurd lyrics, but Bing's slightly menacing take helps put it over. "Our Big Love Scene" turns up again in the finale, as Davies, clad in fur and silk, is to perform for the cameras...but is really missing her Bill...
What I Don't Like: Davies comes off as stiff and dull in her own vehicle. No matter what Hearst wanted or believed, she was never comfortable in musicals. She wakes up when called on to do her genuinely funny imitation of D'Orsay and in a few scattered moments played for comedy, but she's hardly Ruby Keeler. Her dancing mainly consists of her watching her feet, and her singing is good but not great.
The movie is one huge cliché, and nothing you haven't seen in backstagers from The Broadway Melody to Dreamgirls. Patsy Kelly does get some good lines as Sylvia's best friend who offers her a room in her boarding house, but Erwin and Ned Sparks as a frustrated director have very little to play.
The Big Finale: This one is mainly for fans of Crosby, Davies, or the big 1930's backstage films. All others are advised to look up the dance routines and "Temptation" and skip the rest.
Home Media: On DVD from the Warner Archives; can be found streaming at HBO Max with a subscription.
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