Going Hollywood

Last updated

Going Hollywood
Goinghollywood.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart
Story by Frances Marion
Produced by Walter Wanger
Starring
Cinematography George J. Folsey
Edited by Frank Sullivan
Music by Lennie Hayton
Production
companies
Distributed by Loew's Inc.
Release date
December 22, 1933 (1933-12-22TUSA)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$914,000 [1]
Box office$962,000 [1]

Going Hollywood is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Marion Davies and Bing Crosby. It was written by Donald Ogden Stewart and based on a story by Frances Marion. Going Hollywood was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 22, 1933.

Contents

Plot

The film tells how an infatuated school-teacher, Sylvia Bruce (Marion Davies), follows Bill Williams (Bing Crosby), a popular crooner, to Hollywood where he is to make a picture. On board the train she obtains a job as maid to Bill's French fiancée and leading lady, Lili Yvonne (Fifi D'Orsay), and meets the film's director, Conroy (Ned Sparks), and promoter, Baker (Stuart Erwin). On arrival in Hollywood she is befriended by Jill (Patsy Kelly) and shares her rooms.

At the Independent Art Studio in Hollywood, where the film is being made, Lili's temperament and lack of talent cause Conroy much concern. Eventually, after losing her temper with a blackfaced Sylvia who pretends to be a fan asking for another star’s autograph, Lili refuses to continue unless Sylvia is removed from the Studio. She is persuaded to stay and production continues with her singing 'Cinderella's Fella' but Conroy is still not satisfied and an angry Lili walks out. Sylvia impersonates Lili's version of the song and ends with an imitation of Lili's tantrums. Lili returns in time to hear Sylvia and there is a brawl in which Lili gets a black eye. Baker, who has also heard Sylvia, intervenes by firing Lili and engaging Sylvia for the part.

Baker asks Sylvia to accompany him to a party but withdraws when Bill expresses his own interest in her. Bill takes Sylvia to dinner and the party but a quarrel ensues and she accuses him of insincerity. Bill deserts the film and goes with Lili to Tijuana where, drinking heavily, he receives a telephone call from the Studio with the ultimatum that if he does not return they will get a replacement. Lili advises him to let them do so and suggests that they fly together to New York and on to Paris. Sylvia finds him and pleads for him to come back to the Studio but returns without him.

In Hollywood there is difficulty with the player chosen to replace Bill and eventually Bill finally appears at the Studio to rejoin Sylvia in the film's closing sequence to sing 'Our Big Love Scene'.

The song 'Beautiful Girl' is sung by Crosby at the beginning of the film before his departure for Hollywood when technicians arrive to record it. When he boards the train at Grand Central Terminal there is a big production number where he and the chorus sing 'Going Hollywood'. He also sings a few lines of 'Just an Echo in the Valley'. Crosby is also heard singing 'Our Big Love Scene' on the radio when Jill is showing Sylvia her apartment. 'We'll Make Hay While the Sun Shines' is a dream-sequence production number with thunderstorm effects at the Studio and is featured by Crosby, Marion Davies, chorus and dancers. An impersonation act by The Radio Rogues is also filmed at the Studio and includes imitations of Kate Smith ('When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain'). Russ Columbo ('You Call It Madness But I Call It Love'), Morton Downey ('Remember Me?') and Rudy Vallee ('My Dime Is Your Dime'). Crosby sings 'After Sundown' at the party. 'Temptation' was an early film attempt to fit a song into the story pattern and was presented dramatically by Crosby whilst drinking absinth in a bar at Tijuana. [2] [3]

Cast

Soundtrack

Crosby recorded some of the songs for Brunswick Records [4] and "Temptation", "We'll Make Hay While the Sun Shines" and "Beautiful Girl" reached the charts of the day peaking at Nos. 3, 8 and 11 respectively. [5]

Production

David Ogden Stewart wrote the film for Marion Davies who he called "an awfully good comedienne" and he felt she and Bing Crosby "did a very good job together. She had a real hoydenish, don’t-give-a-damn feeling about her, and it came across on the screen. She was a good mimic, and she loved to make fun of people; but mainly she loved to have fun." [6]

Release

Going Hollywood was released on home video in May 1993. [7] Warner released it on DVD in July 2013. [8]

Reception

The New York Times welcomed the film. "Blended properly with the holiday humors, Going Hollywood has enough basic liveliness to produce a sprightly and jocular mood at the Capitol. The overwhelming magnitude of the latter-day musical picture is gratefully absent from this one. It is warm, modest and good-humored. Bing Crosby has a manner and a voice, both pleasant, and the songs that Nacio Brown and Arthur Freed provide have a tinkle and a lilt. From the competent routine sentiments of “Our Big Love Scene” and the pleasing little pastoral lyric “We’ll Make Love When It Rains” they range down to that brooding song which Mr. Crosby, loaded with whisky and sorrow, sings across a Mexican bar while the glamorous Miss Davies is far away. [9]
Variety's reaction was mixed as they commented: "Pretentious musical with class in every department but one. It has names, girls and good music, but its story is weak from hunger and the script will prevent a big click. Fair is its rating...Marion Davies is starred and Bing Crosby featured, but Crosby will draw the bulk of what this one gets. Other assets are the music, the fact that it’s good, and that it has girls and plenty of them . . . From start to finish Crosby is constantly singing. It must be good singing because it doesn’t get tiresome, despite that it's laid on so heavy. . . . At least three songs in the generally excellent score, as played by Lennie Hayton’s orchestra, sound promising. With Crosby there to sing ‘em the songs get a break, too. [10]

TV Guide called it "fluffy fun" with a "literate and amusing screenplay". [11] A reviewer on Turner Classic Movies praised Crosby's singing and said that his voice never falters. [12] Jamie S. Rich of DVD Talk rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "Going Hollywood is almost the perfect Hollywood movie musical cliché." [8]

Box office

The film grossed a total (domestic and foreign) of $962,000: $620,000 from the U.S. and $342,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss of $269,000. [1]

Radio adaptation

Going Hollywood was presented on Musical Comedy Theater December 10, 1952. The one-hour adaptation starred Denise Darcel, Andy Russell, and Mary McCarty. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1933 in music</span> Overview of the events of 1933 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fifi D'Orsay</span> Canadian-American actress (1904–1983)

Fifi D'Orsay was a Canadian-American actress and singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nacio Herb Brown</span> American songwriter (1896-1964)

Ignacio Herbert "Nacio Herb" Brown was an American writer of popular songs, movie scores and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s. Amongst his most enduring work is the score for the 1952 musical film Singin' in the Rain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crooner</span> Type of singer

A crooner is a singer that performs with a smooth, intimate style that originated in the 1920s. The style was made possible by better microphones which picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to access a more dynamic range. It is derived from the old verb "to croon". This suggestion of intimacy was supposedly wildly attractive to women, especially younger ones such as teenage girls, known at the time as "bobby soxers". The crooning style developed out of singers who performed with big bands, and reached its height in the 1940s to late 60s.

"Temptation" is a popular song published in 1933, with music written by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed.

<i>Thats Entertainment, Part II</i> 1976 film directedby Gene Kelly

That's Entertainment, Part II is a 1976 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a sequel to That's Entertainment! (1974). Like the previous film, That's Entertainment, Part II was a retrospective of famous films released by MGM from the 1930s to the 1950s. Some posters for the film use Part 2 rather than Part II in the title.

<i>Untamed</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Untamed is a 1929 American pre-Code Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romantic-drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Ernest Torrence, Holmes Herbert, Gwen Lee, and Lloyd Ingraham. The script was adapted by Sylvia Thalberg and Frank Butler, with dialogue by Willard Mack, from a story by Charles E. Scoggins.

Riding High is a 1950 black-and-white musical racetrack film featuring Bing Crosby and directed by Frank Capra. The songs were performed live during filming instead of the customary lip-synching to studio recordings. The film is a remake of an earlier Capra film with screenwriter Robert Riskin titled Broadway Bill (1934). While the film is generally a light musical comedy, its plot contains an unexpected tragic turn.

<i>Double or Nothing</i> (1937 film) 1937 musical comedy film

Double or Nothing is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Theodore Reed and starring Bing Crosby, Martha Raye, Andy Devine, Mary Carlisle and William Frawley. Based on a story by M. Coates Webster, the film is about a dying millionaire who instructs his lawyer to drop four purses on the streets of New York City, which are found and returned by four honest people. According to the will, each of them is given five thousand dollars, which they must double within thirty days in order to claim one million dollars. Greedy relatives, who were cut from the will, try to thwart each one's plans. The film features the popular song "The Moon Got in My Eyes".

"(You'd Be So) Easy to Love" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for William Gaxton to sing in the 1934 Broadway show Anything Goes. However Gaxton was unhappy about its wide vocal range and it was cut from the musical. Porter re-wrote it for the 1936 film Born to Dance, where it was introduced by Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, and Frances Langford under its alternate title, "Easy to Love". The song was later added to the 1987 and 2011 revivals of Anything Goes under the complete title "You’d Be So Easy to Love".

"You Were Meant for Me" is a popular American song with music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed, published in 1929.

<i>Lord Byron of Broadway</i> 1930 film

Lord Byron of Broadway (1930), also known as What Price Melody?, is an American Pre-Code musical drama film, directed by Harry Beaumont and William Nigh. It was based on a best selling book by Nell Martin, which "was widely praised by critics as an extremely true and amusing romance of stage life." It was filmed in black and white with two-color Technicolor sequences.

"Paradise" is a 1931 song with music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Gordon Clifford. It was first sung by Pola Negri in RKO Pictures' 1932 film A Woman Commands, and has since been heard in many other films, including a memorable performance by Gloria Grahame, in the 1949 Nicholas Ray film A Woman's Secret.

<i>Say One for Me</i> 1959 film by Frank Tashlin

Say One For Me is a 1959 American comedy musical film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner. Say One for Me was listed in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. Stella Stevens made her film debut in Say One for Me and received the Golden Globe Award in 1960 for New Star of the Year-Actress for this film.

<i>Sinatra: Soundtrack to the CBS Mini-Series</i> 1992 compilation album by Frank Sinatra

Sinatra: Soundtrack To The CBS Mini-Series is a 1992 double disc compilation album by American singer Frank Sinatra.

<i>One for the Boys</i> (Connie Francis album) 2023 studio album by Connie Francis

One for the Boys is a studio album recorded by American entertainer Connie Francis in 1959. It remained unreleased until 14 April 2023 when it was available for streaming on iTunes.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1934.

Gordon Clifford was an American lyricist who wrote music for Hollywood films in the 1930s. His best-known songs include Nacio Herb Brown's "Paradise", Alfred Newman's "Who Am I?" and Harry Barris's "It Must Be True" and "I Surrender Dear".

<i>Marianne</i> (1929 musical film) 1929 American romantic musical drama film

Marianne is a 1929 pre-Code romantic-musical film set at the end of World War I. Marianne is French farm girl who, although her French fiancé is away, fighting, falls in love with an American soldier. It is a remake of a silent film that was released earlier in 1929. Although the films feature mostly different casts, Marion Davies starred in both versions. This was Davies' first released talking movie. The pictures were released less than eleven years after the Armistice, and the title would have had a profound meaning for European audiences. “Marianne” has been a beloved personification of France and the battle for democracy—and the courage of French women in particular—since the Revolution. She was a key figure in French propaganda, and American men who served in Europe in 1917-1918 would have seen representations of her all around them, in public buildings, on posters and in newspapers, on coins and postage stamps.

"Beautiful Girl" is a song with music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed, first published in 1933. It was originally written for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Stage Mother (1933) and appeared the same year in another MGM production – Going Hollywood (1933), where it was sung by Bing Crosby, whose rendition charted in the US at number 11 for 3 weeks.

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Reynolds, Fred (1986). Road to Hollywood. Gateshead, UK: John Joyce. pp. 57–58.
  3. ↑ Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN   0-634-00765-3 page 29
  4. ↑ "A Bing Crosby Discography". A Bing Crosby Discography. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  5. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954 . Wisconsin, USA: Record Research Inc. p.  104. ISBN   0-89820-083-0.
  6. ↑ Eyles, Allen; Gillet, John (1986). "David Ogden Stewart: Politically Conscious". In McGilligan, Patrick (ed.). Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age. p. 339.
  7. ↑ Nichols, Peter M. (May 27, 1993). "Home Video". The New York Times . Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Rich, Jamie S. (September 14, 2013). "Going Hollywood". DVD Talk . Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  9. ↑ "The New York Times". The New York Times. December 23, 1933.
  10. ↑ "Variety". Variety. December 26, 1933.
  11. ↑ "Going Hollywood". TV Guide . Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Going Hollywood". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  13. ↑ Kirby, Walter (December 7, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 52. Retrieved June 14, 2015– via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.