It Happened in Hollywood

Richard Dix stars as Tim Bart, a real-life cowboy who becomes a big silent western star who is particularly loved and idolized by children. Then the talkies come along and the fact that cameras must be static and locked down in soundproof booths at the dawn of sound makes it impossible for westerns to be made for a couple of years.

Bart is blind-sided by the sudden change and initially is given a screen test in the romantic scene of a modern dress drawing room drama wearing formal attire and given ridiculous flowery dialogue to recite. Being completely unaccustomed to dialogue at all, he flunks his screen test and is dismissed from the studio. The rest of the film has to do with how he handles being made obsolete overnight by these technological advances and changing tastes.

This is different from most other films on the subject of big stars being "washed up" because Dix's Bart has such a positive outlook and a generous spirit. He always figures he'll get by, and so there is no bitterness or turning to drink or any other such tropes that you find in the riches to rags stories of forgotten stars. Only when someone else who he cares about needs cash urgently does he even think about making a wrong turn.

Dix's powerful, vivid performance seems inspired by his own image and also knits fact and fiction together for a spot-on replication of many silent movie actors and Western talkie movie actors of that era. An inspired party scene, where doppelgangers for Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Mae West, Great Garbo, Joan Crawford, and other actors mingle with real-life prominent characters actors creates an eerie mirror image of Hollywood.

I will note that Dix didn't have any such experience in Hollywood even though he was a silent actor for quite a few years before the dawn of sound. Dix was already a "modern dress" actor during the silent era, so not much changed for him. He actually first did more westerns after the movies could begin filming outdoors again, in the early 30s.

This was a real surprise and is a fun film especially for anybody who is interested in this transitional period in filmmaking.

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.

I have to say that I have always been interested in the period this film is set in: Hollywood 1928. Hollywood's transition to sound (1927-1932) has been a source of fascination with me. I have done a lot of research on the period and seen a pretty good number of films from that time.

I say this because from my research this film is done very accurately and gives you a real feel for what it must have been like while American films where having a nervous breakdown adjusting to sound movies.

It Happened In Hollywood is just chocked full of inside jokes, authentic early sound technical objects, and realistic dialog. It really does not have the look and feel of any other film made in the 1937 time period. One clue might be that a young Sam Fuller is one of the writers.

It is reasonable to assume that many of the folks who were around in the late 20's and early 30's remembered that period and were able to imbue the production with a realism that would not be possible years later.

If you watch closely you will see the original early sound microphones that were about the size of an artillery shell. We also see the famous "iceboxes" that enclosed the early sound cameras and their operators to keep the camera noise from being recorded. Later on we see one of the early home-made blimps that were hastily designed for the same purpose for shooting outdoors. Early sound films were clunky to say the least.

Franklin Pangborn is very funny as the elocution expert imported from the New York stage to teach actors how to "speak" for the movies. This actually happened all over Hollywood during that time.

RIchard Dix's career was beginning to wane at the time this was made. And he played a cowboy a number of times. He managed to make the transition from silents to sound and had some popularity during the thirties, but his parts had begun to get smaller and smaller. Today hardly anyone knows the name. Talk about life imitating art! Very interesting and worth your time, even if you are not a student of early sound films.

Keeping in mind that this, of course, is my own, personal opinion - I think that (unless someone has the blackest heart) It Happened In Hollywood (IHIH, for short) is one of those rare, old films that (even though its story is a tad corny and clichéd) is literally impossible to dislike.

Mind you, I'd say that this 1937 picture is probably best suited for an audience much younger than myself. But still, its good-heartedness and overall appeal makes it a solid 67 minutes of first-rate entertainment, regardless of one's age.

IHIH stars Richard Dix, as Tim Bart, and Fay Wray, as Gloria Gay. Both very competent and attractive-looking Hollywood actors, these 2 were very convincing in their subsequent roles.

The year is 1928 and Tim Bart is a vastly popular, silent-era Cowboy-hero who is completely adored by the youngsters who faithfully flock to his movies. Gloria Gay is forever the damsel-in-distress who is always being rescued from the evil clutches of the story's villain by Bart.

With the coming of sound pictures, Bart's studio, Perfect Pictures, take away Bart's horse and badge and try to re-mold him into a suave leading man in romantic dramas.

But Bart just can't seem to make the transition and so he is dropped by Perfect Pictures and, at this point, he becomes a down-on-his-luck has-been.

Of course, what's in store for Tim Bart turns out to be a very delightful surprise for one and all.

This picture is actually quite an intriguing study of the Tim Bart character.

One of this film's highlights is a huge, outdoor, Hollywood party that is merrily attended by numerous celebrity lookalikes.

Directed by Harry Lachman, I certainly have no qualms about recommending this movie to anyone who can appreciate early, sound pictures.

"It Happened in Hollywood" (1937)is a frothy little comedy with a brilliant gimmick. The star of the film is Richard Dix, a rugged actor who usually played two-fisted action roles but occasionally gave excellent performances in romantic comedies. It won't spoil your fun if I tell you the gimmick. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars of the time (1937) make brief appearances in this film, including Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, James Cagney, W.C. Fields ... plus Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, who hadn't officially retired from acting yet. Now here's the gimmick: all of those big stars are played in this film by THEIR OWN STAND-INS, the wanna-be actors and actresses who (unlike most actors) had full-time employment in the Hollywood studios, but who only kept working by copying the physical appearance of a better-known actor (or actress) and following that actor from one film role to the next. (Stand-ins, unlike stunt doubles, almost never appear onscreen: their chief job is to stand in for the "real" actor during time-consuming lighting set-ups, wearing a duplicate of that actor's costume. Stand-ins are required to maintain the same build, hairstyle and complexion as the person whom they're imitating, which limits their ability to get acting jobs in their own right.)

So, in "It Happened in Hollywood" we meet Bing Crosby, played by an obscure lookalike actor whose real-life job was to stand in for the genuine Bing during all of Crosby's films. John Barrymore (Drew's grandfather) is played here by Barrymore's full-time double. Victor McLaglen is played by his own brother, who was his real-life stand-in. Marlene Dietrich and Garbo are played by their own stand-ins: real-life sisters named Dietrich (no relation to Marlene).

This gimmick wouldn't work nowadays, because movie stars no longer have long-term relationships with a single movie studio; consequently, they use a different stand-in for each film, and they don't maintain ongoing working relationships with a particular lookalike.

I'll rate "It Happened in Hollywood" 4 out of 10.