Pick a Star

In the past few weeks, I've reviewed a lot of work of one Rosina Lawrence. Who was she? Well, she was one of several pretty young women in Hollywood who managed to make it in the movies. When she ended up at Hal Roach Studios in 1936, she did quite some stuff there starting with a co-starring part in the Charley Chase short On the Wrong Trek. She then appeared in many Our Gang shorts as the new teacher, Miss Lawrence, to Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky, and Darla. Perhaps her most famous role there-aside from what I just cited-was as the leading lady in Laurel & Hardy's Way Out West playing Mary Roberts. That led to this, her starring role as an aspiring actress going to Hollywood with Jack Haley and Patsy Kelly in tow. The only reason this would still get circulation today, however, is because of a couple of comedians of the studio who were Hal's biggest stars and are considered iconic today. Of course, I'm referring to Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy who only appear in a couple of funny scenes and only briefly meet Ms. Lawrence here. I had first watched part of this on the "Matinee at the Bijou" TV program on public television back in 1980 when this movie was titled Moviestruck. I guess it was disappointing waiting for what seemed a long time to get to when Stan & Ollie were going to appear that I bailed before they came! Then I got the VHS tape of them with scenes of their movies in the public domain of which this was included with their two scenes. So then I bought the authorized M-G-M tape of the whole thing which I then watched in its entirety. I remembered being pleasantly surprised to see James Finlayson-sans his trademark prop mustache-as the director of the movie-within-a-movie of the boys playing Mexican bandits alongside another L & H player, Walter Long. Also amusing to see them relax their characters a bit to show Patsy Kelly their breakaway prop bottles before...well, watch the movie if you want to find out. When I watched it again, just now, on YouTube, most of what happened I barely remember but it was funny seeing Mischa Auer playing a romantic movie star who must always keep appearances of being a Latin lover. And the musical numbers are pretty good, if not spectacular. So on that note, Pick a Star is worth a look for L & H fans. P.S. Since I always like to cite whenever a player from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-appears, here it's Charles Halton-bank examiner Mr. Carter there-appearing as the studio head. Oh, and about what happened to Rosina Lawrence: After one more movie, she retired and married a man named Juvenal Marchisio who would eventually die in 1973. Then she met John McCabe, a chronicler of Laurel & Hardy and the founder of their fan club-The Sons of the Desert-whom she eventually married on June 8, 1987. She died on June 23, 1997.

Although the Hal Roach films were released by MGM and featured MGM prominently on the title screens, this was an independent studio...albeit a small one that specialized in comedy shorts up until the late 1930s. And, like bigger studios like MGM ("The Hollywood Revue of 1929") and Twentieth Century-Fox ("The Goldwyn Follies"), this smaller studio decided to make a star-studded musical comedy featuring their talent much like theirs in some faux 'behind the scenes' skits. But since they had lesser stars than the big studios, the best Roach could offer were Laurel & Hardy (a hot duo), Patsy Kelly & Lyda Roberti (a not so hot duo who also made shorts for the studio and here they don't play a team) as well as a few familiar character actors such as James Finlayson, Charlie Hall and Walter Long. The only major stars in the cast not usually associated with Hal Roach are Jack Haley and Mischa Auer.

The story begins with Cecelia (Rosina Lawrence) winning a talent show. However, the guy in charge, Mr. Stone, turns out to be a crook....and he just ran off with the proceeds. As a result, Cecelia cannot go to Hollywood like she planned. But the emcee, Joe (Jack Haley), feels partly responsible and he sells his business and heads to Hollywood to make money to bring Cecelia and her sister (Kelly) there as well. What follows is Cecelia's long journey towards stardom as well as a lot of distractions along the way...all the while, Joe's pretending he's made something of himself while he's just a lowly busboy.

So is this any good? After all "The Goldwyn Follies" was pretty terrible and "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" wasn't much better! Surprisingly, although I wouldn't consider "Pick a Star" a great film, it IS better than the big studio versions. Much of this is because the film has only a few cameos...whereas the other films had too many and they seemed to take the place of plot! This film, in contrast, seems to have more plot and less detours. Aside from an enjoyable couple of bits with Laurel & Hardy* and a quick appearance by Alfalfa Switzer, the film lacked these many cameos. Overall, a nice time-passer but not a film which will change your life in any way.

*If you do see "The Hollywood Revue of 1929", Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton are in this one. I guess since Hal Roach films were distributed by MGM they were loaned to MGM for this one.

This is your standard musical comedy from the '30's, with a big plus that it features some well known '30's actors in small fun cameo's.

There is not much to the story and basically the movie is all about its fun and 'no-worries' overall kind of atmosphere, with a typical Hal Roach comedy touch to it. Appereantly it's a 'Cinderella story' but I most certainly didn't thought of it that way while watching the movie. The story gets very muddled in into the storytelling, that features many different characters and also many small cameo appearance, when the main characters hit the Hollywood studios.

Of course the highlight of the movie is when Laurel & Hardy make their appearance and show some of their routines. It's like watching a movie and getting a Laurel & Hardy short with it for free. Also Laurel & Hardy regular Walter Long makes an appearance in the routine and James Finlayson (without a mustache this time) as the director of the short.

It's certainly true that all of the cameo's and subplots distract from the main plot line and character but in this case that is no problem, since its all way more fun and interesting to watch than the main plot line and the shallow typical main character.

The movie is most certainly not any worse than any of its other genre movies from the same time period, though the rating on here would suggest otherwise.

7/10

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Director Edward Sedgwick, an old hand at visual comedy, successfully leads this Hal Roach road show which tenders a fast-moving and adroit scenario and excellent casting, employing a large number of Roach's reliable performers. Although the film was originally plotted as a vehicle for Patsy Kelly, sunny Jack Haley stars as Joe Jenkins, a young Kansan who sells his auto repair business and journeys to Hollywood, where he attempts to wangle a screen role for the girl he loves, star-struck Cecilia (Rosina Lawrence). Sedgwick, who prefers using the entire M-G-M studio as his set, does so here as Cecilia, always ready for an audition, is treated by a would-be paramour, cinema star Rinaldo Lopez (Mischa Auer), to behind-the-scenes action of, naturally, a musical comedy, featuring Broadway headliner Lyda Roberti. Laurel and Hardy provide several enjoyable interludes, including their well-known skit involving a tiny harmonica, and we watch fine turns by such as Joyce Compton, Russell Hicks and Walter Long. On balance, one must hand the bays to Mischa Auer, who clearly steals the picture as an emotional movie star, a role which he largely creates, and to the director for his clever closing homage to Busby Berkeley's filmic spectacles.

I only really watched this movie to catch Laurel & Hardy and, to be honest, they and Mischa Auer as a randy movie star are the only things about this movie worth watching. Too bad that L&H's screen time amounts to little more than five minutes, and Auer has to play second fiddle to lesser talents like Patsy Kelly and Rosina Lawrence (whose final US movie this was before retiring to get married). Kelly is especially annoying at times as she seemingly labours under the misapprehension that if she SHOUTS HER LINES they're bound to be even funnier. Even Jack Haley, soon to be the Tin Man in THE WIZARD OF OZ, is unremarkable as a love-struck car mechanic who moves to Hollywood to win his sweetheart a screen test. The movie is only 70 minutes long but, until Stan & Ollie make their belated appearance, it seems a lot, lot longer.