Monsieur Dodd part pour Hollywood

This is a satire on big business types who let a perfectly viable business (in this case, a film studio) fail for their own profit, leaving all the "little people" in the lurch. The words "capital" and "labor" even get bandied around! A few years ago modern viewers might have found this boring, but with today's economy, people may find that they can relate to it better than they expected! Besides that, it's an interesting "behind the camera" look at Hollywood, 1930s style.

Leslie Howard is great as the sheltered accountant who comes to Hollywood to see what's up with his bank's film studio, Joan Blondell is also great in her usual breezy, funny style as the former child star now working as a stand-in for a famous actress. There's also a youngish Humphrey Bogart as a film producer. I really wonder if Howard and Blondell did those ju-jitsu throws themselves, and if those outdoor scenes really were shot in downtown Los Angeles! Quite funny and definitely recommended!

Tay Garnett had a flair for comedy, and he proves it again with this film, "Stand-In" from 1937, starring Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell, and Humphrey Bogart. Howard plays businesslike accountant Atterbury Dodd, who comes out to Hollywood to find out what the problem is with Collosal Studios, which the owner wants to sell. The studio isn't making money, and it should be. When Dodd gets out to LA, he meets stand in Lester Plum (Blondell), a former child star who falls for him. Of course, he's completely unaware of anything on a personal level and she is constantly thwarted. He's only in Hollywood to find out why the movie factory is losing money.

Dodd learns that a director, Koslofski, is making a jungle movie, Sex and Satan starring a star on the wane, Thelma Cheri. Doug Quintain, who heads up the studio, is in love with her in spite of himself. It turns out there's not only amazing waste and pilfering going on at the studio, but a plot is afoot to make the studio lose money so it is ripe for purchase by an unscrupulous businessman who eats up small studios. This will put everyone at the studio out of work. Can Dodd save the day?

Howard is great as Dodd, a man with few social skills and a mathematical mind. Blondell is adorable as Lester, who started life as a Shirley Temple wannabee and now is a stand in. Bogart gives his usual fine performance as the harried producer who has everything hanging on a film where the ape has proved to be more popular than the star.

Very good movie. Tay Garnett did "Love is News," another delightful comedy, available on the Tyrone Power Matinée Idol Collection. In a tribute to Power in 2008, "Love is News" was the hit of the three-day tribute. Garnett's work is worth checking out.

A snappy, very funny spoof of the studio system by Tay Garnett, starring Leslie Howard as a rigid, conservative accountant who manages to take over a failing movie studio; Joan Blondell plays Howard's confidant and partner, a former child star now working as a stand-in for an overrated glamour queen Marla Shelton. Humphrey Bogart turns in a likable supporting role as the mean movie producer. Admittedly, some of the stuff are a bit weary and tiresome, but the camaraderie between Howard and Blondell and the brief spoof on Shirley Temple are enough to make "Stand-In" thoroughly enjoyable.

Atterbury Dodd is opposed to his New York banker bosses selling off Colossal Studios for only half of what he thinks its worth. Being the first person ever to stand up to the big boss he's sent off to see whats going on with the seemingly failing studio. Once there he finds that the buyer is manipulating the latest Colossal movie into being a turkey so he can buy the studio cheap and turn a profit when he closes it down. Dodd also runs into Miss Plum who will soon becomes Dodd's guide through the madness of film making.

Much of the film is concerned with Dodd dealing with the insanity of film studios while not realizing that he's falling in love with Miss Plum. The last third of the film concerns efforts to turn save the studio and the film.

This is really a Leslie Howard movie. Howard and Joan Blondell, as Miss Plum are a wonderful screen couple and one wishes there was even more time of them together. Although Humphrey Bogart is listed third he's in maybe 20 minutes of this often funny film. He is wonderful in a the role of the previous studio head and producer of the turkey in the making.

The film is filled with funny lines and fleeting appearances, Charles Middleton is a scream; as is a stuntman who refuses to do his stunt for money. This is a funny funny movie especially if you love old movies.

The problem is that the film is at times unfocused. Is it a comedy? A Romance? The sequences with the villain seem to be from another movie. I question why some of the characters are allowed to be so annoying, Potts, the publicity man in particular, is the screen version of fingernails on a blackboard. I'm sure there were people like that in Hollywood, but I never want to meet them.

I also have a problem with the ending which ends too soon for my tastes.

Still this is 90 minutes of great fun, especially if you love old films.

Worth seeking out, possibly even buying.

7 out of 10 with spikes of truly wonderful moments (Going under the table for one)

When a Hollywood studio called ¨Colossal Productions¨ is threatened with bankruptcy , the bank sends a shy efficiency expert (Leslie Howard) to save it from financial ruin . A former child star (interestingly cast Joan Blondell) falls in love with the stuffy as well as head-in-the-books accountant , who wants to learn why his firm's movie studio is losing money . Meantime , there appears Bogart playing a drunken filmmaker in love with star Shelton . Soon Leslie discovers there's a scheme to sabotage ¨Colossal¨ and sell it to the unscrupulous Ivor Nassau (effective Henry Gordon). While , the studio is shooting a failed film titled ¨Sex and Satan¨ starred by Cheri (Marla Shelton) .

A high-grade as well as amusing comedy on Hollywood low-life filled with laughs , fun happenings , sentiment and funny events . This is an intelligently made picture blend of satire , humor and farce . The main actors play such an amusingly made movie that spectators will appeal too much . Nice acting by Leslie Howard as a hard-working , timid and stiff accountant expert on mathematics . Humphrey Bogart is well cast in his first comedy role playing a drunk producer at a quite amazing character . This is an absolute gift for fans of Howard and Bogart to watch them step outside their ordinary genres . Special mention to delicious Joan Blondell as likable and fiery stand-in actress called Lester Plum ; she bares some resemblance Marie Osborne, a child actress in the silent era who returned to the film industry in the 1930's as an extra and stand-in . Good support cast such as Alan Mowbray , Marla Shelton , Henry Gordon , Jack Carson and uncredited Charles Middleton . The former silent film star in the boarding house , desperate for a small role in a film, is played by Mary MacLaren, a former leading lady of the silent film era who, by the time this film was made, was working as an extra . Atmospheric musical score by Heinz Roemheld . Adequate and evocative cinematography by Charles Clarke .

This lavishly and highly budgeted motion picture was well produced by Walter Wanger , being professionally directed by Tay Garnett , a good Hollywood craftsman . Tay entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter . After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company . Garnett garnered some attention in the early 1930s with such films as Bad company (1931) and Way Passage (1932) , but his best work came in the mid-'30s and early 1940s with such films as S.O.S. Iceberg (1933) , China seas (1935), Slave Ship (1937) and Trade Winds (1938) . His best known film would have to the John Garfield/Lana Turner vehicle : The postman always rings twice (1946), although his version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) was a well-deserved critical and commercial success as well . Other successes were the followings : Bataan (1943) , The cross of Lorraine (1943) , Soldiers Three (151) , The Black Knight (1953) , and , of course , this ¨Stand-in¨ , among others . As ¨Stand-in¨results to be a treat for Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard enthusiasts .