Stand-In

This film is enjoyable to watch mostly because of the performances of Tully Marshall and Leslie Howard. While Marshall is in a smaller role, it's hilarious seeing him playing the old and nasty guy who is the head of a mega-corporation--and the way his son and grandson react to him. Marshall has never been funnier--and the same can also be said for Howard. Howard is in his element playing a very stuffy but funny guy--one of his best.

The film begins at a meeting of the board. Marshall learns that his corporation owns a failing movie studio and he's not sure whether they should sell it or keep it--so he dispatches Howard to investigate and makes him the temporary head of the studio. Soon, however, it becomes obvious that Howard is ill-prepared for this job. Although he's great with economics and figures, he doesn't know people. Many of his employees run all over him and he barely notices that one of them (Joan Blondell) is infatuated with him. Can he somehow work all this out or will the studio be sold to the highest bidder?

The film has some nice supporting actors. In addition to Marshall and Blondell, you've also got Humphrey Bogart in a VERY unconventional role as the head of programming. All in all, the stars did a nice job. And, it didn't hurt that the script was quite witty and fun. All in all, a nice little parody of the studios--with many of their foibles roasted here in this cute film. Worth seeing.

Worth it for the boarding house and its inmates alone, this is a glorious satire on '30s Hollywood. Leslie Howard is at his comic best (see also 'It's Love I'm After'), vague and unworldly. The supporting cast is excellent. Joan Blondell is gorgeous and *funny*. Humphrey Bogart, Howard's good mate and progege - Howard insisted that Bogart got the convict role in Petrified Forest in the film, having appreciated acting with him in the play, and that was his big break in films. And Bogart acknowledged the friendship by calling his first child Lesley (she was a girl). Alan Mowbray and Jack Conway also add to the fun.

A sharp commentary on the wonderful world of B movies!

From the moment you see an epic movie about gorillas, or performing seals in a boarding house, or horrendously untalented little kids with showbiz mommas, you know you have a marvellous Follywood spoof.

This little-mentioned or cited comedy pits snappy Joan Blondell against – of all people – versatile Leslie Howard, in a studio-set tale of corruption, change, and romance. You'll also find Humphrey Bogart in one of his climbing-up-the ladder roles as a crusty, hard-drinking backroom man.

Blondell plays the ‘stand-in' of the title, that is, the girl who burns under the lights while the leading lady gets pampered and the shot gets set up. Howard is an accountant, transported into a world he doesn't initially appreciated, to discover the reason for the studio's cash-flow problems.

Do you know how it ends yet? This was the film that persuaded me of Howard's incredible gift for getting laughs as well as his dramatic skills, and I've been a fan ever since. Blondell and Bogart are also terrific, and this is a minor, but hugely enjoyable, 30s gem.

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.

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 .