Hollywood Extra Girl

This film short details the efforts of 'Emery, Suzanne' (qv) and her struggle to make it in Hollywood.

Using the filming of Cecil B. DeMille's _Crusades, The (1935)_ (qv) as a backdrop, Hollywood Extra Girl is notable for the two divergent paths of two of the actresses featured in this short: Suzanne Emory and Ann Sheridan. It's ironic that this short film is based around Miss Emory, and The Crusades ends up being her only credit on IMDb.

While 'Sheridan, Ann' (qv), who was also cast as an extra in The Crusades and has a brief appearance in Hollywood Extra Girl, would later go on to superstardom.

In hindsight, this short film should have featured Ann Sheridan as the starlet trying for film success. Of course, there was no way of knowing who would "make it" and who wouldn't.

All in all an interesting few minutes, with it's own small place in movie history.

Hollywood Extra Girl (1935)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Entertaining short from Paramount talks about all the people who don't become stars in Hollywood. The focus of this short are the extras, the people in mob scenes who are rarely noticed yet the majority of them are just hoping for their big break. We meet four different extras and hear why they're in the movies but we focus in on Suzanne Emery and her extra work in Cecil B. DeMille's THE CRUSADES. This short is basically a promotional piece for that film as we get to hear about all of the real "cast" and then we see DeMille, on set, directing the extras during a couple scenes. Film buffs are really going to enjoy this because of getting to see DeMille direct but you also get a pretty good idea of how hard it would be to succeed in Hollywood. This short does a good job at warning people but at the same time it talks about how great it would be if that dream comes true. Getting to hear DeMille talk to the extra about what it takes to make it is something else that's fun to hear. It's also worth noting that Ann Sheridan and Clara Kimball Young are on hand, two people who would become names in the business while Emery would only have this short and the DeMille film as a credit.

This starts out as a primer on the hard life of an extra in Hollywood, Suzanne Emery as Hollywood Extra Girl No. 1472, but soon turns into an early-day infomercial for Cecil B. DeMille's production of "The Crusades," and also turns into an (unintended) documentary in which Cecil B. DeMille quickly shows why he was among the most-detested of film Directors, and appears to enjoy every moment in which he is belittling, mocking or generally making life very unpleasant for anybody within his apparently unlimited area of sight. From a camera boom high on a studio set, he spots an extra miles away with the wrong hair-do, among the ten thousand around the castle set(give or take 5000),and proceeds to rip her and the thoroughly terrified assistant director, who knew the line between reality and play acting was thin indeed when C. B. got started. Once on the floor, he barks gruffly to somebody---with DeMille it could have been a gaffer or his associate producer---to "get me a chair, you think I want to stand up all day?" The highlight comes when DeMille, still perched in the rafters and flash-forward dreaming of Moses on top of the mountain, proceeds to give acting lessons to all 20,000---the head count always grew the closer a DeMille film came to release---of the trembling extras. His pleas for authenticity comes off a little hollow for one who seldom practiced what he preached. It is probably a good thing that Blackjack Ward, who was conceded to be as mean as Blackie Whiteford looked, was not among the extras, or else we would have all been spared "The Greatest Show On Earth" and an Oscar might have went to a deserving film.