Follow Thru

Rare in cinema is there a movie focusing on women's golf. Rarer still is an existing feature film made in 1930 produced totally in color. And with early microphones still evolving during the first couple of years of talkies, September 1930's "Follow Thru" was one of the few outdoor sound films to be made during that time.

"Follow Thru" was Paramount Picture's second completely color film movie, and it's the earliest such surviving motion picture today viewable by the general public. Adapted from the successful (401 performances) 1929 Broadway musical of the same name, "Follow Thru" delivered an ofttimes saucy look at women's golf along with the men in those golfers' lives.

Movies shot in Technicolor and other competing companies' color film stock systems were fairly popular when musicals were introduced in the early stages of synchronized sound. The devastating toll of improper storage as well as a series of fires inside studio film warehouse facilities have erased most of those early color movies or at least large segments of them. "Follow Thru" was an anomaly in cinema where a print was preserved in a pristine state. The Technicolor used by Paramount was its third process, two strip system offered at the time. Blues and yellows were muted, but Technicolor was more focused on achieving realistic flesh tones than anything else. It would be a couple more years before Technicolor came out with the more realistic three strip process.

Capturing audio outdoors, especially the actors' dialogue, was also an extraordinary feat for Hollywood during this time. There are several noticeable sequences, especially during the golf competition, where the actors delivered their dialogue in a studio sound booth. The editors then looped, or dubbed, their voices during post-production onto the shot film strip's audio track. In other scenes, blimps, a fairly new innovation of padded sleeves wrapped around the camera to muffle its noisy motors, kept the area quiet while audio was being recorded.

"Follow Thru" focuses on a country club's best woman's golfer, Lora Moore (Nancy Carroll), who loses to her opponent at another country club. Looking to improve her game, she meets golf pro Jerry Downs (Charles "Buddy" Rogers). He teaches her a few lessons, including how to love. Jerry's friend, Jack (Jack Haley), a wacky but lovable Teddy Bear-type guy, falls for Lora's friend Angie Howard (Zelma O'Neal). Both Haley and O'Neal were in the Broadway play and marked their second film appearance in "Follow Thru." Boston born and raised Haley is known to today's viewers for his portrayal of the Tin Man in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz."

Nancy Carroll is a prime example of how a very popular and an acknowledged talented actress could sabotage her career by being difficult on the set. Carroll's musical skills on the stage resulted in receiving several movie roles at the dawn of talking pictures. From 1927 until the mid-1930s, Carroll was one of the more active actresses for Paramount. But she constantly complained at the type of characters she was forced to play, and was quite vocal to management and the directors on the movie sets about it. She was such an irritant that, despite her enormous box office appeal, Paramount released her. She received some minor parts in low budget films after that before returning to the stage.

"Follow Thru" was produced during the so-called "Pre-Code" era, where the censors took a more relaxed view of movie situations than later. The scene where voyeurs Haley and Eugene Paulette are hiding above the women's lockers in the club house dressing room would never pass the more restrictive censor board from 1934 onwards. The scene has been pointed out by many viewers as one of the highlights of the film. Says reviewer Nora Fiore, "consider the sequence where Haley and scene-stealing Eugene Pallette sneak into a locker room full of lingerie-clad ladies with the intention of retrieving a ring. After many shocking revelations for girl-shy Haley, the pair sneak out wearing ladies' clothes. And, believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen Eugene Pallette in a striped day dress."

All reviewers seem to love this picture and I, too, tried to love it. The early Technicolor looked great and the whole production showed a lot of energy from all parties. True, several of them were in the Broadway musical and recreated their roles, chief among them were Jack Haley and Zelma O'Neal. I thought Haley hammed it up outrageously and was a grating presence much of the time. Zelma O'Neal, on the other hand, was terrific. She was energetic and showed a great deal of talent and overall ability; "Button Up Your Overcoat" belonged to her and Haley was just along for the ride.

Buddy Rogers was the nominal star and looked heavily made up for some reason and didn't give one of his better performances. Nancy Carroll, on the other hand, was in her element and didn't disappoint. But the story was over the top and grew tiresome despite the short running time of 92 minutes. I appreciate comic zaniness but I felt this one ladled it on with a trowel. Tragic comedienne Thelma Todd was on hand but was largely wasted and Eugene Palette was too old for his part. To top it all off, the music was ordinary, except for the "Button Up Your Overcoat" number.

As I said, I tried. Judging from the reception it got at Capitolfest in Rome,N.Y., I must have been the only wet blanket. "Follow Thru" is a Paramount picture, which could explain its absence from the public forum, as all early Paramount films are owned by Universal and are kept under lock and key.

This dizzy delight is a Paramount musical made in the snazzy jazzy days of 1929 and filmed in delicious two strip Technicolor. How much do I just love this funny silly film? 9/10 funny.... and a complete wish come true to see the modern fashions and elite life of the flapper 20s. Very stagy in its tone and just like a dream come true for anyone who also loves WHOOPEE and other dawn of sound Technicolor talkies FOLLOW THRU remains a modern film today and especially because of the fashion style and use of color. Filmed outdoors at a real golf hacienda which would have cut down costs considerably allowing for expensive use of color and great clothing designs, FOLLOW THRU is the real jazz flapper 20s at it's most silly funny best. Zelma O'Neal is terrific and Buddy Rogers handsome boyfriend stuff, the drag sequence with Jack Haley and Eugene Palette is literally a howler... and dance numbers, especially I WANT TO BE BAD hold up well. FOLLOW THRU is a must for your DVD collection if the restored UCLA tech print is given a proper transfer. The masquerade party sequence is enough to make anyone swoon with glee. Add this to your art deco musical wish list along with THE BOYFRIEND and ROBERTA and WHOOPEE and GOOD MORNING EVE and AT LONG LAST LOVE (which shares an especially uncanny resemblance) and VOGUES OF 1938.

This film has no great meaning and no real point, but is one of them most charming films I have ever seen. Written in the mid 20's, made in 1929 and released in 30 it still has the flavor of the Roaring 20's. From a stage play, it contains musical numbers and crazy dance sequences that could be from no other era. The girls are pretty, and the guys are handsome. The comics are foolish and endearing. The whole cast is full of the kind of youthful daring and exuberance that can't be acted. It has a delightfully naughty 20's feel about it, especially in numbers like "Turn up the heat" that features chorus girls dressed (if you can call it that) as devils, and the 2 strip Technicolor gives the film an almost fairy tale quality.

Sadly it is unavailable (I saw it years ago at the UCLA restoration festival, but they show it again every once in a while). If you every get a chance to see, bring your girl/boyfriend; especially if you are young, in love and a little nuts.

Back when "Follow Thru" debuted, it must have been an incredibly prestigious film. After all, very, very few films were all-color productions and only a few others had color sequences buried within the picture. Yet, somehow, the studio scraped up the money to make this one color...albeit the old Two-Color Technicolor system...which looks pretty grotesque today. Part of it is that you never got true colors with the system...and everything tended to look orangy or greenish. But it's made worse because of nitrate stock degradation...and the print I saw on YouTube could use restoration.

Another shortcoming of the film is the sound. While the speaking sequences are just fine, the singing, at times, sound rather tinny...and it was obviously recorded using primitive sound technology. This is no one's fault...it's just that sound movies were a relatively new thing and compared to films from just a year or two later, "Follow Thru" has sound that could be better. This, by the way, is probably why the movie was made on a sound stage instead of outdoors (which you'd expect in a film set on a golf course)....getting good sound was not easier...and would have been MUCH harder to do outdoors.

The story finds Lora (Nancy Carroll) working hard to be a top golfer. She gets help from nice-guy, Jerry (Buddy Rogers) and the two fall in love. However, somehow Jerry is like catnip to the ladies and other women seem to want him as well...including Lora's nemesis! While all this is going on, Jerry's friend, Jack (Jack Haley) is there for comic relief and spends most of his time AVOIDING Angie...as he apparently doesn't like women.

Throughout the film are a variety of songs and a few song and dance numbers. Most of them are very pleasant and enjoyable. The ones I noticed most were the devil and angel dance numbers....you just have to see them to believe 'em!

Overall, this is a stagy old film...but an enjoyable one as well. Worth seeing...particularly if you love early talkies and don't mind that they lack the polish films Hollywood brought us just a year or two later.