Windy Riley Goes Hollywood

Fans of Louise Brooks will want to see her in this, her talkie debut, but be forewarned: Windy Riley Goes Hollywood is a sorry excuse for entertainment, that is, unless you can persuade yourself to enjoy a primitive comedy without any laughs, featuring a deeply unappealing leading man. Our hero Windy Riley (played by Jack Shutta) is a pompous, cigar-chomping jerk who messes up everything he touches, and never realizes that everyone thinks he's a fool. Shutta's performance won't leave you begging for more, but the actor can't be blamed. Who could have done any better with this feeble script, or with such a deeply exasperating character? The Windy Riley persona was originally created for a comic strip, and perhaps the strip was funny, I don't know, but based on the evidence at hand I have my doubts.

Windy is on an unexplained cross-country trip from New York to his hometown of San Francisco, but he winds up in Hollywood instead, and is soon working at a movie studio . . . as a messenger boy. He attempts to get ahead by boosting the career of movie star Betty Grey (our Miss Brooks), which he tries to accomplish by means of a dangerous and genuinely idiotic publicity stunt. Instead of boosting Betty's career he nearly ruins it, and is ultimately chased out of the studio -- and Hollywood -- before he can do any further damage.

Louise Brooks made this film after returning from Europe, where she'd appeared in the three movies that constitute her most significant contribution to the cinema. She'd left Hollywood in 1929 on bad terms, having offended the Powers That Be at Paramount, and returned with a well-earned reputation for being headstrong and uncooperative. On top of that, the talkie revolution was under way. Lots of old favorites were falling by the wayside, and all bets were off. None of the big studios wanted to deal with Brooks, so she wound up making her talkie debut here, in a low-budget short cranked out at Educational Pictures under the direction of another fallen star, Roscoe Arbuckle. The former top comedian had been banned from the screen almost ten years earlier, but was making a decent living directing comedies for other performers under the name of William Goodrich. When he was inspired by his material Arbuckle was a gifted director of comedy, but it's obvious from the outset that the director found no inspiration in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood. Roscoe phoned this one in.

So all we're left with is the sight of the leading lady, earnestly trying to play her part and deliver her clunky lines. It's a disheartening thing to experience. She gets to dance briefly, but of course her dance is quickly interrupted by the unstoppable, insufferable Windy Riley. In her best silent films Louise Brooks was (and is) almost ethereal, but here she looks and sounds all too human, thanks to the shoddy material. In her introductory scene, Brooks is presented with a publicity poster of herself and delivers her first line in a talkie: "Oh Mr. Snell, I think it's great! A photograph like that oughta do me a lotta good, doncha think?" That sound you hear is an ex-goddess, crashing to earth with a dull thud.

The story is about a fellow who ends up in the wrong place, directed by someone (fatty Arbuckle) who was in the wrong place because he previously was in the wrong place. And the reason to watch it is Lousie Brooks of course. She had already had an amazing rise and fall in the US, then to Europe where she found her greatest roles. Then immediately back here in this meatball, this weedpatch.

Its her first talkie. She had been in a Philo Vance mystery that was horrid. (One of the subsequent ones is on my list of films you must see.) Like there, as here, she's charmless, which is darn interesting.

She's the same beauty, but its a different eye. This eye isn't looking for the afterglow, the savor of the lingering survey, the woman hidden beneath the woman who pretends she is seductively visible.

Wrong place. Its as interesting as being in the right place.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Pedestrian early talkie short about a loud-mouth crashing Hollywood without a clue. If one had never before seen Louise Brooks, one would think from her 8 scenes here, she was a talent-less extra picked up on the street and thrown into this production. There is nothing about her to indicate she ever knew a thing about acting, either facially or vocally. A totally vapid performance in an entirely forgettable film.

The arrogant driver Windy Riley (Jack Shutta) is crossing from New York to San Francisco in his car. However a wrong traffic plate in the desert misguides him and her goes to Hollywood instead. Windy loses his car to the bank since he has not paid the last installment, but the Repo Man runs into the car of a Hollywood executive and falsely blames Windy for the accident. The man sends Windy to work in the Publicity Department to pay for the damages in his car.

Meanwhile, the actress Betty Gray (Louise Brooks) is in trouble with the studio due to bad publicity and the studio will call off her contract if she gets in trouble again. When Windy Riley arrives in the department, he believes that he is expert in publicity and he kidnaps the film director Joseph Ross expecting to promote the film and Betty Gray. But the snoopy reporter Lane finds that the director is missing and Windy needs to bring the director back in the studio otherwise Betty Gray will be fired.

Despite the bad reviews, "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood" is a funny comedy and the first talkie of Louise Brooks. The lead character, Windy Riley, is a non-charismatic, imbecile and pretentious man and maybe this is the reason why many viewers do not like this short. Another point is that the talented and gorgeous Louise Brooks is wasted in a small role. But for a 1931 short, I found it enjoyable and funny. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Windy Riley Vai para Hollywood" ("Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood")

The best things about this lame little comedy are that you actually get to briefly hear Louise Brooks talk (she did mostly silent films) and that it is a short film, not full-length! It just isn't very funny and is a dud in so many ways--especially since the lead, Jack Shutta ("Windy Riley") is about as entertaining as Ebola! Plus, it really doesn't help that the script is pretty limp and poor Miss Brooks is given practically NOTHING to do in the film--she's just there! However, despite all the shortcomings, this is interesting because it's one of the very few times you get to hear Miss Brooks speak on film. Most of her famous films were either silents or poorly dubbed films that were originally silent (MISS EUROPE). However, this isn't a great film if you want to hear her talk because the film quality is very, very poor---which is the case with so many early nitrate films. This film is included with DIARY OF A LOST GIRL and the producers of the Kino video admit that the film quality is a mess but include it because of its significance. Interestingly enough, although you can't hear her perfectly, Miss Brooks appeared to possibly have either a speech defect or perhaps an odd accent--either way, her voice might just be the reason she retired soon after this film.