Crashing Hollywood

This is another enjoyable role for that great actor Lee Tracy.He paid so heavily for his transgressions that he has virtually been eradicated from the map.However the real point of interest for this film is that it includes a tour of the RKO lot.In the film it is supposed to be "Wonder Pictures" but it is easily recognisable as the RKO studios.Some of the action takes place outside the very recognisable entrance which i recall is on Gower Street.The climax of the film is shot on Stage 9 and also featured are ares around the internal courtyard.Many of the signs for the various departments are visible.When i visited the studio in 1983 for the taping of an episode of "Cheers" it looked very much the same.In fact that programme may even have been made on the same sound stage as this.So if you are interested in the history of RKO this is an added attraction for this film.

Crashing Hollywood (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A former gangster (Paul Guilfoyle) gets out of prison and takes his wife on a train to California where he plans on going straight by starting a duck farm. On the train he meets a screenwriter (Lee Tracy) and the two team up to make realistic crime pictures. All goes well until a real gangster shows up wondering how the writers is getting all the details right. This film isn't nearly as funny as it should have been but it is mildly entertaining on a second film of a double feature type of way. For the most part this is just a one-joke film as our main guys make a blockbuster movie but soon the main gangster is showing up to get revenge. This leads to some rather routine gags including the gangster being mistaken for the actor playing him as well as the actor getting beaten up because people thinks he's the gangster. These scenes here are actually pretty funny but they only come up during the final fifteen-minutes. These final scenes contain the most laughs as the police are running around the studio trying to capture the real bad guys. Tracy is pretty good in his role but you have to like his style of comedy or else you'll probably find him annoying. Guilfoyle is also pretty good but he's a character actor I've always enjoyed. It's Richard Lane who steals the film as the loud mouth, fast talking producer who's always trying to sign someone to a contract. Lane would become famous for playing Inspector Farraday in the Boston Blackie movies and his comic timing here is just as good. Fans of those Boston Blackie movies will certainly get a kick out of seeing Lane here.

Crashing Hollywood has recently released from prison Paul Guilfoyle and moll Lee Patrick meeting aspiring screenwriter Lee Tracy on the train. As Tracy is writing about crime Gulfoyle decides he needs a collaborator for a little realism.

Guilfoyle's material is based on his time with the gang of the infamous criminal known as The Hawk still at large and still unknown to the public. But he does look a whole lot like ham actor Bradley Page.

Crashing Hollywood is based on a flop play Lights Out which only ran 12 performances in 1922. Back in the day studios bought all kinds of material even stuff that flopped on stage because they needed dialog for those new fangled talking pictures. In this case there was a silent version which seems to have disappeared into obscurity.

Dwarfed by the much larger budgeted Boy Meets Girl over at Warner Brothers also about zany studio goings on, Crashing Hollywood does have its moments. Bradley Page is great in the dual role of the Hawk and the ham. Tom Kennedy is always funny and here's the Hawk's thick as a brick trigger man. Richard Lane however steals the show as the zany head of the studio, Wonder Pictures where Lucille Ball would work in The Affairs Of Annabel.

Tracy is good, but almost subdued here for him. Crashing Hollywood will be enjoyed by fans who liked Boy Meets Girl like me.

I came across this by accident and discovered that over time people have lost sight of this movie and that is a shame. Herman Tibbits (Paul Guilfoyle) gets out of five years in prison and just wants to be a duck farmer. His wife Goldie is not sure she wants that and thinks that one more robbery would help them considerably. In an attempt to steal what they think is $50,000 they meet up with a struggling writer named Mike Winslow (Lee Tracy) who is on the same train as them heading to Hollywood.

There are many plot lines to this movie. Winslow is trying to get in good with Barbara Lang (Joan Woodbury), who wants to be an actress. Mike wants to write movie scripts for Wonder Studios. Herman and Tibbits want to go straight and work with Winslow. In fact, it is Herman who knows how to be a real robber and that is what helps Winslow write very effective movie scripts. Turns out they are too effective as they are based on Herman's life before prison and that makes the attention of The Hawk (the head of the gang that Herman had been part of) who the movies are about.

It is all of that coming together that makes this such an interesting movie. The movie keeps up a steady, increasing pace throughout. The dialogue is crisp and well written. The start of the movie lays out a very solid foundation. The middle builds the pace and the ending has a lot of action. It is amazing that a 65 minute movie has so much in it and yet doesn't leave you wondering what got missed (nothing does). 9/10

Sprightly entertainment. The 60-minutes never rises above programmer status but does well with what it has. The plot revolves around a screenwriter (Tracy), his shady collaborator (Guilfoyle), plus an actor and his gangster look-alike (Page). Then there are the girls, a lovely Joan Woodbury and a brassy Lee Patrick. Of course, all of this has to sort out before folks can get on with their lives at the movie studio. Oh yes, shouldn't forget the unruly ducks that are good for a few laughs. And catch the movie's last line, an apparent jibe at the comical Marx Bros.

I love it when the chases around the studio lot crash through the movie sets-- poor Jack Carson (the director) never will complete a shot. Plus we've got two of Hollywood's fastest talkers—Lane and Tracy. In fact, Lane steals the show as a don't-mess-with-me studio boss. I wonder if any of RKO's suits got a message. Actually, Tracy's more subdued than his usual fast-talking reporter, but still fits in well. It's also a good chance to catch some of the studio grounds and soundstages that are nicely blended into the proceedings. No, the movie's nothing special. But it does show again how delightfully entertaining these old programmers can be.