Les travailleurs du chapeau

This was really a picture to promote new talent Doris Day at the time by her studio, Warner Bros. Dennis Morgan & Jack Carson play themselves, trying to get Day (who plays a studio waitress) into the movies. The story and songs (except Cafe Rendezvous) are totally forgettable. The fun part are cameos from nearly every Warners actor at the time including Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Danny Kaye, Gary Cooper, Sydney Greenstreet, Patricia Neal, Joan Crawford, Eleanor Parker, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn and even directors David Butler (who directed this), Raoul Walsh (High Sierra, White Heat), Michael Curtiz (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca) & King Vidor (Beyond the Forest, The Fountainhead). Tailored for Day fans or classic film buffs. 2 1/2 stars out of 4.

This one of good natured spoofs on Hollywood that is set in a real studio and has a number of stars appearing as themselves, usually satirizing their screen personalities. Unlike many films of this type the stars don't out stay their welcome, and are sometimes genuinely funny. The movie is no classic (certainly it's no SINGING IN THE RAIN) but it passes the time agreeably enough and leaves the impression , whether true or not, that the cast and crew had a good time making it. The stars; Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson and Doris Day; work well together. Highlights are Dennis Morgan and Doris Day singing a very pleasant duet, Jack Carson doing an impression on Maurice Chevalier and Irving Bacon in a funny sketch as railway station information clerk.

Doris Day became an old hand at comedy by the time her career was over, but this early musical comedy with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson is one of her funniest jobs. She plays a waitress at the Warner studio who wants to break into movies. Aided and abetted by Carson and Morgan, she gets her chance at stardom but not before a series of misadventures that are really an excuse to trot out some of the big Warner stars for brief cameos. She gets to warble a couple of so-so tunes but it's her comedy scenes with Bill Goodwin (as the studio head she's trying to impress) that display her true comic gifts, batting her lashes and giving him a silly grin. It cracks me up every time! Dennis Morgan has a nice duet with Day and there are some other standard tunes thrown in, but it's an amiable piece of entertainment, nicely packaged in technicolor. Danny Kaye has an unbilled cameo at the train station--and Irving Bacon does a comic turn that's quite amusing. Guest stars include Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Jane Wyman, Sydney Greenstreet, Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker , Ronald Reagan and Edward G. Robinson. The "surprise" ending is a fun twist. And if that's not enough, there's S.Z. Sakall ("Cuddles") for even more laughs.

This is a terrific little film. Light entertainment, nothing to think about, just sit back watch the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age and enjoy. Any movie with Dennis Morgan AND Jack Carson has to be good, and Doris Day pretties up the whole thing. Lots of cameos by Hollywood's best and lots of talent. I recommend this movie when you're tired and stressed and just want a good movie to relax to. The other great thing about this movie is you never know who will show up. Gary Cooper and Dennis Morgan sitting at a drug store counter, Coop sipping Coke, Dennis prattling on and Coop just saying "Yup." Just goes to show you don't need to say a lot, especially a lot of "F" words to show your talent. Nobody in Hollywood today comes up to these stars in terms of talent and class.

How revealing when Joan Crawford goes into her "drama queen" act and then admits she does that in all her movies. Or when Edward G. Robinson does his tough guy routine after persuading the studio guard to please let him act tough or they'll all be out of work. Good for a laugh. But it's also a little unsettling to see these super-stars as just ordinary folks, after all.

I gather (from TMC) the production was rushed through to meet certain obligations. If so, they did a cracker-jack job. Sure, the plot is about as shopworn as they come—provincial girl (Day) breaking into show business, helped (or hindered) by two fast-talking smoothies (Morgan & Carson). But it's done up with great bounce and energy. The youthful Day sparkles with the kind of winning luster that made her a movie star perennial. Carson mugs it up in amusing Carson fashion, while his buddy Morgan sings and looks handsome.

Then, of course, there are the star cameos from the Warners 1940's stable, including a "yup- ified" Gary Cooper sipping a malted through a straw, of all things. (Note how the famously boozy Hollywood suddenly prefers malts and ice cream to scotch and water—perhaps the movie's most amusing fiction.) Personally, though, I like Bill Goodwin's discombobulated producer best. His shtick with Day is a good running gag and I kept hoping he wouldn't get his glasses fixed.

Anyway, the movie's full of amusing bits cleverly woven together, including a behind-the- scenes look at the studio (to save time instead of building sets—TMC). In my book, it's the kind of pleasure that comes as a reward to old movie buffs and should not be missed.