My Stars

Johnny Arthur was one of those silent comedians who turned out a goodly number of funny comedies, made a transfer to sound in small supporting roles and faded from the public's mind even as they continued working. Movies like this are why.

Johnny is in love with a girl who is movie struck and proclaims her devotion to various stars of the period. So Johnny changes his clothing and hair and style of moving to imitate her fancy of the moment. In doing so, he constructs a good pastiche but fails to assert an interesting or attractive personality of his own. How could he help but fade from sight given an opportunity? The last gag is the most telling: at the end, doing a passable Harold Lloyd imitation, he asks his leading lady, Virginia Vance, "How do you like me as Harold Lloyd." "I prefer my own Johnny," she answers. Perhaps we might have too.

This is a mildly amusing satire on the way that actors were and are so idolized by the public. Johnny Arthur stars as a young man trying to impress his girl, who herself seems preoccupied with collecting autographed pictures of all her favorite movie stars. There is not much of a story, but it does have a point of sorts to it, and there are some entertaining moments.

Most of the movie has Arthur trying to dress and act like some of his girl's idols, and Arthur is not a bad mimic. His impressions usually include a couple of clever moments, although otherwise there is not a lot going on.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of "My Stars" is that it was one of the features that Roscoe Arbuckle directed (and may have written - on the print as it now exists, there is no director or writer credit) while he was blacklisted. Given the way that he was treated, it would have been easy for him to have a much more bitter view of the movies, but the tone here is instead light and upbeat.

My Stars (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A woman (Virginia Vance) is impressed by various silent movie stars that she pays very little attention to her own boyfriend (Johnny Arthur) so he decides to impersonate the actors to win her attention. Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd are both spoofed here and Arthur actually does a very good job at mocking them. There's not too much comedy here but the film moves by just fine and it's certainly amusing in its own way.

Available in The Forgotten Films of Fatty Arbuckle set, which includes four discs worth of material.