I think this MGM color short is quite underrated. You need to look past the, to us, cornball routines to the vivid color which makes Starlit Days an extraordinary time capsule. Look at the daytime clothes of the era. People would dress up in public whether out shopping or at an afternoon "tea dance." Look at the couples holding each other like they used to do, dancing the foxtrot to an elegant turned-out band. This was long before Hollywood was invaded by the tourist hordes and paparazzi. It was a company town, and you could see the stars on the streets or buying groceries or watering their lawns.
I give Starlit Days a Nine because of its quality and rarity. The Technicolor print has survived very well, including the sound. Yes, by the mid-30s there were a few full Technicolor features, but MGM was late to the party. To make it up, the studio released a series of shorts that were dripping with color and shot at notable venues around Hollywood, such as the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Catalina Island and Mission Santa Barbara.
The location here is the Lido Spa behind the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. The "guests" are screen icons we still remember, plus pop stars who were hot at the time. MC Reginald Denny (whose later namesake won notoriety as a victim of the 1992 Los Angeles riots) played mainly second leads but had a fine career on-screen and then off, as proprietor of a popular Hollywood hobby shop and a radioplane works that employed a much-photographed girl named Norma Jeane Mortensen.
Luminaries present include heartthrob Francis Lederer, who does something kinda kinky with a beach ball. Then, there are Buster Crabb, Robert Montgomery, Richard Barthelmess, Lili Damita (soon to cross swords with Errol Flynn), John Boles, Clark Gable, Constance Bennett, Johnny Mack Brown. There's a novelty act called The Tic-Toc Girls with their hands all over a prone, cross-eyed Ben Turpin who exclaims joyfully, "Can I take it!"
Then, there's Cliff Edwards aka Ukulele Ike aka Jiminy Cricket, strumming his uke while a lovely lady works her cigarette magic on him, which he reciprocates for the finale. There is also a trio of radio impersonators, playing George Arliss, Jimmy Durante and a wacko Ed Wynn.
My favorite part is Henry Busse (pronounced "Bussy") and his band. Henry was a founding member of Paul Whiteman's orchestra. (It's his trumpet that starts off Rhapsody in Blue.) He also played with Bing Crosby and the Dorsey brothers. Here he plays two numbers, the first with vocalists Judy Randall and Carl Grayson, the lyrics comically acted out by Arthur Lake aka Dagwood Bumstead. Grayson would later become a front man and then novelty singer for Spike Jones.
The second number is Busse's great Hot Lips, vocalized by Miss Randall and accompanied by the amazing chorus line of the Franchonettes. Those hat brims, I think, were cut from gel filter sheets by studio wardrobe. Watch those shoes when they're kicking! And look closely at each of the pretty, shapely, bra-less girls (one amazing shot got past the censors), hoping for their big break.
The stars' sunlit faces look un-made-up (except for the pale, sunglassed Miss Bennett), giving them a vitality you don't get in their movies. This is a "typical lunch in Hollywood" fantasy, but through the silliness and artifice are the everyday styles, fashions and looks of a black & white world now given startling immediacy by vivid color. We see beyond just a show to a glimpse into another world -- a real world long past.
This and other Technicolor Louis Lewyn shorts are part of a 4-disc set, "Classic Musical Shorts from the Dream Factory," currently available.
