Purely Joyful Movie!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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.

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.

A couple (Paul Guilfoyle and Lee Patrick) of ex-crooks stumble into Hollywood and manage to make it big. Although the film starts with them, later it switches emphasis to their partner screen writer (Lee Tracy) and his lady love (Joan Woodbury)--though this relationship seems a bit unreal. After all, they barely know each other, yet it's the clichéd "love at first sight" sort of rot--especially for Tracy.This film is highly reminiscent of Jimmy Cagney's exceptional film, LADY KILLER. Both films are about criminals who move to Hollywood and make it big making gangster films because they know best how to play themselves. There are a few changes, as the criminal couple are collaborators to a screen writer and there are a few other twists and turns, but otherwise it's the same plot--though Cagney clearly did it better and did it first. My advice is see the Cagney version and only CRASHING Hollywood if you are curious. Much of it was because Cagney was so great and part of it was that I usually find Lee Tracy about as welcome as a minor headache--though he's less annoying here than usual.

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