Powerful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

MOVIE CRAZY (1932) isn't one of Harold Lloyd's greatest comedies, or even, in this reviewer's opinion, his best talkie. It's a cliché story: small-town boy comes to Hollywood for stardom and falls flat on his face. Nincompoop wreaks havoc on movie studio. It's been done countless times, from Buster Keaton in FREE AND EASY (1930) to Red Skelton in MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947).Harold Lloyd plays the part of the fool, who ruins everything he comes in contact with. This type of character (similar to the talkie roles MGM would write for Buster Keaton) is sometimes hard to watch. Hopelessly naïve and pathetic. Viewed as a freak and played for a sucker. Always knocking over stacked objects or falling in puddles.The gags are old and predictable (at least nowadays) and there are no groundbreaking stunts or anything. How many times have we seen the "oops, we must've switched hats" routine? And what do you think happens when Lloyd offers to help a woman unfold the top to her convertible? Or open an umbrella? Does that trick magician's jacket look just like Harold's, hanging in the restroom? (You bet it does.) This comedy just isn't all that funny, lacking some of the magic evident in Lloyd's silent classics.The best thing in this movie is the beautiful Constance Cummings, who gives a rather impressive naturalistic performance as a Hollywood starlet whose path is crossed by Lloyd's accident-waiting-to-happen character. Cummings grows fond of Lloyd (whom she nicknames "Trouble") and her character manages to bring a cute romantic element to the film.The first half-hour or so is pretty dull, but there's a fun little twist where Lloyd cannot recognize Cummings in her exotic on-set make-up and falls in love with the same woman twice. Cummings realizes this and plays around with Lloyd's heart. But does she actually love him, or is it all part of some game? This interesting "love triangle" is the strongest part of the script, and Cummings manages the dual role beautifully.MOVIE CRAZY isn't all bad, but it is something of a letdown. Most of the "comedy" is tiresome, although certain bits work better than others. Interestingly, this talkie lacks some of the wit of Harold Lloyd's silent films. The story is nothing special, but Constance Cummings shines in her role and anchors the sweetness that makes the film's second half worth watching.

The story of a disaster-prone movie buff who crashes Hollywood and becomes a star in spite of himself might have been lifted from erstwhile silent clown Harold Lloyd's own rags-to-riches autobiography. The film is widely considered Lloyd's best 'talkie', but it can't hope to match his silent classics, and doesn't try to approach the dizzy verbal pace of screwball comedy just then coming into vogue. Ironically, Lloyd himself is the weak link in the film; his (considerable) pantomime talents and optimistic go-getter personality were better suited to Jazz Age silent comedy, and didn't translate well to the Great Depression. Only the somewhat bizarre love interest, between the typically shy Harold and a temperamental actress (who doesn't tell him she's also the Spanish bombshell he's infatuated with) seems more in step with sophisticated sound-era comedy conventions. Technophiles take note: the climactic backstage battle, in which Harold finally proves himself, was clearly shot silent, but the clumsy telegraphing of each gag well in advance kills the tempo.

Monday May 14, 7:00pm, The Paramount TheaterA bumbling oaf goes to Hollywood in search of stardom. Wreaking havoc along the way, he falls in love with a beautiful starlet and ass-backwards into a contract. The sound films of Harold Lloyd are of interest when viewed in the context of his entire career. They are of little importance by themselves, and well illustrate the deconstruction of visual narrative by the introduction of sound. What succeeds in Movie Crazy (1932) has little dependence on sound. Lloyd's character is introduced with two entirely visual gags, typical of his earlier work. He appears to be riding in an open car, which pulls away to reveal he is actually peddling a bicycle. As he turns up his driveway, he rescues a duckling he hears down a hole, using water from a garden hose. Sound of the trapped duckling would have worked perfectly as an intertitle. A running gag with a straw boater and an ornery producer is purely visual. Another running gag is the accidental destruction of numerous glass office doors, straight out of Buster Keaton's The Cameraman (1928). The exuberant youth living with his parents had become a stretch for an older Lloyd. This was only magnified by the spoken word. Add to the mix a profusion of bad, and now very dated, dialog (light years from H. M. "Beany" Walker's clever intertitles), the limitations of early sound technology and the distracting, self-conscious camera work it caused, and the magic was more or less gone.

This is a good comedy, possibly Harold Lloyd's best sound movie, and it features a very nice pairing of Lloyd with Constance Cummings. It's also interesting and entertaining as a light commentary on the movie industry of its day, and the ways that it was perceived. The extreme eagerness of Lloyd's character to break into the movies is interwoven with the main romantic plot in some clever ways.The story has Lloyd's character leaving his Kansas home and heading to Hollywood, where he winds up having a chaotic and very funny romance with a star actress played by Cummings. There are a lot of funny gag ideas, some very nice scenes between the two stars, and quite a bit more, capped off by the kind of funny, exciting set piece that you always hope for as the finale in one of Lloyd's movies.Cummings is very appealing and enjoyable, and she has a lot of good material to work with, as the script sets up a good contrast between her screen character and her real personality. This contrast is used very creatively in the plot, and the effect is aided considerably by how well Cummings and Lloyd work together in all of their scenes. The actress's affectionate nickname of 'Trouble' for Lloyd's character works well, too. Their interplay is the best part of a good comedy that also has a lot of other things working for it.