Harold Lloyd in Movie Crazy (1931)

I saw this the other night at a revival theater and laughed so hard I nearly passed out. Harold Lloyd plays a small-town wannabe actor (and nincompoop) who wrecks havoc wherever he goes. One day he fumbles his way onto a Hollywood movie set. He also manages to land a screen test at the fictional "Planet Studios" (27 takes are needed to to get the scene right!) There is another hilarious bit with Harold as an extra - and everything goes wrong. Needless to say, Harold drives everyone at the studio crazy. One producer even thinks he's amusing, and thinks he has the potential to be a great comic actor.

During a rainstorm, Harold manages to lose his shoe down the gutter and tries to help a beautiful actress named Mary Sears (Constance Cummings) to pull the top over her convertible. Harold offers to help but he clumsily breaks the entire top off. Mary lets him dry off at her luxurious house and that's where the romance begins. In her "Spanish Lady" costume that she wears for a movie shoot, she tests his true love and loyalty.

The funniest part of the film is the Hollywood party scene. In it, Harold mistakenly puts on a magician's coat and all sorts of gags fall out of its pockets, including rabbits, mice, and eggs. It's so funny. An underrated gem, this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. If you like movies with alot of visual gags and cases of mistaken identity, you will love this one. I was really impressed with both Harold Lloyd and Constance Cummings. They have good chemistry. Cummings was a great comedic actress.

More on Constance Cummings here at Allure

My rating: A

81 minutes. Not on DVD or Netflix to my knowledge.

The version I saw was a 35mm print restored by UCLA for the Harold Lloyd Foundation.

"Bosco's Picture Show" (1933)

Warner Brothers' first cartoon star--- slap-happy "Bosko"--- puts on a second-rate picture show, in this depression-era B/W cartoon parody of the movie-going experience. As the 'toon opens, Bosko proves to be a master of the organ, playing and singing the hit tune of the day, "We're in the Money" to warm up the unseen "audience" in the theater. Next, the projector plays a cornucopia of mediocrity: First up, a mock news-reel "Out of Tone News: Sees All, Hears All, Smells All!". Among the phony headlines: a clip featuring boxer Jack Dempsey, caricaturized as "Jack Dumpsey". The Marx Brothers turn up, running around as dog catchers for a few seconds. Next we're treated to "Famous Screen Lover on European Vacation" which shows Jimmy Durante being chased by Adolf Hitler in Vienna, in a now-unfunny bit. Bosko then preps the audience for a "Haurel and Lardy" comedy short, which lampoons Laurel and Hardy, right up to the that famous music. The last of the vignettes starts off with a belching, buffoonish MGM lion. We see the Marx Brothers again, as well as damsell in distress "Honey", voiced by the lovely Rochelle Hudson. She did the voice of "Honey" (Bosko's girlfriend) in all of the Bosko toons. The end title card displays "A Looney Tune" in big lettering as Bosko takes a final bow, signing off with "That's All Folks!" (which would later be Porky's famous catchphrase). Unbelievably, I found lots of information on this vintage toon on the web. Enjoy! IMDb post | Wikipedia post | Big Cartoon Database | Ironically, Rockin Ed at The Mystery Train Wreck Blog published a post on this toon days just a few days ago | Toon Zone Article