MartinHafer This Vitaphone short is a combination of self-promotion for Warner Brothers as well as promoting the myth about being discovered in Hollywood. It begins with four of the studio's stars doing quick walk-ons (actually drive-ons)...Dick Foran, Wayne Morris, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brian. Then you see folks going on a studio tour and they show various clips of the recent studio productions. The story begins because one of the folks on the tour is a young woman who just KNOWS she's got what it takes to be a star. So, inexplicably, a make-up man champions her cause with a temperamental director...even though no one in the film has seen her sing, dance or act! I am sure this sort of thing happened all the time in Hollywood (NO IT DIDN'T!!!). And, by the end of the picture, she's been discovered and is more popular than Taco Tuesdays. So is it any good? Well, the star cameos at the beginning aren't that interesting (none of them do anything particularly interesting) and the clips are merely self-promotion. As to the story, it's one giant cliché...an enjoyable cliché but very clichéd nevertheless. My only complaints are too many dull dance numbers and the cameos SHOULD have been much more interesting. So, looking back, it's not that great a film...more a time-passer than anything else.

classicsoncall Breaking into Hollywood should be this easy! Sally Carter (Evelyn Thawl) sneaks into the Superb Pictures studio lot with the help of a make-up artist (Jeffrey Lynn), smuggling her in as part of a tour group. She quickly breaks stride with the rest and winds up as a dancer under the supervision of manic director Nitvitch. You can only take his schtick for so long, but the picture only lasts nineteen minutes, so hang in there. Watch for cameos by legitimate, but not Superb Studio actors, as they make their way through the main gate - Wayne Morris, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. The ironic touch in the picture occurs right after Miss Carter has makeup applied along with a blonde wig to look totally unlike her real self, as her makeup artist sings "You're Lovely As You Are".

cricket crockett . . . Warner Bros. Pictures during OUT WHERE THE STARS BEGIN, a 19-minute live action short. For instance, Superb also signed up Error Flynn to play ROBIN HOOD (only in Superb's version, Richard III is going up against Prince John, rather than Richard the Lion-Hearted--the Superb version sounds more exciting than Warner's already!). Another element of Superb's mystique is that you have to be a Chorine yourself in order to be selected to take a studio tour. (This is because Superb tour groups are prone to disappear without a trace, and everyone in show business knows that chorus line singers are totally dispensable.) Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien are among the stars making cameo appearances on the Superb lot, where they behave as polite "Ordinary Joes," instead of their normal Prima Dona selves. The plot of OUT THE STARS emphasizes that ANYONE can be a trespasser one moment, and a top-billed star the next at Superb. That's because everyone is friendly and open-minded at Superb, which is run as a meritocracy--without any casting couch shenanigans. Some may say, "Hooray for Hollywood," but I'll confine my comment to, "Hooray for Superb."

ptb-8 Delicious appetizer comedy short shot in absolutely exquisite Technicolor at Warner Bros to showcase both the studio and new 1938 films. Made to co-incide with their first Technicolor feature THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, we are also treated to snippets of the Jezebel set, Warner Gangster back-lot, and others by a jive/swing Teenage guide who leads and sings his tour group across the sound-stages. It is the color and a few stars mainly on show that are the focus, and you will be repeat viewing for several days once you discover where it is: part of a clever new Warner Bros Night At The Movies DVD release, this short is to be found with ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES in the support program as if you are at the local cinema in 1938. It is a great idea and a perfect way to bundle appropriate items from the treasure trove of studio vault wonders freshly re-minted for DVD. The musical stage set the tour group visits is a delight of Deco silver blue and pink...and the hilarious antics of Fritz Feld as manic Euro director Nitvitch is supposed to be a razzing of Michael Curtiz. The swing dance number is a hoot and offers the 2006 viewer one of the first times ever we are able to see - in glorious 1930s color - the sight of a real Hollywood chorus line in silver hot-pants blonde wigs and top hats (looking very like Madonna) - all tap-dancing away to the tune of "She'd rather dance than love'. It's the real thing and it's the first I know of in proper Technicolour..as if a Busby Berkley number was shot that way. Of course it was Bobby Connolly who is the choreographer here...soon to be at Monogram with skate star Belita in her mega big band musical LADY LETS DANCE in 1942. Find this DVD of ANGELS and run through the entire program with your family. Congrats to WB for at last offering insightful marketing for us all to enjoy these delights from the studio vaults. Thanks! The Technicolor 1937 UA release GOLDWYN FOLLIES is a close feature length counterpart (which probably inspired this short at WB) It too is set in a studio making a new musical and features The Ritz Brothers (singing a risqué swing song "Here pussy pussy pussy pussy") along with the hideous and strange Kenny Baker. Now if we can only get someone to release VOGUES OF 1938 which is a fashion musical made in real 3 strip Technicolour (just like these films) as a restored DVD, the world would be a rainbow of 30s delights....along with the Selznick STAR IS BORN and GARDEN OF ALLAH both from 1936. RAMONA anyone? ...while we're at it.