Tonight's Movie: Going Hollywood (1933) - A Warner Archive DVD Review

One Bing Crosby film seemed to deserve another, so I followed my viewing of HOLIDAY INN (1942) with GOING HOLLYWOOD (1933).

GOING HOLLYWOOD is available on DVD from the Warner Archive. It was first released in 2013 and is part of my ongoing series of reviews highlighting "older" Warner Archive releases which continue to be readily available today, manufactured on demand.

As GOING HOLLYWOOD opens, lonely young French teacher Sylvia (Marion Davies) swoons listening to crooner Bill Williams (Bing Crosby) on the radio. Listening to the radio is "forbidden fruit" at the all-girls school where Sylvia teaches, and before we know it she's quit teaching and decides to follow Bill to Hollywood, where he's making a movie with Lili (Fifi D'Orsay).

Sylvia lands a spot in the chorus of Bill's movie and then is unexpectedly tapped to replace Lili as Bill's leading lady in the film. The path of their offscreen romance doesn't run as smoothly, alas...

GOING HOLLYWOOD has an almost surreal combination of moodiness and sheer lunacy, starting from early in the film when we watch Sylvia rhapsodically swooning over Bill's voice on the radio.

Over the course of the 78-minute film the audience is treated to oddities such as Sterling Holloway following a pajama-clad Bill around his apartment holding a radio microphone for Bill to sing into; dancing flowers and scarecrows; Davies, who basically plays a stalker, in blackface and later made up as D'Orsay; kaleidoscope images while Bill sings; and you get the idea. The film is both inventive and a tad nuts.

My friend Raquel wrote a perfect review of this movie some years ago at her blog Out of the Past, suggesting "This film is best seen when you are not in the clearest state of mind." She also called it "trippy," and she's not wrong...

Davies is a lot of fun, though as mentioned, by modern standards she's playing someone we'd consider a stalker. She follows Bill across the country, turns up at his job, and basically won't take no for an answer. But since she's cute Marion Davies we forgive her!

Bing hadn't completely settled into the persona we recognize from his later films, being a bit overly made up and playing an alcoholic cad, but again, because he's Bing we want to root for him and believe in his ultimate transformation into Prince Charming.

My favorite thing about the film was the chance to see the full-length scenes featuring songs I've been familiar with in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! (1974) and THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT, PART II (1976) since they were first released when I was young. "Going Hollywood" is a great production number in a train station, and "Temptation" features the previously mentioned kaleidoscopic images along with Bing's moody crooning to D'Orsay in a Tijuana dive.

The only scene I found annoying was an extended sequence featuring the Radio Rogues doing impersonations.

The film has a splendid supporting cast including Ned Sparks as a cranky director, Patsy Kelly as Sylvia's Hollywood roommate, Sam McDaniel as a train porter, and Stuart Erwin as a movie producer.

GOING HOLLYWOOD was directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed by George Folsey. It was written by Donald Ogden Stewart from a story by Frances Marion.

The Warner Archive DVD looks and sounds good. The disc includes the trailer.

All in all, GOING HOLLYWOOD is a bit of a wild ride but the stars, music, short running time, and yes, the film's essential strangeness all combine to make it a fun watch.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this DVD. Warner Archive DVDs may be ordered from the Warner Archive Collection Amazon Store or from any online retailers where DVDs are sold.

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