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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A FUNNY VINTAGE COMEDY WITH GREAT STAR CHEMISTRY, January 28, 2003
Two crazy Hollywood scenerio writers make a star of an infant yet unborn. Robert Law (Jimmy) and J.C. Benson (Pat O'Brien) - two Hollywood screenwriters, are assigned to write a story for cowboy star Larry Toms, but nothing they write remotely pleases C. Elliott Friday (Ralph Bellamy) a pious Hollywood producer. As they argue, Susie, a divorced waitress (played by the elusive Marie Wilson) delivers lunch. Inspired by her pregnancy, the boys decide to do a Western variation of the classic Hollywood story: Boy meets girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl. Larry protests, but Friday likes the story...Bella and Samuel Spewack copped the 1936 Roi Cooper Megrue Award for their play BOY MEETS GIRL. Because the character of Susie was unwed in the play, the movie version was understandably white-washed for the censor's approval - which ironically dismayed many critics. Marion Davies was considered for the lead, but W.R. Hearst was adamant: it was too risque for her image, he felt. Davies was a well-loved person in real life: all the stars loved her unaffected personality and generousity. But considering that she was Hearst's mistress - this revelation is rather hypocritical, don't you think? At any rate, this is a free-wheeling film version of a hilarious play: a fine satire of the zaniness of Hollywood's screwball comedies, which should please most everyone interested.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Cagney-O'Brien Rapport, March 10, 2002
James Cagney and Pat O'Brien star in this screwball comedy about two movie writers (infamous for their antics) working at a struggling studio who need to come up with a hit script for its comboy star, Dick Foran. They stumble on the idea of using the baby of studio waitress Marie Wilson in a film, making the baby and the cowboy an unlikely team. The idea takes off, but creates a lot of complications in the process. Cagney and O'Brien are the whole show, and the interludes where they are not in the scene slow the film down. They have such timing and rapport together they are naturals bouncing ideas and gags off of each other. Watch Cagney in particular and his amazing timing and expressions, and it's not hard to see why he got frustrated by always being given gangster scripts. He had a gift for comedy. The supporting cast is OK, but pales in comparison. The other aspect apart from Cagney/O'Brien that makes this film so successful is the way it makes fun of the behind-the-scenes elements of moviemaking, with its pampered executives making bad choices all the time. This film takes a bite out of Hollywood. With its high energy, satiric slant and the Cagney/O'Brien teaming, this film entertains.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hollywood never changes, October 4, 2000
James Cagney and his real life best friend Pat O'Brien are wonderful in this comedy about scriptwriting in Hollywood. It is as funny and fresh as anything you will ever see. A classic send up of Hollywood.
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