Customer Reviews

Boy Meets Girl [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

While I love James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, this much was just a little too much slap-stick comedy and FAST dialog. While I am glad I watched it, give me Yankee Doodle Dandy or The Public Enemy over it any day.

This is an hilarious screwball comedy if ever there was one! Cagney and O'Brien pull out all the stops! Strap yourself in your seat because when these two great actors takeoff it is non-stop funny!! Toss in performances from character actors Frank McHugh, Dick Foran, Penny Singleton and Ralph Bellamy and you have a comedy classic!! Again ... WHERE IS THE DVD???

"Boy Meets Girl" was a successful 1935 Broadway play and looks very much like a Marx Brothers film from that same period, with Marie Wilson and Bruce Lester playing the love struck couple, Dick Foran playing the rival, and Jimmy Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Ralph Bellamy in the Marx Brothers' roles. Unfortunately, the Irish Mafia, despite their many talents, were no Marx Brothers clones, so the film doesn't really jump and shout with the Marx Brother's zany brand of comedy.

Nonetheless, the film does have its moments, and Cagney's on screen hamming it up is surely worth a look. Marie Wilson's "dumb blonde" routine serves her well, and there's even a short sequence with Ronald Reagan at a film premiere.

BTW - the film being premiered is called "The White Rajah" which is an inside joke among Warner Brothers staff about a terrible screenplay that Errol Flynn wrote and wanted to turn into a film. Flynn is also called an "Englishman" when of course he was an Australian. Flynn was a member of the Irish Mafia, and a good friend of Reagan, so the insults are clearly meant to be taken light heartedly.

The film is directed by Lloyd Bacon who directed more than 100 films between 1922 and 1954. He was part of the Warner's production team that cranked out a half dozen films a year, most of them B films. Among his notable films were "The Singing Fool" (1928), "Knute Rockne All American" (1940) and "The Fighting Sullivans" (1944).

Bacon has the unusual distinction of being the main director for Cagney's non-gangster films, like "The Oklahoma Kid" (1939), "Devil Dogs of the Air" (1935), "Here Comes the Navy" (1934), "The Picture Snatcher" (1933), "Footlight Parade" (1933), etc.

1938 was a pretty good year for films. The top grossing films were "You Can't Take it With You", "The Adventures of Robin Hood", `Boys Town", "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "Sweethearts", and "Marie Antoinette". The Oscars were to "You Can't Take it With You" (Picture, Director), "Boys Town" (Actor), and "Jezebel" (Actress). Other notable films released that year were "Algiers", Cagney and O'Brien in "Angels with Dirty Faces", John Garfield's film debut in "Four Daughters" and Gable and Tracey in "Test Pilot".

The NY Times said "the picture has retained humor and a few gustily playful touches" but "The Benson & Law writing firm as portrayed by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien has lost some of the finer edges of characterization it had on the stage..."

Bottom line - a treat for Cagney fans, but otherwise a forgettable attempt at screwball comedy.