Customer Reviews

Going Hollywood [VHS]

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

 

 

Marion Davies plays a teacher at a girl's school who's bored with academics and wants to explore the world; she also idolises crooner Der Bingle and decides she will find him, so off she goes in hot pursuit..........A rare glimpse at the decidedly lovely & elusive La Davies is interesting, but the movie belongs to Bing. The best ingredient of the whole film is his rendition of TEMPTATION which was penned by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown for the movie. The scene where Crosby belts out GOING HOLLYWOOD in a Hollywoodised Grand Central Station will be remembered by 70's moviegoers in a clip from THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. Marion Davies was impressive in her big number, WE'LL MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES and there is a funny (if exaggeratted) comic performance by Fifi D'Orsay as a hot-tempered movie star. It would be fun to see more of the elusive Marion Davies on video. Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't a no-talent bimbo as dipicted by Orson Welles' Susan Alexander in CITIZEN KANE; she was a gifted light comedienne who was hampered by Hearst's insistence that she be seen in innocent ingenue-type roles. At thirty-five, she supposedly gave a superlative performance as PEG O' MY HEART!

Early Crosby show with top quality acting. This is one of Bing's first movies, with his acting ability already perfected. Plot ranks with most of the era, perhaps a bit cornball, but leaves the viewer with a happy feeling for having seen it. Sound quality is very good also.

Going Hollywood stars Bing Crosby as Bill 'Billy' Williams, a famous singer and actor bound for Hollywood to make a new movie. Marion Davies does a good job as Sylvia Bruce, a somewhat flighty stalker who follows Bill cross country to Hollywood in the hopes of making him fall in love with her. Look also for great supporting roles from Fifi D'Orsay who plays Lili Yvonne, Bill's current lover and Patsy Kelly as Jill Barker, a nice young woman who takes in Sylvia when Sylvia arrives in California looking for Bill. In addition, the movie plot goes along at a good pace; and the convincing acting impresses me.

After impulsively leaving the fancy Briarcroft's School for Girls, Sylvia does indeed follow Bill Williams on a train, taking a job as Lili's maid to pay her passage when she runs out of money. Of course, from the get go Sylvia and Lili don't really get along; they don't like each other and worse yet they both want the same man--Bill! Sylvia manages to get small chorus parts for herself and her roommate Jill in the same movie that stars Bill Williams and Lili Yvonne. That's when the action REALLY starts.

How will Bill get through a tough situation in which both women want him? How will he treat Sylvia, who essentially stalks him, when he finds out she's on the train from New York to Hollywood? Will Bill stay with Lili or leave her for Sylvia--ever? What about the movie they're making--will it suffer because of this triangular relationship? No spoilers here--you'll have to watch the movie to find out.

I agree with a reviewer who writes that the print is indeed rather dark; the cinematography could have been better or maybe this is a print copied from a much older print decades ago. The choreography shows great forethought in scenes from the movie they're making with huge numbers of extras all dancing; and the scenes at Grand Central Station in New York also reflect great choreography.

In short, Going Hollywood is a great film even if it is fluffy. Sylvia stalks Bill but in such a way that you know she's not really evil nor is she crazy. I highly recommend this film for Bing Crosby fans; and fans of early MGM musicals will like this one, too.

Enjoy!

A very weird film, featuring a young (and super-cute!!) Bing Crosby alongside Marion Davies, the uniquely untalented kewpie-doll starlet who William Randolph Hearst backed in flop after flop. It's meant to be a screwball comedy, but reads more like unintentional camp, particularly in any scenes where Davies is called apon to dance, sing or act. Bing plays a crooner gone Hollywood; Davies plays a blonde nutcase who stalks him from coast to coast, insisting that their love was meant to be. Davies's character seems particularly psychotic in light of her bizarrely vacant delivery... The disconnected performance and lackluster plot combine synergistically, and after a while you just have to start cracking up... it's a scream! Like Davies, the movie looks great, but lacks substance. (For a more sympathetic take on Davies' legacy, check out Kirsten Dunst's surprisingly sympathetic portrayal in Peter Bogdanovitch's 2002 comedy, "The Cat's Meow," a thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining film about the Hearst/Davies relationship...)

Yes, I loved this movie but for reasons that others might have overlooked. The obvious: Bing Crosby's singing! Every scene that Bing graced left me wanting more. He was so young and handsome. The overlooked: The Mexican cantina. The song "Temptation" that he sings to Fifi D'Orsay. The crowded dance floor with the hypnotic dancers moving slowly along. I wish someone would come along and make an entire movie based on that cantina, its inhabitants, and crowded dance floor.

My best friend and I heard "Temptation" on the radio when were little girls. No one my parents ages knew what movie it came from. That song has haunted me for years. Then "That's Entertainment, Part II" came out on DVD and I discovered that "Going Hollywood" was the movie where Bing Crosby sang it. My friend and I watched GH and were pleasantly surprised by the plot (young French teacher follows movie star to Hollywood and joins the cast of a remake of "Cinderella"). Bing Crosby's voice is so smooth, silky, and easy on the ears. When he runs off to Mexico with the French actress, "Temptation" finally makes sense. The Mexican cantina's crowded dance floor is surreal. Bing's decision to stay with Fifi made my friend and me cry. In conclusion, we overlooked the potholes in this movie, Marion's singing, and other's over acting, but I recommend it to anyone who loves Bing Crosby's voice, 1930's movies, and Marion's smile.

This is rather a generic musical effort for MGM, below par even for the 30's and not nearly as much fun as RKO's "Flying Down To Rio" from the same year. Its major problem is Marion Davies, not to mention dialogue and choreography that's as bland as it is gauche. It's not that Davies doesn't try -- she manages to come through this one with several good moments, but her lack of overall control and some sloppy timing, not to mention a little over-acting, makes these seem more like happy accidents. Comedienne Patsy Kelly steals every scene from Davies, and Crosby displays enough skill and cool, even in his early days, to avoid complete embarrassment on camera with her. Let's not be too unkind to Davies; you can see in her few serious, "dramatic" lines that musicals and comedies were really NOT her element. Many say that she should have directed more effort into dramatic roles and shied away from the 30's craze for madcap comedy. True, Davies performed beautifully in her silent classic, "The Patsy", easily one of the funniest silent films ever made and whose dry humor holds up well today; but in that case Davies had much better material to work with, and she carried it off brilliantly. Despite its shortcomings, film historians will delight in certain aspects of "Going Hollywood": Bing's performance is incredibly good, even with this material, and he utterly masters 3 very good tunes in "Temptation" (as surreal as you'll ever get in a 1930's musical), "Going Hollywood", and "Beautiful Girl" (the latter a number that young Sterling Holloway almost steals from Der Bingle). These songs alone, by classic writers Arthur Freed and Herb Brown, are worth the price and trouble of obtaining this tape. But there are tremendous gaffs: "We'll Make Hay While The Sun SHines" is a great old tune, but a horribly goofy production number, and Davies disguising herself as a Mammy doesn't get more politically incorrect even for its era. The video is a little dark, obviously made from 2nd- or 3rd-generation prints, but it's pretty clean and sharp for VHS. This is really a 2-star production, but I give it 4 for the supporting cast and the songs -- and, actually, because Marion Davies displays in this movie the "look" that made it difficult for men to keep their eyes away from her. She's a stunner, even if that 30's figure makes her look a little chunky. She wasn't perfect, but Davies deserved better than this from MGM.