utgard14

Red Skelton plays a small town movie fan with dreams of being a star. He gets his opportunity, albeit not as he would have hoped. He wanted to be a romantic leading man and instead he becomes a (unintentional) comedy sensation. Along the way he's helped by a stuntwoman who falls for him. Rare leading lady role for Virginia O'Brien, a wonderful comic actress known for singing songs in a deadpan style. No singing here, but she does get lots of Eve Arden-esque lines opposite Skelton's clueless hero. This was basically and sadly the end of her movie career. She was done with MGM and essentially the business shortly after. Gloria Grahame is great in a fun part as the vampy Hollywood star Skelton's character is in love with. This story had been filmed at least twice before, the best of which was the 1932 version with Stuart Erwin and Joan Blondell. Skelton puts his own touch on things, for better or worse. I think he was fairly dialed back here, maybe too much so. Still, I enjoyed the picture.

"Final" Marx Bros. Film is mostly a vehicle for Harpo with musical numbers and romantic subplot featuring Vera-Ellen and Paul Valentine. Groucho narrates the whole thing as a detective. The film cuts away to him several times before he joins the main story late in the picture. He's funny as expected, although most of his stuff feels tacked-on. Chico has a smaller part but still gets a couple of funny bits including a piano scene. The brothers share no scenes together as a trio but Harpo gets short bits with each separately. Marilyn Monroe appears with Groucho in one memorable scene. It's an entertaining movie. Don't go into it with the expectation that it's going to be a proper Marx Bros. Movie like their 30s classics. Just take it on its own terms and you might enjoy it. Vera-Ellen has a great dance number, Ilona Massey has amazing cleavage, and the supporting cast includes several fun characters. By the way, I watched this on blu-ray and while the picture quality is amazing, HD does the brothers no favors in hiding their age.

Technically the first of the Fox Charlie Chan films, although not really. Chan is only in this in one scene, although he's mentioned many times. Ironically this first and least appearance is the only time he was played by an actual Chinese actor, E. L. Park. The performance is awkward and one would be forgiven for assuming Mr. Park was not an actor at all. No wonder he's only seen once. Most of the runtime is taken up by the romantic trials of Warner Baxter and Lois Moran. Boris Karloff also appears as Baxter's Indian manservant. It's not a particularly good movie, mostly boring and creaky as early talkies tended to be. Worth a look as a curiosity more than anything else.