MOVIE CRAZY

MOVIE CRAZY (1932.) Director: Clyde Bruckman. NOTE: Some sources lists Harold Lloyd as the director. Bruckman and Lloyd were not the same person.

Although this was silent comedian Lloyd's most successful sound picture, it isn't very good. Lloyd plays an aspiring actor who winds up getting a disastrous screen test only because he inadvertently sent the wrong photo to a movie studio. While this is going on, he runs into a pretty actress, Mary (Constance Cummings) who also romances him in alleged disguise as a Spanish senorita, becoming jealous of herself. Although there are amusing situations and a few mild laughs in the film, the pacing is slow and most of the picture falls flat. The only exception to this is a very funny party sequence during which Lloyd accidentally puts on a magician's jacket instead of his own and causes all kinds of havoc with the rabbits, eggs, toys and mice that come flying out of his pockets. Alas, this isn't enough to save the picture. Lloyd is okay, but Cummings, although she's appealing and certainly has presence, has no real skill as a comedienne. The big elaborate studio tank fight scene that ends the picture is quite well done action-wise, but simply isn't that funny.


Verdict: Stick to the silents. **.