Make Me a Star (1932) User Reviews

Stars Are Born In Strange Ways

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 19 December 2009]

For a film that was based on a George S. Kaufman collaboration with Marc Connelly, Make Me A Star strangely lacks the acid wit that Kaufman was known for. Instead what we have is a whimsical tale of a dreamy young man who wants to be a film star more than anything else in the world.

Stu Erwin in probably his best known role plays Merton Gill the young man who was taken from an orphanage and raised by a grocer's family to be a grocery clerk and maybe later a part owner of the store. But Erwin loves the movies, he's even taken a correspondence acting course. That by the way is something I can't compute. Can you Lee Strasberg making records for a correspondence school on the Method?

Erwin leaves his Hooterville like hometown to pursue his dream and won't be discouraged. His childlike innocence even wins over bit movie player Joan Blondell on loan from Warner Brothers to Paramount. Erwin in his performance touches on Stan Laurel in portraying innocence in a tough world.

Besides Erwin and Blondell, Make Me A Star is best known for a whole flock of Paramount stars doing walk-ons as themselves in and around the studio and at the premiere of Erwin's movie. As I said, Erwin is almost Laurel like in his innocence and a sharp director decides to take advantage of that. Of course the gag is he doesn't tell Erwin.

Gary Cooper and Tallulah Bankhead are seen in costume from The Devil And The Deep which was also shooting at the same time. Such others as Fredric March, Sylvia Sidney, Charlie Ruggles, Jack Oakie, etc. show up at the premiere.

Make Me A Star, originally Merton Of The Movies ran for 392 performances on Broadway during the 1922-23 season and starred Glenn Hunter who also did a silent screen version of it. Later on MGM secured the rights and Red Skelton did a version of this in the Forties.

Although the big studio system era is gone, people still dream of getting into the motion picture business. For that reason I doubt we've seen the last version of Merton Of The Movies. Can you see someone like Jim Carrey doing it for today's audience? This one will certainly do until that ever happens.

Some touching scenes in this one

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 23 February 2019]

This one is slow to get going, as a small town guy who wants to be a movie star (Stuart Erwin) doesn't have any charisma, and his attempts at a couple of pratfalls are weak. Early on it seemed like this would be a pale reflection of a film that came out a few months later in 1932, 'Movie Crazy', starring Harold Lloyd. However, where that film goes for madcap laughs, this one goes for pathos, and it's in Erwin's bumbling but sincere character that we find an awkward, earnest charm. Amidst a few touching scenes in this guy's story, it's also got some behind the scenes looks at Hollywood sets, several cameo appearances from stars of the day, and a small critique of the industry.

Three well-executed and touching scenes stand out:

• After an actress (Joan Blondell) takes pity on him and gets him a part as an extra, we see him get a single line to deliver, which he nervously flubs a few times before being asked to leave by the director. He does the line one more time and nails it, but while triumphantly looking around, sees the stage has emptied for lunch.

• In desperation he begins sleeping on the lot in the hope he'll get another break, and disheveled and broke, he digs through the trash to try to find food. Blondell finds him this way, and treats him with great kindness and dignity, getting him breakfast. Her looks of empathy reminded me of her 'My Forgotten Man' performance in 'Gold Diggers of 1933.' Being down and out and suffering hunger was a theme in Depression era films, and filmgoers were likely moved by Erwin's plight at a very basic level. He plays this scene very well too, with the perfect touch of humility, and little things like his hands shaking while he lifts his coffee cup.

• Fast forwarding a bit, after getting the starring role in a movie he believes is a classic Western, he attends the preview, only to find he's been duped and the movie is a farce. He's been set up to look like a fool not only by the director, but by Blondell. The scene in the theater where the film cuts to shots of audience members guffawing and then back to him squirming in discomfort is brilliant - and it should remind modern audiences of James Franco in 'The Disaster Artist', which perhaps owes a debt to it. We see several scenes on the big screen after having seen them on the set earlier, including a 'blue screen' scene on a horse, and it's really nice work.

If you watch closely, you'll also see many stars, including Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Tallulah Bankhead, Frederic March, and Sylvia Sidney, adding another bit of interest. The film pokes a little at the phoniness of the industry, epitomized by the cowboy star Erwin idolizes (George Templeton), who isn't such a nice guy in reality. Blondell is charming in her part but Erwin, well, he's almost too damn sincere and milquetoast to really love the film. Its ending is also a bit abrupt. Still, worth seeing, and an interesting little pre-code curio.

Unexpectedly sweet and touching drama

[1930s_Time_Machine · 6/10 · 17 December 2022]

Despite what you might have read, this is not a comedy. It's upbeat and amusing but the theme is about the cruelty of people finding it funny to laugh at people with 'learning difficulties' and how those people should appreciate how hurtful that can be.

I've never heard of Stuart Erwin before and maybe that anonymity helps us see his character, Merton, exactly as we're meant to: an unknown trying to make it in the snake-pit of Hollywood. Merton is a simple, child-like young man who thinks he can just walk up to the door of a film studio and become a star. His naive innocence makes us warm to him and feel sorry for him as people laugh at his stupidity and take advantage of him. His character is intentionally flat and one-dimensional but somehow Erwin manages to make his Merton believable and quite endearing.

Joan Blondell, playing a reasonably successful actress, who like us the viewer, first laughs at him, then feels sorry for him and eventually learns that she actually likes him. Her performance is outstanding, full of depth and pathos as she allows her character's true personality to emerge and develop. Although we're more used to seeing her playing funnier characters she's brilliant in this more dramatic role. Even though she's not playing for laughs she is just as sassy, witty and of course incredibly sexy.

Without giving anything away, the last scene is one of the most moving and touching few minutes on screen I've ever seen. This outpouring of emotion isn't just thanks to the amazing Joan, the surprisingly impressive Stuart Erwin but also from veteran Hollywood director William Beaudine. He is perhaps more well known for coming over here to make four classic Will Hay comedies - he could clearly turn his hand to anything and this motion picture shows just how much talent he had.

This film does take a while to really get going but overall it's a lovely bitter-sweet, light heated drama. The clever thing about it is that you don't realise until it's finished is that it's just so "nice."

Hollywood dreams can come true... sort of.

[mkilmer · 8 April 2007]

Here I am, in 2007, and I'm a huge Joan Blondell fan. Yes, Zasu Pitts appears in MAKE ME A STAR – daffy and confounding – but only for a bit. I think it's Joanie's movie.

Stuart Erwin stars as Merton Gill, a.k.a. 'Whoop' Ryder, a kid from a small town who wants to make it in Hollywood as a serious actor in Westerns. He gives it a huge effort, but he's dismissed as the rube he actually is. Flips Montague (Joan) is sympathetic. She gets him a job, with a Mack Sennett-like director whose big star is that "cross-eyed man" Stuart dislikes so much. Merton thinks he's acting in a serious film, but it is edited and spliced, his voice changed to make him sound effeminate, and turned into a farce.

Merton proposes to Joan before the film's big opening, but she feels guilty and fakes sickness. He goes to the opening by himself and is humiliated.

I won't give away the ending, and the film is resolved by the closing scene, but it's nice to imagine his future if he takes the course which involves the girl.

This is a fun film.

Local boy does not make good

[JohnSeal · 7/10 · 18 November 2010]

The siren song of Hollywood gets skewered in this rarely seen Paramount comedy from director William Beaudine. The forgotten Stuart Erwin stars as Merton Gill, a small town grocery clerk who dreams of becoming a cowboy star on a par with his screen idol, Buck Benson. Discouraged and ridiculed by everyone in town except erstwhile screenwriter Tessie (Helen Eddy), Merton ups sticks for Tinsel Town and sets his sights on Majestic Studios, where Benson rides the celluloid range. Rejected by the casting office but with his confidence unshaken, he finally lands a role as a comic straight man thanks to the machinations of actress Flips Montague (gorgeous Joan Blondell). Trouble is, Merton thinks he's been cast in a serious role, but when the film's premiere reveals otherwise, tears and recriminations are the order of the day. Make Me A Star also features ZaSu Pitts, silent comic Ben Turpin, and a host of bigger Paramount stars in "on set" cameos, including Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, and Fredric March. It's tremendous fun.

Merton's going to Hollywood if he can get to Red Gap by Sundown

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 16 September 2018]

This film, starring Joan Blondell, Zasu Pitts, and Tom Ewell, is based on the story of Merton of the Movies, which has been a story, a play, this film, and one starring Red Skelton in 1947.

Naive hayseed Merton works as a grocery store delivery man while he's taking an acting correspondence course and posing for photos in western garb. He does get out to Hollywood and his naivete impresses an actress Flips Montague (Blondell) hanging out in the casting office (Blondell) who appeals to a friend to hire him as an extra. He's actually given a line but blows it, gets fired, and Flips finds him looking through garbage for food. She begs a comedy director to cast him, though Merton hates comedies, is aspiring to great art, and doesn't realize he's ridiculous.

This film was miscategorized by Paramount as a comedy. It's not. It's a poignant story of a man wanting to make serious films who, unbeknownst to him, is taken in a different direction. It's about dreams, it's about knowing who we are.

The fun part of this film is the Paramount stars who have walk-ons: Tallulah Bankhead, Clive Brook, Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Phillips Holmes, Fredric March, Jack Oakie, Charles Ruggles, and Sylvia Sidney.

Make Me a Star ends somewhat ambiguously, so you'll have to decide for yourselves. Stuart Erwin and Joan Blondell give wonderful performances.

A Twenties story that looks odd in the Thirties

[rhoda-9 · 7/10 · 15 September 2020]

A remake of the silent Merton of the Movies, this picture also shows a naive hayseed who thinks his correspondence course in acting means he is sure to succeed in Hollywood. It was a story of a bumptious hero with more confidence than sense, perfect for the era of the big talker and the super-salesman, figures whom the audience enjoyed seeing taken down but with whose energy and vigor they sympathized.

Merton of the Thirties, however, is notable for his pathos and helplessness. At times he is so slow-witted that he seems to be not just dim but mentally ill, someone who should not be laughed at. He lived in an orphanage, then worked at a menial job for a sour old grocer and his wife and apparently has had nothing to do with girls (Erwin is 29). At one point, when Hollywood laughs at him and rejected him, we see him carefully picking through a bin full of cardboard lunch boxes to find something to eat. Impossible not to think of the men and women in real life (this was pre-Roosevelt) doing the same.

The movie is very nicely made, Joan Blondell turns in her usual appealing performance of the brash good sport, and there are plenty of funny lines and situations. But it is consistent with the rest of the movie (and extremely laudable) that the ending is full of pathos as well. It's a very interesting example of a story that does its best to be escapist comedy but that recognizes that real life and real people are more important than movie fantasies.

I Don't Like Stu Erwin, But...

[boblipton · 7/10 · 13 September 2023]

Stu Erwin wants to be a cowboy star. He takes a correspondence school course, and heads to Hollywood, where he can't make it into the front door. He winds up camping in the extras room, until born-in-a-trunk Joan Blondell gets him a background bit..... and he blows that. After he nearly starves to death, she talks comedy director Sam Hardy into making a send-up of cowboy movies starring Erwin.

William Beaudine directed this version of Merton of the Movies as a painful drama, and on those terms it works pretty well. Miss Blondell is excellent, of course, and if I strongly dislike Erwin's countrified dumb bell, his star persona in this period, at least it fits the character.

With a fie cast, including Zasu Pitts, Ben Turpin (always referred to as 'the Cross-Eyed Man), and a wealth of Paramount stars in cameos a themselves, it's an enjoyable picture on those terms.

Bless Turner Classic Movies

[MJBRLD · 8/10 · 24 December 2006]

Once again TCM comes to the rescue of a forgotten gem. I agree with the posters here who comment on the interesting mix of pathos and comedy in this film. The film is truly touching in a way that could not come across today. Why is that? I think that nowadays it is an either-or : either you are a comedy or you are going for pathos. The trick of balancing both seems to be lost.

There is additional pleasure in seeing Paramount stars of the times in walk-ons in the scenes on the lot or at the disastrous/successful preview. Look quickly and you can see Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Tallulah Bankhead among others.

Joan Blondell is excellent in her specialty, playing the tough cookie with a huge sentimental streak. I found the sweetness of the comedy in the scenes back home in Simsbury absolutely refreshing. Not a touch of cynicism even though these characters are so clearly the objects of humor.

Catch this when you can. I just checked the Turner schedule for the next three months and it doesn't seem to be on.

not a comedy

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 9 August 2023]

Timid small town grocery clerk Merton Gill (Stuart Erwin) has one dream. He wants to be a cowboy movie star and heads out to Hollywood. Actress 'Flips' Montague (Joan Blondell) gives him a chance, but he's bad. They decide to make a western parody movie without telling him that it's a parody. He thinks that it's a serious western.

It's an interesting premise, but this movie isn't actually funny. It's rather sad. Merton is too pathetic to be funny. He's playing the country bumpkin without the humor. While it's not a comedy, it is an interesting story. It could have tried for a black comedy, but I feel too sad for Merton.

An interesting plot...but it has some uncomfortable moments.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 22 October 2010]

I must first point out that I have never seen the silent version or the Red Skelton remake (both titled "Merton of the movies"), so I really cannot compare this film to the previous or later versions.

The film begins in a small town. Local boy, Merton (Stu Erwin) has ambitions to become a cowboy star in movies and has just completed his correspondence course in acting. However, it's obvious to the viewer that Merton, though likable, is a terrible actor and a bit of a boob. So, when he heads off for Hollywood it's not surprising he is in way over his head. However, a lady at the studio (Joan Blondell) feels sorry for him after weeks of coming in to the casting office and helps him get a job. But, he's terrible at acting and they haven't the heart to tell this nice guy. In fact, he's so bad they decide to cast him in a comedy--but not tell him it's NOT a serious western. In the end, he discovers the ruse and feels heartbroken...and then the movie unexpectedly ends.

This film has kernels of a good film but doesn't quite make it. Sure, Erwin in likable (as usual) but he's too serious and pathetic in the film to make this a comedy--and at times, I felt uncomfortable watching him. He was, instead of funny, quite pathetic. I assume Skelton played it more for laughs--and that's probably a better way to have played it. In addition, the film has no real ending...it just stops and seems quite incomplete. An interesting but flawed concept.

By the way, Harold Lloyd made a similar film but it was much, much, much better. "Movie Crazy" is a terrific film about a boob who arrives in Hollywood and has no idea that the folks are laughing at his dramatic performances--and he becomes an inexplicable star.

Very touching drama - not really a comedy.

[David-240 · 8/10 · 12 August 1999]

Billed as a comedy about a gormless man who becomes a Hollywood star, this is actually a moving drama about the savageness of the film industry. Stuart Erwin is very fine as the young man, an innocent lost in the wilds of Hollywood. His performance is reminiscent of the performances of Charles Ray in silent films, a winning combination of warmth and naivety. The character wants to be a a serious actor, but his attempts at drama cause only laughter. After describing one such incident Blondell responds to "That must have been funny" with "Only if you find coal-mine explosions funny". Blondell, as a fellow actor, understands Erwin's pain - her performance is also excellent.

Finally Erwin is tricked into making a comedy film - which he believes is a drama. His devastation at the preview, as the crowd roar with laughter around him, will move you to tears.

Sadly the film ends too abruptly without resolving these complex issues. And the stars making "guest appearances" actually just walk through - a shame that something more imaginative wasn't done with them - and Zasu Pitts only has a tiny role (still funny though).

Great to see how early talkies were made - look at the size of the camera with all that casing to mask the noise. Make sure you see this moving "comedy" - most worthwhile. And afterwards see "Show People" (1928) to see how the talkies transformed Hollywood so quickly.

Aw Shucks Do-Gooder in Hollywood

[view_and_review · 7/10 · 11 February 2024]

If there ever was a naive, aww-shucks, intrinsically good character it was Merton Gill (Stuart Erwin). He was from the small town of Simsbury, USA and his only desire was to go to Hollywood and be an actor. He didn't want to be any ol' actor, he wanted to be a serious Western actor. His favorite actor was Buck Benson (George Templeton) and he patterned himself after him. He spent so much time studying his craft and neglecting his store duties that his adopted father kicked him out.

Merton headed west to Hollywood where he would get a rude awakening. No, you can't just walk on a set, say "I'm an actor," and get a job. No one is impressed by your love or knowledge of films. No one cares about you one way or the other.

It really was a cautionary tale to small town folks around the country who desire to find fortune and fame in Tinseltown.

At the Majestic Studios casting office an actress named Mary 'Flips' Montague (Joan Blondell) felt sorry for Merton after seeing him turned away day after day. She pulled some strings to get him an extra gig on a movie and he totally blew it. He took a simple gig and mucked it up as badly as you possibly can.

Merton was all but finished in Hollywood before he even started. One day he was picking through discarded food when Flips found him and helped him again. This time she went to Jeff Baird (Sam Hardy), a maker of comedy films. She convinced Jeff that Merton would be perfect in a comedy role because he is so sincerely goofy looking. He was so small town and out of his element without even knowing it that he was a joke. Flips only requested that Jeff make Merton believe that he was doing a serious film because Merton had no interest in being a heel (which was funny in itself because he was a nobody, yet he was setting conditions for his services).

Jeff went along with Flips' plan and they made the movie without letting on to Merton one bit about the true nature of the movie they were shooting. Eventually the two of them began to feel bad. Here they were pulling the wool over the eyes of the nicest most sincere guy on the planet. It was like killing baby seals.

The absolute funniest part of the movie was when they had the preview. I was laughing right along with the audience. They dubbed over Merton's real voice and added some slapstick which made the movie within the movie a riot.

I like Joan Blondell in just about everything she does, but this was Stuart Erwin's show. He was too perfect for the role of Merton Gill aka Whoops Ryder. He flawlessly pulled off the shy, naive, honest out-of-towner. I kept waiting for him to have his moment of clarity--the moment he wisens up and becomes a little more street savvy, but it never came. He was a simple do-gooder until the very end who was going to either make you laugh or make you cry.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

Sadly Disappointing

[bbrebozo · 5/10 · 13 September 2015]

I'm old enough to remember Joan Blondell as a funny and sassy old lady when she was a guest on television talk shows in the 1960's and 1970s, and I've enjoyed Stuart Erwin's other films, so I really wanted to love this movie. Sadly, I didn't, for two reasons.

First, because Stuart...Erwin gave almost...all of his lines a...halting reading that I think was...supposed to make...him seem like...a humble and ignorant country boy...but got...really annoying...after a while. It was like two hours of a really bad Christopher Walken imitation.

Second, I found Stuart Erwin's character very unlikeable. Basically, he plays an ignorant and untalented narcissist who shows up in Hollywood expecting to be given big dramatic roles with one specific studio. When Joan Blondell takes an inexplicable liking to him, and gets him a job as a movie extra (which he initially thinks is beneath him), he blows his line and gets fired. So instead of trying to get work at another studio, or getting a regular job, he stays behind the studio walls and lives on scraps from the trash.

Again, Blondell comes to the rescue, and gives him another shot at movies. But since he despises what he calls "cross-eyed comedies" (a shot at legendary cross-eyed movie comedian Ben Turpin, who co-stars with him), they cast him in a movie without telling him it's a comedy. He becomes a big star, largely because he is so untalented that it's funny. But because he is the star of his despised cross-eyed comedies, he's hurt, has a hissy fit, and makes plan to return to his hometown.

He ends up staying, apparently because of the mutual love between him and Joan Blondell. However, there is absolutely no chemistry between Blondell and Erwin at all. So the ending makes no sense and is pretty unsatisfying.

I did like the twist, unusual for the 1930's, of a successful woman using her position of power to rescue a weak and vulnerable man. Unfortunately, because the movie was ineptly done, this twist was underplayed and buried.

To those who rated this film highly: Believe me, I wish I could have agreed with you.

Stuart Erwin & Joan Blondell Are Amazing

[Kalaman · 1 November 2003]

Slight Spoiler.

I was profoundly touched and moved by this small Paramount picture, a fervent and well-made satire on Hollywood. As it unfolds, "Make Me a Star" turns out to be more dramatic than humorous, with amazing performances by the two leads, Stuart Erwin and Joan Blondell. Erwin's Mertin Gill, a grocery clerk that dreams of becoming a cowboy actor in Hollywood, is fabulous without overdoing his part. Blondell who understands him better than anyone in Hollywood, gives one of her most honest and touching performances ever. My favorite scene is when Gill is in the movie theatre watching the preview of his unedited film `Wide Open Spaces'; the audience is laughing hysterically while Gill sits there looking stunned and speechless. It is a sincere blend of comedy and pathos, like the picture itself. This is a very special, heartwarming film and you will fall in love with it.

The star cameos include Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Clive Brook, Jack Oakie, Charles Ruggles, Frederic March, and Sylvia Sidney.

unbelievable

[writtenbymkm-583-902097 · 6/10 · 10 August 2023]

I rated this movie with six stars mostly because of Joan Blondell, one of my favorite actresses. When I came across the movie on Turner Classics (thanks, Turner!), I immediately recorded and then watched it, expecting a comedy because it sounded like a comedy. Boy was I disappointed. It starts out with a Hollywood wannabe leaving his hick town for tinseltown in hopes of fame and fortune as a "serious actor." But when it quickly becomes painfully obvious that he has zero talent and should've stayed home, Joan Blondell's actress character feels sorry for him for no apparent reason, buys him a meal, and introduces him to a guy who directs movies with the kid's idol, a famous cowboy. As other reviewers have pointed out, the catch is that this innocent and totally inept kid will be made to believe he's starring in a serious Western but it will in fact be made strictly for laughs, at his expense. This seems rather cruel, even by Hollywood standards, but I found it unbelievable for two reasons. One, not for an instant did I believe Joan Blondell would find this kid likable, much less develop strong feelings for him. He was a pathetic untalented idiot. What was the attraction? Two, if she really did have feelings for him, she would have told him to his face that he didn't have a chance in the world of succeeding in movies. She never would have aided and abetted the scheme of letting him believe he'd become an instant success and making him a laughingstock. Originally I rated this with only three stars, but changed it to six because I really do enjoy watching Joan Blondell, but that final pathetic scene, evidently meant to be heartbreaking, was too long and frankly absurd.

Surprisingly sentimental comedy-drama

[csteidler · 6/10 · 15 March 2024]

Stuart Erwin is enthusiastically dense as Merton Gill, a young man who has gotten himself a mail order diploma from an acting school and ditches his small town for Hollywood, determined to make it big.

It's harder than he expected, of course, but Erwin persists in hanging around the movie studio. Eventually studio star Joan Blondell takes pity on him and convinces a director to give him a bit part in a western. When star and director get a load of Erwin's comical overacting, they get an idea - and suddenly Erwin is starring in his own western picture, taking himself very seriously while everyone around him is well aware that the picture is intended to be a farce. As production wraps up, Blondell - who, it turns out, really is pretty softhearted - grows increasingly worried what will happen when Erwin figures out that everyone is laughing at him.

Blondell is fun to watch and quite good as the movie actor with a conscience. Stuart Erwin is just fine as Merton, a bit dopey but still a sympathetic figure. In fact, while the movie feels like it should be a comedy - with all of Erwin's "serious acting" scenes drawing laughs from those around him - it turns out to be more drama than comedy, and finally builds to a climax that aims to be moving rather than hilarious.

It's no classic, and the story feels like kind of a chestnut even for 1932, but still - it's hard not to feel yourself really rooting for Merton in the end there.

shows the system in the industry was the same seventy yrs ago

[dcaprita · 8/10 · 24 February 2000]

Having done the 'starving actor thing" in LA for several years, I fell in love with this movie late one night on Turner Classics. It has some great scenes of the naive midwestern dude learning how to act and get in the business. And it doesn't necessarily have a happy ending, which I loved. Does he stay and starve, does he go back home, does he make it? The casting scenes are great and Joan Blondell does a great job as the sympathetic inside woman. Accurate, tongue in cheek portrait of the business that still stands.

A lovely movie

[Handlinghandel · 9/10 · 27 September 2003]

This movie is indescribably touching. Stuart Erwin is poignant as the naif who comes to Hollwywood to be a star; but he never overdoes it. Joan Blondell, always a reat, is at her absolute best here, as a girl who's been around but is touched by his innocent.

This movie is indescribably touching. Stuart Erwin is poignant as the naif who comes to Hollywood to be a star; but he never overdoes it. Joan Blondell, always a treat, is at her absolute best here, as a girl who's been around but is touched by his innocent.

The character roles are well cast. The writing carries impeccable names as its creators.

When it becomes comic, even though we are sad for Erwin's character because he is being goofed on, the scenes are absolutely hilarious. The shot of him riding a horse on a tightrope alone is worth watching over and over.

Preston Sturges mixed comedy and seriousness in the later, far better known (and wonderful) "Sullivan's Travels." That is a great movie. Perhaps, as this was made early in the days of talking pictures, it isn't great -- though so was "Scarface," and that I would call great.

Regardless, it is a beautiful movie, to be cherished and shared and watched over and over.

Stuart Erwin's Versatility

[judith-38 · 18 July 2004]

"Make me a Star" is a heartrending film, one that superbly demonstrates the sincerity, honesty, and versatility of Stuart Erwin. Although many of the early scenes are farcical and satirize slapstick comedy, specifically the kind directed by Mack Sennett, the movie turns serious when it delves into the boorish behavior of the Hollywood studio system moguls, who prey upon starstruck acting hopefuls. And Stuart Erwin, as one of these unworldly hopefuls, handles both the farce and the drama equally adroitly. The final scene between Erwin and Joan Blondell is heartbreaking. In fact, I was so impressed with the movie that I decided to devote much of one chapter to this remarkable film in my book on Stuart Erwin.

One of the great expositions on the "Price of Fame"

[ScenicRoute · 9/10 · 20 April 2007]

This is high modernism at its best - a powerful recognition of the enormous power of cinema to both elevate and crush talent, told through the means of a simple "boy wants to go to Hollywood" story. It is so affecting because though it can be viewed as a relatively straightforward tragicomedy, it ultimately becomes a light but heartfelt meditation on the constraints that art places on the artist and the artist on the art. But that's what they were doing in 1932 - a particularly great year for Cinema - when the technology had really come together (this movie has music overlays, and film within a film), but the industry had not yet begun to self-police itself in the context of its political role in society, and to abandon the unself-conscious exploration of the latest literary forms. These themes - self-consciousness, the artist as victim to his art - themes that Joyce and Woolf were exploring in literature, can be found right here in "Make me a Star." The Pre-Production Code Enforcement movies almost always contain these nuggets, and I watch them no matter how badly rated the contemporary critics assess them. For example, this movie garners but 2 starts, yet I would put it as solid 3.5 (out of 4).

Stuart Irwin's acting is a tour-de-force: absolutely astounding at every turn, and the final scene had me in tears: Laugh if you well, his statement "I'm a clown" reminded me of the great aria "Rire Pagliacco" from Il Pagliacci - it was that kind of moment - the self-conscious realization that the actor and the role were one, but in contrast to the opera, here the clown accepts his fate rather than fighting it.

Ruth Donnelly has a cameo role and is her usual work-horse self - always great to see the old girl, and let's all work to put her into the pantheon of great stars, for she certainly was. The brilliance of her acting is that she doesn't thumb her nose at conventional morality, she doesn't know it exists. She is too busy in the day-to-day to understand the oppression of woman, but if confronted, she will make it clear that others may be oppressed, but she ain't (and you'll learn the hard way soon if you don't agree with her).

I do not know if the 1924 play includes the homosexual innuendo found in this movie, when Joan Blondell says to Sam Hardy, "You're not going soft on him, are you?" Regardless, this moment is fine, and there is no shame or circumspection in either Hardy's or Blondell's interchange - but unlike today you don't know or care whether Hardy is gay or straight, just that he's a great director and yes, he has gone a bit soft on Erwin. I need to research Sam Hardy, but his cameo here is superb.

And what else can one say about Joan Blondell, other than to say that the 26-year old she is in this movie could step into 2007 and deal with it just fine? - truly, completely liberated, but still with a tenderness to the conventional morality that she bows to but knew was slipping away. I don't know who insisted on down-playing the romantic angle between the role of Menton Gill and 'Flips' Montague, but this also makes the movie startling. Menton Gill could be gay and Flips just a 'girl-friend' - they really are equals here, whose only real sexuality is the desire to perform.

I taped this movie onto a DVD and am sitting my 5 and 8 year-old daughters down to watch this as soon as I can budget 1.5 hours for the three of us (or four, if Mom wants to join) to enjoy this together and to understand its lessons. It is a perfect antidote to the silly point our culture has come to, where celebrity qua celebrity is all that matters, and at least in the ephemera, talent is irrelevant. This movie reminds us that talent is everything, and there is a great price to pay for it.

Star-studded, but it will repay more than one visit!

[JohnHowardReid · 9/10 · 15 August 2017]

When M-G-M bought the rights from Paramount in order to film a Red Skelton re-make in 1947, they also acquired the negative. This they suppressed. The movie was never shown on American TV and thus all the people who wrote the books on Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier and the rest were forced to rely largely on guesswork, leavened with what could be gleaned from contemporary reviews in Variety, Photoplay, Time and The New York and Los Angeles Times.

The only critic who got nearly everything right was Homer Dickens who had the good sense to hunt through the files of the British Film Institute where he came upon a spread in "Picture Show" featuring Stuart Erwin with his hero, Gary Cooper. All the others relied simply upon their own powers of deduction and the way "guest stars" were treated in movies they were familiar with. They reasoned that Paramount would treat their guest stars with a certain amount of indulgence and fanfare. This is far from the case. The treatment is, to say the least, decidedly casual. This is one of the film's charms.

True, Chevalier is given an "entrance", but that's all it amounts to. Cooper is handed a line of dialogue about dropping into wardrobe. Bankhead waves him a two-word farewell. Jack Oakie and Charlie Ruggles enter the preview theater together, conversing briefly. A glum and silent Fredric March can be glimpsed in a corner of the same lobby, signing autographs.

From memory, I don't think that Merton is "introduced" to any of the guest stars at all. Nor does he have any conversations with them. In fact, by and large, the "guests" are dropped into the action so casually, most modern viewers will not be made aware of Brook, Colbert, Holmes, March or Sidney at all. Thus do errors repeat themselves and the uninspired guesswork of self-styled "cinema historians" becomes elevated to "facts".

The real "guest star" of "Make Me a Star" is none other than the movie's actual director, William Beaudine, who contrives some wonderfully riotous run-ins between his assistant director character, stumble-bum Erwin and Oscar Apfel.

Apfel is an absolute howl as a tactful but not-so- patient director (obviously modeled on — you guessed it — Beaudine himself).

Confused? Make a point of seeing this movie TWICE and it will all work out!

The Hollywood scenes are undoubtedly the most entertaining in the movie. They are helped out not only by Bill Beaudine's unusually stylish direction with its masterly use of the Paramount lot itself (masquerading in the film as Majestic Pictures) but by the presence of that vital, alluring, vivacious little blonde bundle of warmth and cynicism, Joan Blondell. Perfectly cast here, Miss Blondell can snap out put-down lines with all the rapid-fire command of a Glenda Farrell, whilst still displaying the warmth and sympathy, the caressing kindliness of an Irene Dunne.

Erwin does okay as Merton, though one often has the feeling that his performance is more mechanical than heartfelt. Aside from Blondell, it's the support players that make the movie. Charles Sellon, repeating his role from the silent version, as the mean and mangy storekeeper, Ruth Donnelly as the wise-cracking "countess", Sam Hardy as the guiding hand of Loadstone, Oscar Apfel as the no- frills director. And of course, Ben Turpin, — though his part is brief and amounts almost to slightly uncomfortable self-parody. But maybe that's what the clever script is getting at. Maybe that's the whole point of "Make Me a Star".

Where's the glamour the script seems to be asking? Hollywood is a factory town. This is the aspect the script makes time and time again. The gloom of the cheerless casting office is not exactly cast aside by the time we finally enter through that door which has closed over numerous exits and at last reach our goal — the lot itself. Where's the glamour? And what of "Flips"? What role actually is she playing? She seems at first to be Donnelly's boss and then her assistant. Then an actress (extra? star?), then a girl with an "in" to various executives — to the assistant director whom she pressures into giving Merton his first break; to the Loadstone chief whom she talks into experimenting with parody. She obviously has the freedom of the lot, yet there's an implication this freedom was purchased for the usual price. Yes, "Make Me a Star" is definitely a movie that will repay more than one visit.

The best "dreams of Hollywood" movie

[davidcaprita · 8/10 · 9 August 2023]

After moving from a lucrative job in Miami to LA, to become a working actor, I ran into this movie on TCM. After a year, things had gone belly up for me and this film made me laugh and cry at the same time; how the story of starry-eyed wannabes had been coming to Hollywood decades before I thought of it. I cringe when I see some of these scenes of desperation. The goofy headshots he proudly shows to the cynical people in the casting office. His encounters with the stars he worships. Great movie with honest acting. And very clever writing by people who obviously know the heartlessness and cynicism of the industry, even in these early days. The "How to Act" records scene with the "Expression Chart" is worth the price of the whole movie.

A star is made not born

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 27 July 2022]

Several pictures about nobodies becoming overnight stars were produced in 1932. These included RKO's searing dramatic take on the tale, WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? Starring Constance Bennett as well as Harold Lloyd's raucous farce MOVIE CRAZY, which was released through Paramount. But Paramount also had this other film, MAKE ME A STAR, which sort of straddles the fence between humor and pathos and features Stuart Erwin and Joan Blondell in the lead roles.

MAKE ME A STAR was a remake of an earlier Paramount silent film called MERTON OF THE MOVIES which had been produced in 1924 and was based on a hit novel and play. In the mid-1940s, the studio sold the rights to MGM which remade it again as a vehicle for Red Skelton.

In the 1932 version, Erwin is playing a hick named Merton Gill, who like Danny Kaye in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, has a rich fantasy life. When he's not messing up orders as a store clerk, he spends time with his horse, dressed in cowboy gear, emulating his favorite western movie star, Buck Benson (George Templeton).

He has even learned how to "act" by taking a correspondence course, which is rather amusing. Everyone in town thinks there's something wrong with him except maybe one person, a spinster (Helen Jerome Eddy) whose own dreams of leaving and enjoying a spectacular life elsewhere have pretty much died.

Erwin is forced to make a choice by his adoptive father (Charles Sellon, who also appeared in the same role in 1924). The choice: put an end to his crazy day-dreaming and get back to work, or get out. Erwin decides to pack his things, and he hops a train to California. After he arrives out west, we see him go to Majestic Pictures which is where his hero Buck works. He naively thinks he can just walk on to the lot and get a role with Buck. Instead, he learns he's going to have to start as an extra and work his way up in the movie business.

While he's struggling, he meets the receptionist (Ruth Donnelly) of the casting office as well as a comedy actress (Blondell) who often comes in to drop stuff off. They do not think he has what it takes to be a popular film actor and Donnelly in particular is hoping he'll give up and go back home. But Blondell sort of feels sorry for the guy, and she pulls a few strings to get him work on Buck's latest picture. But when he flubs his one and only line and is fired on the same day, he goes off the radar.

What they don't realize is that he's lost his apartment and has no money for food. He's hiding out in a soundstage and scrounging for leftovers in the trash. Again Blondell takes pity and comes to his rescue.

She takes him to breakfast, then gives him a few dollars to shave and wash up. Next, she speaks to a director (Sam Hardy) of slapstick films that she works with, to convince him to hire Erwin.

Part of the conflict is that Erwin thinks of himself as a serious actor, but Blondell recognizes his potential for clowning. When the director decides to make Erwin the star in a western burlesque picture, they all play it "straight" letting the sap think he's making a high-grade western drama.

It's fun to watch the rest of the cast of the movie within the movie play this joke on him. Of course, we are also bracing ourselves for the big turning point when he learns the truth.

It isn't until the preview screening that Erwin's character realizes he's been such a sucker. The film is a hit with the test audience, but Erwin has to face the reality that he'll never play Hamlet and that Blondell and the others turned him into a laughing stock. Of course, Blondell's character has a heart and expresses contrition for what she's done. We know she is going to end up spending the rest of her life with him.

As I watched the film, I didn't exactly feel sorry for Erwin, since I felt his character needed to develop a sense of humor. If you can't laugh at yourself, you have no place in the movies, because it's a funny business and everyone knows that. Also, I thought that while Erwin gives us a nice modulated performance, he was actually not the right type of actor for this role. I think it really needs someone with a clown-type persona, like Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown or Red Skelton. Mainly because he has to be someone who is funny no matter what, and Mr. Erwin does not exactly come across that way. Does he?

One thing I do love about the film is how evenly paced the sequences are. Director William Beaudine allows things to slow down, allows us to see our "star" struggle, and along with this, we are allowed to see Blondell's character develop. We don't necessarily want him to become the next John Barrymore, or the next guy to make a fortune entertaining millions...we just want him to gain some self-respect and self-worth.

Dreamer Hits the real world of Hollywood

[carolwexler · 10/10 · 16 December 2018]

Stu Erwin was excellent as a young man, Gil, that dreams of being a western star in the movies. Not for the money or the fame but to make other people happy. He gets to Hollywood. Everywhere he turns as expected Gil is knocked down,pushed out and rejected. But he never gives up. Stu Erwin's acting in this film pulls it off with the help of the rest of the fine cast. This film was an unexpected pleasure to watch. I have always enjoyed fictional films about early Hollywood and this one was no exception. My only wish, that this picture continued a little longer for a truly happy ending. That the film within this film was re-edited from comedy to western drama making Gill the western movie star of his dreams.