Trixie Friganza

A Star is Born came into being when producer David O. Selznick decided to tell a "true behind-the-scenes" story of Hollywood. The truth, of course, was filtered a bit for box-office purposes, although Selznick and an army of screenwriters based much of their script on actual people and events. Janet Gaynor stars as Esther Blodgett, the small-town girl who dreams of Hollywood stardom, a role later played by both Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand in the 1954 and 1976 remakes. Jeered at by most of her family, Esther finds an ally in her crusty old grandma (May Robson), who admires the girl's "pioneer spirit" and bankrolls Esther's trip to Tinseltown. On arrival, Esther heads straight to Central Casting, where a world-weary receptionist (Peggy Wood), trying to let the girl down gently, tells her that her chances for stardom are about one in a thousand. "Maybe I'll be that one!" replies Esther defiantly. Months pass: through the intervention of her best friend, assistant director Danny McGuire (Andy Devine), Esther gets a waitressing job at an upscale Hollywood party. Her efforts to "audition" for the guests are met with quizzical stares, but she manages to impress Norman Maine (Fredric March), the alcoholic matinee idol later played by James Mason and Kris Kristofferson. Esther gets her first big break in Norman's next picture and a marriage proposal from the smitten Mr. Maine. It's a hit, but as Esther (now named Vicki)'s star ascends, Norman's popularity plummets due to a string of lousy pictures and an ongoing alcohol problem. The film won Academy Awards for director William Wellman and Robert Carson in the "original story" category and for W. Howard Greene's glistening Technicolor cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Were it not for the diligence of old-time radio buffs and Three Stooges fans, the 1933 Universal epic Myrt and Marge might have remained in (deserved) obscurity. The film was inspired by The Story of Myrt and Marge, a popular radio serial which ran from 1931 to 1946. Repeating their radio roles, Myrtle Vail and her real-life daughter Donna Damarel star as sisters Myrt Minter and Marge Spear (Spear-Minter, get it?), chorus girls in the long-running Broadway show Hayfield's Pleasures. For plot purposes, Myrt and Marge spend most of the film mired in a third-rate theatrical troupe which only makes it to Broadway in the final reel. The story is maudlin and predictable in the extreme, relieved only by the antics of the Three Stooges -- Moe, Larry and Curly -- and their vaudeville mentor Eddie Foy Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of the 1925 Lon Chaney melodrama of the same name, 1930's The Unholy Three makes several concessions to the newly strengthened Hollywood censors, but is still quite entertaining in a macabre sort of way. Chaney reprises his role as Professor Echo, a sideshow ventriloquist who moonlights as a master criminal. Convincingly disguised as a little old lady, Echo stage-manages a series of Park Avenue robberies -- with two of his carnival cohorts, malevolent midget Tweedledee (Harry Earles) and moronic strongman Hercules (Ivan Linow), doing most of the dirty work. Echo's sweetheart Rosie (Lila Lee) plays along with the Unholy Three but changes her mind when their latest burglary, which ended in murder, threatens to send the wholly innocent Hector (Elliot Nugent) to the electric chair. His resolve weakened by Rosie's pleas, Echo contrives to clear Hector in court through a clever vocal trick -- while his two confederates, in true "thieves fall out" fashion, bring about their own gruesome deaths. The Unholy Three creaks a bit at times, and the unintelligibility of Harry Earles often obscures important plot points, but the film is indispensable as the only talkie appearance of Lon Chaney, "The Man of a Thousand Faces," who died only two months after its release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The present unavailability of 1928's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is especially frustrating for those who'd like to compare this first version of the classic Anita Loos comic novel to the 1953 Marilyn Monroe-Jane Russell remake. The blonde in question is Miss Lorelei Lee, a dumb-like-a-fox golddigger on the prowl for a rich husband. With her best friend Dorothy Shaw (Alice White), Lorelei takes a trip to Gay Paree, where among other adventures she gets mixed up with roguish old millionaire Sir Francis Beekman (Mack Swain). Eventually she finds that true love doesn't come with a price tag, or does it? Ford Sterling and Holmes Herbert co-star as Lorelei and Dorothy's middle-aged swains. Lorelei herself is played by Ruth Taylor, a onetime Mack Sennett bathing beauty who retired from films upon her marriage to a Manhattan stockbroker (life imitates art!) Incidentally, Taylor was the mother of humorist Buck Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lew Cody stars as Tony Townsend, a top-hatted "international adventurer" who gets into a heap of trouble when he runs out of money at the fancy French resort of Monte Carlo. Escaping the authorities, the dapper Tony -- who somewhere along the line has been forced to relinquish his trousers as a down-payment for his board bill -- hides out in the hotel room of prim American schoolteacher Sally (Gertrude Olmstead). He persuades her to protect him from arrest, which she does reluctantly. Clearly, these two were meant for each other, though neither realizes this inevitability until the closing scene. Along the way, Tony poses as one Prince Boris, which does not rest well with the real Boris (Roy D'Arcy). This MGM "B"-plus feature was released in Great Britain as Dreams of Monte Carlo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mariposa (Pola Negri) is a dancer in a Spanish café who is discovered by theatrical manager Señor Sprotti (Cesare Gravina) around the same time that Ralph Bayne, a wealthy American (Wallace MacDonald), sees her. Bayne falls in love with her immediately, as does his chauffeur, Dan Murray (Robert W. Fraser). Because of Sprotti, Mariposa is able to come to America, where both Bayne and Murray continue to woo her -- Bayne with a lot more success. Bertha Sedgwick (Gertrude Astor) is also interested in Bayne, and she rivals Mariposa for his affections. She happens to have a husband (Edwards Davis), and when he catches her in Bayne's apartments, Mariposa, who is also there, claims to be the one compromised. Although Bayne offers to marry her, Mariposa has been disillusioned by his behavior, and she chooses Murray instead. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

King Vidor does a nice job of making an insignificant novel by Lawrence Rising into a pleasant light comedy. Fernanda (Eleanor Boardman, who would become Vidor's second wife) is born in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake and raised by aristocratic relatives in Spain. As a young woman she is engaged to marry Don Jaime Diego (Harrison Ford), but she feels he treats her too lightly. She tells him that she is going to America, but he takes the news so calmly that she is forced to really go. Diego follows after her and, in fact, arrives before she does. This does not stop Fernanda from meeting the attractive Pat O'Malley (Pat O'Malley, apparently using his own name for the character). She falls for him immediately, but when she discovers that, as a contractor, he is basically a glorified plumber, it gives her pause. O'Malley, however, persists and ultimately spirits her off to a cabin. When Diego shows up, O'Malley reluctantly lets Fernanda leave with him, and returns home, depressed. Soon enough Fernanda shows up because she can't forget him. They wind up together, while Diego merely pulls out his little black book and finds another girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Cecil B. DeMille's century-hopping extravaganza The Road to Yesterday begins in the present (1925, that is). Wealthy Joseph Schildkraut can't understand why his wife Jetta Goudal is so cold to him. Goudal senses that Schildkraut had once done her dirt....in a previous life. Likewise unhappily married are William Boyd and Vera Reynolds. All four principals are on an express train which crashes. While unconscious, the foursome flash back to their previous existences in Elizabethan England. Schildkraut was then a knight, Goudal a gypsy, and Boyd and Reynolds were royal hangers-on. Just as Schildkraut is about to burn Goudal at the stake, the four protagonists return to the present. Armed with the knowledge of their past misdeeds, the lovers all vow to set things right in their current lives. Nobody believed The Road to Yesterday back in 1925 (any more than anyone believes it today), but everybody enjoyed it for what it was: a slam-bang piece of pure entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide