Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 13 October 1939 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 13 October 1939. U.S. release: 13 October 1939. Australian release: 1 February 1940. Copyright length: 9,048 feet. 100½ minutes. Australian length: 8,739 feet. 97 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Hollywood director signs ingénue, turns her into a star.NOTES: The scene from The Jazz Singer is not a clip from the Warner Bros, film but a re-enactment which must have delighted Jolson no end as here he actually gets to sing "Kol Nidre". In the original his voice was dubbed by Cantor Joseff RosenblattCOMMENT: Alice Faye's first Technicolor film. The photographers have treated her most kindly and director Cummings has allowed her numerous attractive close-ups. She looks great in her Herschel costumes too. And her acting is nothing short of utterly entrancing. Unfortunately, however, Alice doesn't get to sing a single note. It seems that three songs (including "Whispering" by John Schonberger, Richard Coburn and Vincent Rose) were recorded and shot by Alice. But they are no longer in the film. Presumably they were deleted merely to shorten the running time.What is worse is the fact that the script for Hollywood Cavalcade - for all its good intentions - is not really worthy of her talents. Don Ameche comes over as a boringly brash and unendingly garrulous lead, while the rest of the cast is strictly second-rate. Yes, I include Al Jolson hamming it up with his "Kol Nidre" and Buster Keaton unfunnily throwing custard pies. Even the Keystone Cops lack the verve, the vitality, the split-second timing of the originals.

tavm After about a year of this being on the "long wait" list on Netflix, the DVD was finally delivered a couple of days ago and I finally got to see this after about a couple of decades being curious about it because I read about Buster Keaton throwing a pie in the face of Alice Faye in his bio in an encyclopedia of movie comics called "Funsters". Seeing Keaton years after he seemed to have fallen on hard times due to his alcoholism was refreshing when he performs his silent antics especially when he does those pie scenes. Oh, and Ms. Faye does a nice tribute to Anita Garvin in The Battle of the Century when she falls on a pie. Don Ameche isn't bad as her director who guides her through slapstick comedies and then dramas but can't see the forest for the trees, if you know what I mean. Obviously, if you're familiar with silent movie history, you can see that Ms. Faye and Ameche are a mix of various celebrities from then but also Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand. Sennett himself cameos in a party scene making a speech on the fictional stars depicted. I did not notice James Finlayson-best known to me for his work with Laurel & Hardy-as one of the Keystone Cops. The silent comedy sequences were really well done. The dramatic scenes were okay. I'm guessing Al Jolson didn't recreate his blackface numbers from The Jazz Singer and instead did his stint as a cantor from that was because he already did those in a previous Faye picture called Rose of Washington Square. I'm obviously babbling now so on that note, I recommend Hollywood Cavalcade.

dougandwin As most moviegoers know, 1939 was a year of some very great movies, but "Hollywood Cavalcade" was not one of them. It probably was a big hit at the time, as it adventurously combined Technicolor and Black & White photography, but it has not stood the passing of time nearly as well as many of those made in the same year. One expects with the casting Of Alice Faye and Don Ameche it would be a musical - this is not the case although there were many opportunities for some songs of the era. The story is a pretty hackneyed one of girl meets boy, girl loses boy and finally girl gets boy, so there is no need to dwell on that. The inclusion of some of the stars of the silent era (including the Keystone Kops) is the most interesting feature, but the sequence with Al Jolson was a bit much!!! J. Edward Bromberg made a very interesting character adding some zing to the story. If you see it on Video or DVD, it is interesting enough to pass a 100 minutes or so.

eldorado@vcoms.net In the earliest years of silent cinema, former prop boy Mike (Don Ameche) "discovers" a charming Broadway understudy, Molly (Alice Faye), and impulsively hires her to a personal contract to star in pictures. With Mike as director, Molly is set to appear in a film with Buster Keaton as her boyfriend -- but things get out of hand, the first day on the set.By accident, Buster flings a custard pie into Molly's lovely face, thus throwing off the rhythm of their primly choreographed love scene. Soon Molly, Buster, and the "villain" of their scene (George Givot) are covered in custard, and the laughing and applauding onlookers convince Mike he's discovered a new screen genre. He milks it for all it's worth, launching a series of slapstick comedies -- with pies, bathing beauties, and Keystone-style Kops -- all featuring Molly, who becomes a big star.If "Hollywood Cavalcade" had continued in this same vein, it would probably have become a classic. Instead, about halfway through, Mike makes the decision to turn Molly into a dramatic actress, starring in serious photoplays and leaving her slapstick days behind.The film's second half turns maudlin when Molly, whose love for Mike seems unrequited, marries her new costar Nicky (Alan Curtis). Having lost his biggest star, Mike slides into despair, his films regularly losing money. Then Nicky is killed in a traffic accident and Molly teams up with Mike again. They make a hit picture, and discover that they've loved each other all along."Hollywood Cavalcade" marked two firsts for Alice Faye: her first Technicolor film, and also the first in which she sings not a single note. But her performance was generally lauded by the film critics.