ALICE FAYE is very lovingly photographed in her first Technicolor film, even though it does require her to get a few pies thrown in her face. DON AMECHE puts so much energy into his role as a wanna be director that he often sounds like Jackie Gleason on "The Honeymooners" when he goes into one of his tirades. Both perform well within the limits of a tiresome boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl kind of story set against the early days of motion pictures.
The premise is a good one--using B&W whenever depicting scenes from the films that Molly Adair (Alice Faye) is doing with the Keystone Cops, Buster Keaton, Eddie Collins, Ben Turpin and Chester Conklin, real stars from the silent era. But what starts out as a promising romantic comedy soon delves into trite romantic situations with Faye pining for Ameche, whose mind is never on romance but only on hard work as he dreams up new ideas for her future films. ALAN CURTIS is the leading man Ameche chooses for her and she falls in love with him. But never fear, the script makes sure that she winds up with a reformed Ameche at the end.
Most of it is good fun but the middle part sags a bit and the script loses all originality once it starts to feel sorry for its heroine. It's a shame nobody gets a chance to sing or dance--which may have livened things up a little after the midway point.
Interesting mainly as a glimpse at how silent films were made from the period 1913 through 1928. There's even a peek at Al Jolson's breakthrough talkie "The Jazz Singer," although it's a recreation and not a clip from the original.
The premise is a good one--using B&W whenever depicting scenes from the films that Molly Adair (Alice Faye) is doing with the Keystone Cops, Buster Keaton, Eddie Collins, Ben Turpin and Chester Conklin, real stars from the silent era. But what starts out as a promising romantic comedy soon delves into trite romantic situations with Faye pining for Ameche, whose mind is never on romance but only on hard work as he dreams up new ideas for her future films. ALAN CURTIS is the leading man Ameche chooses for her and she falls in love with him. But never fear, the script makes sure that she winds up with a reformed Ameche at the end.
Most of it is good fun but the middle part sags a bit and the script loses all originality once it starts to feel sorry for its heroine. It's a shame nobody gets a chance to sing or dance--which may have livened things up a little after the midway point.
Interesting mainly as a glimpse at how silent films were made from the period 1913 through 1928. There's even a peek at Al Jolson's breakthrough talkie "The Jazz Singer," although it's a recreation and not a clip from the original.