GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Jimmy L. MOVIE CRAZY (1932) isn't one of Harold Lloyd's greatest comedies, or even, in this reviewer's opinion, his best talkie. It's a cliché story: small-town boy comes to Hollywood for stardom and falls flat on his face. Nincompoop wreaks havoc on movie studio. It's been done countless times, from Buster Keaton in FREE AND EASY (1930) to Red Skelton in MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947).Harold Lloyd plays the part of the fool, who ruins everything he comes in contact with. This type of character (similar to the talkie roles MGM would write for Buster Keaton) is sometimes hard to watch. Hopelessly naïve and pathetic. Viewed as a freak and played for a sucker. Always knocking over stacked objects or falling in puddles.The gags are old and predictable (at least nowadays) and there are no groundbreaking stunts or anything. How many times have we seen the "oops, we must've switched hats" routine? And what do you think happens when Lloyd offers to help a woman unfold the top to her convertible? Or open an umbrella? Does that trick magician's jacket look just like Harold's, hanging in the restroom? (You bet it does.) This comedy just isn't all that funny, lacking some of the magic evident in Lloyd's silent classics.The best thing in this movie is the beautiful Constance Cummings, who gives a rather impressive naturalistic performance as a Hollywood starlet whose path is crossed by Lloyd's accident-waiting-to-happen character. Cummings grows fond of Lloyd (whom she nicknames "Trouble") and her character manages to bring a cute romantic element to the film.The first half-hour or so is pretty dull, but there's a fun little twist where Lloyd cannot recognize Cummings in her exotic on-set make-up and falls in love with the same woman twice. Cummings realizes this and plays around with Lloyd's heart. But does she actually love him, or is it all part of some game? This interesting "love triangle" is the strongest part of the script, and Cummings manages the dual role beautifully.MOVIE CRAZY isn't all bad, but it is something of a letdown. Most of the "comedy" is tiresome, although certain bits work better than others. Interestingly, this talkie lacks some of the wit of Harold Lloyd's silent films. The story is nothing special, but Constance Cummings shines in her role and anchors the sweetness that makes the film's second half worth watching.

JohnHowardReid It's hard to imagine what initial U.S. and Canadian viewers did without, for "Movie Crazy" is all marvelously funny slapstick, featuring Lloyd as an engrossingly sympathetic victim of circumstances. Many really hilarious scenes should put Movie Crazy firmly on anyone's list of must-see Lloyds. True, some critics have complained that Lloyd's skit on movie-making didn't always follow obviously conventional lines, but explored some rather odd by-ways (including the double role mix-up brilliantly acted by the superb Constance Cummings). What these critics don't bother to tell us is that Lloyd was constrained by Paramount's "Make Me a Star". There was no way Lloyd wanted to produce an imitation of the Erwin picture. As the contemporary Variety reviewer commented: "Lloyd's resourcefulness not only circumvents any suspicion of sameness, but develops along a new tangent — although this must have been an intra-studio headache right throughout production — and emerges with some brand-new comedy wrinkles."Despite the above critic's enthusiasm, however, there are in fact a number of duplicate plot situations, although the tone in Lloyd's movie is far less grim. In fact, Lloyd's studio is almost entirely make-believe. It's the sort of fanciful place that most moviegoers would feel represented real Hollywood, although in fact its procedures and the inter-action of its personnel are far removed from actuality. Not that this matters a hoot. In fact just about all the film's humor is hilariously built on the fact that it's not the least bit realistic. Movie Crazy is a super-delightful fairy tale from beginning to end, complete with frog prince (Lloyd), magical enchantress (Cummings), evil suitor (Thomson), easily beguiled king (McWade), self-important chamberlain (Jarvis), and comic courtier (Charters). With a line-up like this, it should come as neither a surprise nor as far-fetched that the hero enjoys a wonderful fling in the role of magician. (In fact, I found this the movie's funniest sequence. I laughed until it hurt).Although the film is credited to Clyde Bruckman (a clever and rather handsome guy who tended to be rather moody and introspective), producer Lloyd (who usually worked in tandem with the credited director anyway) was forced to handle most of the film himself. As he explained in a later interview: "I directed practically the whole thing. Bruckman was one of my gag men, but he had a little difficulty with the bottle. We practically had to wash him out and I had to carry on."

ccthemovieman-1 I watched this the other day for the first time in years, and was disappointed. I had distant memories of this being a very funny film but it just "fair, at best." Some national film critics like Leonard Maltin call this Harold Lloyd's "best talkie," but I disagree. Film critics love any story that has to do with Hollywood.Constance Cummings was more entertaining than Lloyd. Her looks and figure didn't hurt, either. Anyway, Harold plays a small-town Midwestern boy who heads to Hollywood to become a famous movie star. He thinks he's talented enough (which he isn't, of course.) The only reason he got invited, and keeps getting tryouts, is because the producer thinks Lloyd is someone else.Meanwhile, since romance is usually a part of these classic comedies, Harold gets a lot of points with Cummings. She's impressed because he's the only male who doesn't fawn all over him. Since mishaps occur wherever he goes, she calls him "Trouble."Much of the story is a series of events that happen to both of the leads, good things and bad things. There are some funny scenes, such as Lloyd putting on a magician's coat by mistake and squirting people in face, etc. However, if you've seen The Three Stooges, you've seen all the sight gaps you see in this movie. In all, nothing extraordinary.

Chris Peterson I've been working my way through the wonderful DVD box set of Harold Lloyd, and I have to say that his silents are superb and I love them to bits. Until the advent of DVD, the only sound Lloyd I'd seen was 'The Milky Way', which was surprisingly enjoyable. So I figured that Lloyd had made the silent-to-sound transition reasonably well, and was eager to see more of the sound features.Alas, 'Movie Crazy' is a particular disappointment, probably because it's been hyped as Lloyd's best sound film. Lloyd seems to fall into the same trap that Buster Keaton succumbed to - the lead character has become a dimwit. One of the greatest joys of the Lloyd silents is seeing his character think up some nimble bit of wit to get out of a jam - think hitching an ambulance ride to work in 'Safety Last' or rounding up a gang of crooks to come to prayers in 'For Heaven's Sake' - but this Harold, this audible Harold, is an unrelenting klutz. It's hardly plausible that he couldn't distinguish between Mary in her civilian clothes and in make-up on set; the kid must need glasses... oh.Maybe it's because the character is moving at the speed of sound, rather than having the slightly fantastic under-cranked zip of silence; maybe it's because this Harold is a stuttering, stumbling, unsure boob rather than the confident, intelligent boy of yesteryear; maybe it's just because Lloyd was running out of ideas; but this is far from his best sound film, let alone being his best film of all. This was the last film with his characteristic young-go-getter persona, although by this time all the go had already got up and gone, and Lloyd himself was a less than youthful 38. Things improved a bit once Lloyd started playing a different kind of role in a different kind of film, in 'Cat's Paw' and 'Milky Way' but it was too late for a full-scale revival of his stardom.The annoying thing about 'Movie Crazy' is that you can see how the gag sequences could have been shot in a silent film, and would have been much funnier if performed with a bit more pace and without the awkward dialogue. A prime example is the scene towards the start of the film where Harold first smashes up O'Brien's straw boater. It's just too slow and the dialogue is unnecessary. Ditto for the later scene of Harold destroying O'Brien's office - a scene which is very reminiscent of one in Keaton's 'The Cameraman' of 1928.Apparently the original US release of this film was only 84 mins. The restored DVD version is 98 mins, and I can't help thinking that knocking a quarter of an hour out of it could help a great deal. It may well be that the reason the film has received such exalted praise in the past is because people have hitherto only seen the shorter edit. Lloyd was noted for previewing his films to bring them to perfection, and if he decreed that it should have been trimmed to 84 mins in 1932, it should have been kept that way on DVD.I'd be keen to see the short version and give 'Movie Crazy' a second chance. This long version wears out its welcome far too quickly, and I can't believe that this cut is what Harold Lloyd wanted audiences to see.