The Talk of Hollywood

"The Talk of Hollywood" is a very dated early talking picture--with flashes of great insight and intelligence as well as extreme awfulness! Much of the problem is that the movie has aged very poorly. It must have played better back in the 20s when it first came out in theaters.

Nat Carr plays Mr. Ginsberg--an EXTREMELY stereotypically Jewish head of a motion picture studio. While he's been very successful in the past, he's gambling everything on his first talking picture--and through the course of the film it sure looks like the film will tank. At the same time, Ginsberg's daughter is in love with a nice young lawyer--a guy who does his best to bail Ginsberg out of his financial mess.

First the awful. The film is a nightmare because of its very politically incorrect language. The use of words like 'darkies' and 'pickininnies' will certainly shock many as well Carr's performance as the supremely Jewish film producer! Times have certainly changed. Additionally, the ending is poor as is the whole notion of the switched records*. However, on the positive side, Carr is very funny--politically incorrect or not. It's obvious that he did a similar sort of act on stage and it does provide quite a few laughs. Overall, a wildly uneven and weird little film.

*The very first commercial sound pictures were from Warner Brothers and the sound portion was NOT embedded on the film like it would be just a few years later. Instead, records had to be synchronized just right so that the film looked and sounded correct--a problem which plagued these early pictures, as they often were out of sync.

An early talkie about the comical trials of making an early talkie could have been a winner in the right hands, but The Talk of Hollywood lacks budget, laughs and star power. Natt Carr plays the long-suffering producer faced with numerous obstacles - most of which would be revisited in Singin' in the Rain - as he attempts to make his first talkie. A few scattered funny moments, but most of the jokes are lame.

Plot: Silent movie producer J. Pierpoint Ginsburg has put off making his first talkie. Finally, he faces reality and starts his musical-comedy-drama talking production.

The zany storyline is loaded with Ethnic and Gay humor which was popular during the 1920's and 1930's. Today's audience may find this to be the most politically incorrect film of all time. Personally, I found the content of this film refreshing, unique, and different. It is interesting to compare Singing in the Rain's basic plot idea with this early Talkie Burlesque on Vitaphone sound films.

NOTES: 1. Al Goodman's "Follow Thru" Orchestra is a highlight. Al has one speaking line. 2. Nat Carr (Jewish dialect comedian/star) and Mark Sandrich (Writer/Director who later moved over to RKO to work on many 2 Reel comedies & features) co-wrote this script. 3. Running time is 72 Minutes.

Hard to imagine how this picture got produced. Couldn't Hollywood moguls, even at such a small studio as Prudence must have been, spot a stinker? "The Talk Of Hollywood" is an inferior movie on many levels; it is poorly acted, poorly written and, most of all, poorly directed. It was Mark Sandrich's first attempt at directing a full-length feature and got him demoted; it would be five years before he reemerged to direct such films as "Top Hat", "The Gay Divorcée" and 'Holiday Inn".

"The Talk Of Hollywood" is an obvious insider spoof of Sam Goldwyn and his habit of mangling the English language and with a pronounced ethnic accent. Other reviewers have rehashed the plot and how it parallels "Singing In The Rain", but you must see it to appreciate how corny the gag lines are (even for 1929) and to witness the poor timing between lines and to experience the ad-libbed quality of the storyline, as though made up on the fly. I have not mentioned the forced, amateur feel of the acting, except for someone named Fay Marbe, who seemed to have a germ of talent as a French prima donna and the star of the movie-within-the-movie.

"The Talk Of Hollywood" played at Capitolfest, Rome,NY, 8/15. It is worth seeing for a look at how Hollywood could come a cropper even as it made the important transition from silent to sound.