So You Want to Be in Pictures

I usually like the Joe McDoakes comedy series "So You Want To...", etc., but this one takes the cake for carrying absurdity to the extreme.

It's one thing to spoof show business and the workings of Hollywood's movie factories, but to present McDoakes as a wanna be actor who makes life hellish for director Anthony Anguish (does every director have to be an impersonation of Michael Curtiz???), and have him do it in such absurd ways is more than a little exasperating.

His chance to play a messenger role is ruined when he insists on sounding like either Charles Boyer or Ronald Colman.

Making the whole mess worthwhile are a few glimpses of real stars--Ronald Reagan, Jack Carson, Alexis Smith, Wayne Morris, Robert Hutton, Martha Vickers and Janis Paige. But the comedy is insufferably broad and repetitious. Thumbs down on this one.

I couldn't find it genuinely amusing, not even the pie in the face ending. But don't mind me. It was nominated for a Best Short Subject Oscar but didn't win.