Although the Hal Roach films were released by MGM and featured MGM prominently on the title screens, this was an independent studio...albeit a small one that specialized in comedy shorts up until the late 1930s. And, like bigger studios like MGM ("The Hollywood Revue of 1929") and Twentieth Century-Fox ("The Goldwyn Follies"), this smaller studio decided to make a star-studded musical comedy featuring their talent much like theirs in some faux 'behind the scenes' skits. But since they had lesser stars than the big studios, the best Roach could offer were Laurel & Hardy (a hot duo), Patsy Kelly & Lyda Roberti (a not so hot duo who also made shorts for the studio and here they don't play a team) as well as a few familiar character actors such as James Finlayson, Charlie Hall and Walter Long. The only major stars in the cast not usually associated with Hal Roach are Jack Haley and Mischa Auer.
The story begins with Cecelia (Rosina Lawrence) winning a talent show. However, the guy in charge, Mr. Stone, turns out to be a crook....and he just ran off with the proceeds. As a result, Cecelia cannot go to Hollywood like she planned. But the emcee, Joe (Jack Haley), feels partly responsible and he sells his business and heads to Hollywood to make money to bring Cecelia and her sister (Kelly) there as well. What follows is Cecelia's long journey towards stardom as well as a lot of distractions along the way...all the while, Joe's pretending he's made something of himself while he's just a lowly busboy.
So is this any good? After all "The Goldwyn Follies" was pretty terrible and "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" wasn't much better! Surprisingly, although I wouldn't consider "Pick a Star" a great film, it IS better than the big studio versions. Much of this is because the film has only a few cameos...whereas the other films had too many and they seemed to take the place of plot! This film, in contrast, seems to have more plot and less detours. Aside from an enjoyable couple of bits with Laurel & Hardy* and a quick appearance by Alfalfa Switzer, the film lacked these many cameos. Overall, a nice time-passer but not a film which will change your life in any way.
*If you do see "The Hollywood Revue of 1929", Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton are in this one. I guess since Hal Roach films were distributed by MGM they were loaned to MGM for this one.
