The Worst Film Ever

I wanted to but couldn't!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

With my seeing MOVIE CRAZY I have finally seen the last of Harold Lloyd's sound films. My opinion of them remains the same - the best of them are not as good as his silent films. But on their own they are entertaining enough.MOVIE CRAZY was a vast improvement over FEET FIRST. Done about a year after, Lloyd realized now that he had to control the use of sound when certain strenuous sequences (i.e., climbing the side of a skyscraper, or here fighting in a flooding movie set). The visual got reemphasized, and the results were better.Lloyd comes to Hollywood having won a screen test. This is an old plot ploy where the hero/heroine thinks fame and fortune beckons, but that the reality is far less wonderful as there are thousands trying to break into films with them. Oddly Lloyd's two leading silent rivals (Chapln and Keaton) never did a spoof of the film industry in a feature (Chaplin did a Mutual short film in 1917 called BEHIND THE SCREEN that did spoof the budding young industry). Keaton's SHERLOCK JR. spoofs the magic of film making, but not the production of film itself. Harry Langdon did appear as himself in the film ELLA CINDERS where the heroine was trying to break into film. The film follows two plots, of Lloyd getting his film test (which is typically a disaster, though the film crew maliciously tells him it was a success), and his meeting movie star Constance Cumming, which leads to a romantic involvement with her (and the growing jealousy of her co-star, Kenneth Thompson). The best portion of the film is the dinner party and the fight. Lloyd believes he was invited to a party with the Hollywood elite, and ends on the dance floor with the Louisa Closser Hale (the wife of Robert McWade, the studio head). He has accidentally changed his tales with a magician. The result is an onslaught of little animals (unfortunately including mice) that wreck the dinner dance. A highpoint: a drunk waiting his meal is surprised to find it being nibbled on by a rabbit!The finale is the fight between Lloyd and Thompson. Thompson is an extreme egomaniac who would kill Cummings before losing her (he thinks he is her man). He helps humiliate Lloyd earlier, and when he finds Lloyd accidentally on an empty movie set beats him up. But Lloyd later thinks he sees Thompson threatening Cummings and the real fight begins. It is actually on the set of a film where a ship is flooding, but Lloyd does not notice this (as he is concentrating on Thompson). There was a comment on another review of the film on this thread that it was reminiscent of the concluding fight in a flooded ship of Lloyd and Constantine Romanoff in THE KID BROTHER. That's true, but it also reminds one a bit (given how the water just gushes onto the set) of one of the last major silent spectacular films NOAH'S ARK. That film was famous for the massive flood on the set - supposedly so intensely flooded that some people were actually drowned in it.The film does end well, with Harold leaving with girl and contract, and accidentally pulling one last victory over the director of his movie test (Spencer Charters), with the director's own help.

This is surely Harold Lloyd's most satisfactory Sound film and, while it's hardly ever discussed in this context, one of the best comedies to emerge in the early Talkie era. As a matter of fact, ill-fated director Clyde Bruckman was a master handler of comedy (before booze got the better of him!) who guided the likes of Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields and Lloyd himself through some of their finest vehicles.Anyway, the film finds the star at perhaps his most accident-prone - while the enchanting Constance Cummings is easily the strongest (and most talented) leading lady Lloyd ever had! As the title suggests, it provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at a Hollywood studio during its Golden Age and features a running-gag with Harold falling foul of a pompous studio executive. However, the film also involves typical situations for him such as mistaken identities (Lloyd unwittingly sends out to Hollywood the photo of a handsome guy, Cummings 'doubles' as a Spanish diva who ensnares our hero), romantic complications (the couple's frequent break-ups occurring as much through the intrusion of a rival as by the stars' individual character flaws) and disillusionment (Harold believes his disastrous screen-test was a triumph).Amazingly, according to the IMDb, the film was shot with a Silent-movie camera to re-create the trademark Lloyd technique - with the the dialogue and sound effects added in post-production: sure enough, the energetic fistfight which caps the picture is highly reminiscent of the extended climactic bout in THE KID BROTHER (1927); similarly, the havoc caused by a magician's coat mistakenly worn by Harold during the uproarious party sequence recalls the suit-ripping gag from THE FRESHMAN (1925) - this scene, then, features very brief bits by amiable character actors Grady Sutton (as an overtly effeminate guest scared by a roaming mouse) and Arthur Housman (as, you've guessed it, a drunkard).By the way, I wasn't aware that the PAL VHS released by the British Film Institute I previously owned (and which is how I had watched it) was actually the 80-minute re-issue version - though I couldn't quite tell what constituted the 'new' material!

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.

Harold Hall is a man who desperately wants to be an actor.Soon he is off to Hollywood.They are expecting somebody who doesn't look anything like Harold, because he accidentally sent a wrong photo.In Hollywood Harold causes lots of trouble and falls in love to an actress named Mary Sears.Movie Crazy is a hilarious comedy from 1932.Harold Lloyd shows that he wasn't the master of silent movies only, he could handle talkies too.He runs from a funny situation to another.Constance Cummings is brilliant as Mary.She does her job just as good as Harold does.This movie made me laugh many times.If a comedy movie does that, then that's a good comedy.