Watch Out Where the Stars Begin For Free

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This Vitaphone short is a combination of self-promotion for Warner Brothers as well as promoting the myth about being discovered in Hollywood. It begins with four of the studio's stars doing quick walk-ons (actually drive-ons)...Dick Foran, Wayne Morris, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brian. Then you see folks going on a studio tour and they show various clips of the recent studio productions. The story begins because one of the folks on the tour is a young woman who just KNOWS she's got what it takes to be a star. So, inexplicably, a make-up man champions her cause with a temperamental director...even though no one in the film has seen her sing, dance or act! I am sure this sort of thing happened all the time in Hollywood (NO IT DIDN'T!!!). And, by the end of the picture, she's been discovered and is more popular than Taco Tuesdays. So is it any good? Well, the star cameos at the beginning aren't that interesting (none of them do anything particularly interesting) and the clips are merely self-promotion. As to the story, it's one giant cliché...an enjoyable cliché but very clichéd nevertheless. My only complaints are too many dull dance numbers and the cameos SHOULD have been much more interesting. So, looking back, it's not that great a film...more a time-passer than anything else.

Breaking into Hollywood should be this easy! Sally Carter (Evelyn Thawl) sneaks into the Superb Pictures studio lot with the help of a make-up artist (Jeffrey Lynn), smuggling her in as part of a tour group. She quickly breaks stride with the rest and winds up as a dancer under the supervision of manic director Nitvitch. You can only take his schtick for so long, but the picture only lasts nineteen minutes, so hang in there. Watch for cameos by legitimate, but not Superb Studio actors, as they make their way through the main gate - Wayne Morris, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. The ironic touch in the picture occurs right after Miss Carter has makeup applied along with a blonde wig to look totally unlike her real self, as her makeup artist sings "You're Lovely As You Are".

. . . Warner Bros. Pictures during OUT WHERE THE STARS BEGIN, a 19-minute live action short. For instance, Superb also signed up Error Flynn to play ROBIN HOOD (only in Superb's version, Richard III is going up against Prince John, rather than Richard the Lion-Hearted--the Superb version sounds more exciting than Warner's already!). Another element of Superb's mystique is that you have to be a Chorine yourself in order to be selected to take a studio tour. (This is because Superb tour groups are prone to disappear without a trace, and everyone in show business knows that chorus line singers are totally dispensable.) Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien are among the stars making cameo appearances on the Superb lot, where they behave as polite "Ordinary Joes," instead of their normal Prima Dona selves. The plot of OUT THE STARS emphasizes that ANYONE can be a trespasser one moment, and a top-billed star the next at Superb. That's because everyone is friendly and open-minded at Superb, which is run as a meritocracy--without any casting couch shenanigans. Some may say, "Hooray for Hollywood," but I'll confine my comment to, "Hooray for Superb."

Evelyn Thawl as "Sally Carter" was pretty and wholesome-looking and a good dancer as she demonstrates here in this 20-minute short came with the "Angels Have Dirty Faces" DVD. It's always nice to see the beautiful Technicolor back in those rare times when it was filmed in the 1930s."Sally" is trying to break into the movie business as a dancer. She makes a quick friend in the makeup artist (no name given but played by Jeffrey Lynn) who persuades director "Mr. Nitovich" (Fritz Field) to give her shot. The film also belongs to Field as he gives an over- the-top satire performance of a dramatic European film director making his debut in American films. It's a good thing this is short film because "Nitovich," which his abrasive yelling, soon wears out his welcome.Anyway, Thawl performs a ballet and a tap dance number, Lynn sings a song and we see cameo shots of a few stars such as Pat O'Brien and Ann Sheridan.Overall, it's quite corny and dated and, frankly, not something I would more than twice. A sad note: from what I could find, Miss Thawl, who performed mostly on Broadway, lived a very short life....but I have no details of what happened to her.