Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)

Too much of everything

The Worst Film Ever

Crappy film

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Copyright 13 October 1939 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 13 October 1939. U.S. release: 13 October 1939. Australian release: 1 February 1940. Copyright length: 9,048 feet. 100½ minutes. Australian length: 8,739 feet. 97 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Hollywood director signs ingénue, turns her into a star.NOTES: The scene from The Jazz Singer is not a clip from the Warner Bros, film but a re-enactment which must have delighted Jolson no end as here he actually gets to sing "Kol Nidre". In the original his voice was dubbed by Cantor Joseff RosenblattCOMMENT: Alice Faye's first Technicolor film. The photographers have treated her most kindly and director Cummings has allowed her numerous attractive close-ups. She looks great in her Herschel costumes too. And her acting is nothing short of utterly entrancing. Unfortunately, however, Alice doesn't get to sing a single note. It seems that three songs (including "Whispering" by John Schonberger, Richard Coburn and Vincent Rose) were recorded and shot by Alice. But they are no longer in the film. Presumably they were deleted merely to shorten the running time.What is worse is the fact that the script for Hollywood Cavalcade - for all its good intentions - is not really worthy of her talents. Don Ameche comes over as a boringly brash and unendingly garrulous lead, while the rest of the cast is strictly second-rate. Yes, I include Al Jolson hamming it up with his "Kol Nidre" and Buster Keaton unfunnily throwing custard pies. Even the Keystone Cops lack the verve, the vitality, the split-second timing of the originals.

In the same year's "Rose of Washington Square", the two stars of this movie played fictional versions of Fanny Brice and Billy Rose, with Tyrone Power as a re-named Nicky Arnstein. In "Hollywood Cavalcade", they are playing amalgamations of a variety of early movie making legends, most obviously Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand. Like "Rose", this film later was further explored as a Broadway musical-"Rose of Washington Square" was legitimized as "Funny Girl", and part of "Hollywood Cavalcade" became "Mack and Mabel".In "Hollywood Cavalcade", Don Ameche plays a variety of Hollywood creators rolled into one; Other than Sennett, bits of Cecil B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith are thrown in as well. Alice Faye could be anybody from Pearl White (the Serial Queen), Gloria Swanson, and Mary Pickford, in addition to Normand. The first half of the film is a tribute to Sennett and Normand with the creation of the first pie fight to the bathing beauties and Keystone Cops. The second half has Ameche's character taking a more serious look at his art, making romantic thrillers much like DeMille and an "Intolerance" like epic. Normand's drug usage is never explored, although Faye's character of Molly Adair goes through many tragedies and Ameche finds himself on the outs as his temperamental ways get the better of him.What doesn't work about this film is the usage of two different moods. The first is light-hearted; the second is much darker. Many of the great silent era comics (including Buster Keaton playing a fictionalized version of himself) appear or are mentioned (one heavyset character, only seen from the back, is referred to as "Roscoe", the real name of disgraced comic legend Fatty Arbuckle). The romance between Faye and Ameche is never really explored, although it is obvious that they both love each other in completely different ways. They are only reunited professionally because of Molly's admiration for her Svengali. This is an enjoyable film, with Ameche and Faye both photographing beautifully, but the convoluted screenplay is against them.

Didn't like "Hollywood Cavalcade" because it was a disappointment. Don't be deceived by the glitzy picture of happy faces on the title page, this is a somber drama which starts out happy, but quickly descends into discord and bitterness. The question is why Ameche and Faye? I guess because they were two of Fox's brightest stars and money was hopefully to be made. Ameche played a scold who wallowed in self-pity and Faye was his verbal punching bag. Talk about casting against type.Not one song. This picture didn't need technicolor, or either of the stars, it needed black-and-white and a twosome like John Garfield and Claire Trevor, and a heavier hand on the script, if Fox was going for strife and pathos. I got this picture in a Fox Musical DVD set and it doesn't fit in.Its only redeeming quality is a look into silent-movie Hollywood, with some of its stars in small parts. I think movies like this - "Singing In The Rain" is another - fill in the blanks for those of us who were too young when silents gave way to talking pictures. Otherwise, "Hollywood Cavalcade" was a chore to watch.

In the earliest years of silent cinema, former prop boy Mike (Don Ameche) "discovers" a charming Broadway understudy, Molly (Alice Faye), and impulsively hires her to a personal contract to star in pictures. With Mike as director, Molly is set to appear in a film with Buster Keaton as her boyfriend -- but things get out of hand, the first day on the set.By accident, Buster flings a custard pie into Molly's lovely face, thus throwing off the rhythm of their primly choreographed love scene. Soon Molly, Buster, and the "villain" of their scene (George Givot) are covered in custard, and the laughing and applauding onlookers convince Mike he's discovered a new screen genre. He milks it for all it's worth, launching a series of slapstick comedies -- with pies, bathing beauties, and Keystone-style Kops -- all featuring Molly, who becomes a big star.If "Hollywood Cavalcade" had continued in this same vein, it would probably have become a classic. Instead, about halfway through, Mike makes the decision to turn Molly into a dramatic actress, starring in serious photoplays and leaving her slapstick days behind.The film's second half turns maudlin when Molly, whose love for Mike seems unrequited, marries her new costar Nicky (Alan Curtis). Having lost his biggest star, Mike slides into despair, his films regularly losing money. Then Nicky is killed in a traffic accident and Molly teams up with Mike again. They make a hit picture, and discover that they've loved each other all along."Hollywood Cavalcade" marked two firsts for Alice Faye: her first Technicolor film, and also the first in which she sings not a single note. But her performance was generally lauded by the film critics.