Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

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Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

calvinnme The first half of this film is a fast-paced comedy that seems to have promise. The story has Don Ameche as director Mike Conners, who spots Molly Hayden (Alice Faye) one day and thinks this great beauty could be a big star. He signs her to a contract and she is set to make her debut in a dramatic film. However, Buster Keaton is on the set, cast as Molly's romantic interest in the film. He hurls a custard pie at her and a food fight ensues. Mike has discovered a new form of cinema - slapstick comedy. Molly is his big star, but he is ignoring her personally. At the point where he decides to make Molly a big dramatic actress instead of a comedian, the film also goes from comedy to melodrama. It's not that the movie is bad drama, it's just after the humorous first half I was hoping for more of a humorous second half.This film is also notable for Buster Keaton's first appearance in an American-made feature film after he was fired from MGM in 1933. The intensity of Buster's pie attack on Alice Faye was quite a surprise to her. After the scene was shot apparently she grabbed her own pie and chased Keaton quite a distance before he could finally outrun her.

bkoganbing After doing a character based on Fanny Brice in Rose Of Washington Square, Alice Faye in Hollywood Cavalcade decided to do an early version of the story of Mack and Mabel for Hollywood Cavalcade. Alice does not come to as tragic an end as Mabel Normand and Don Ameche as the Mack Sennett character had far more grandiose ambitions than Sennett ever had.Budding young director Don Ameche sent to sign stage actress Alice Faye for a studio instead signs her to a personal contract and then uses that to blackjack studio boss Donald Meek into a chance for him to direct the film. Meek reluctantly caves in, but the film is a hit, a star is born and nothing succeeds like success and careers for Ameche and Faye are born.Ameche loves Faye enough, but never shows a tender side always thinking of business. She marries co-star Alan Curtis and they become instead of Mack and Mabel more like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Ameche in a fit of pique tears up their contract and then makes a series of bonehead decisions that tears up his career.For reasons that remain inexplicable Darryl Zanuck decided to cut a version of Alice Faye singing Whispering and the song is only heard in the background. As the song perfectly suits Faye's warm contralto, film fans are left with a loss. Maybe it will be restored one day to Hollywood Cavalcade.The main weakness of Hollywood Cavalcade comes from Ameche who is too much the nice guy to play the part he does. This role far more suited Tyrone Power who had the hero/heel down to perfection.On the plus side we get to see Buster Keaton playing himself and many of the original Keystone Kops in a film showing the development of slapstick comedy. Alice takes a good pie in the face. And Al Jolson repeats his singing of the Kol Nidre chant from the Yom Kippur scene in The Jazz Singer. Good thing Faye was not involved in a scene with Jolson because after working with him on Rose Of Washington Square she could not stand him.Hollywood Cavalcade is not a bad film, but some mistakes made in casting and in editing left it not as good as it could have been.

eldorado@vcoms.net 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.

Jay Phelps What makes this one better than most "movie movies" is that it doesn't feel phony. The film the story of the hot-headed director and his rise and fall and rise, by using real recognizable names and events during the silent and early sound eras. Instead of the generic "sound will put us out of business" business, they actually SHOW Jolson and "The Jazz Singer". The acting is really quite good, with believeable performances from Don Ameche, Alice Faye and J. Edward Bromberg in particular.