Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

MartinHafer "Reaching for the Moon" is a love story about a rather obnoxious millionaire (sort of like Tony Stark of the 1930s) and a woman's attempts to hook him. Despite his playboy reputation, it seems the guy is pretty indifferent to women up until Bebe Daniels sets her sights on him. A far cry from real life, as Fairbanks was quite the playboy.This is a very rough film, as the plot seemed a bit flat (similar stuff was done much better a few years later--such as the films of Astaire and Rogers) and Douglas Fairbanks' voice was a bit thin. Plus, his advancing years made him a little less believable as the male stud-muffin that he played here. He was frankly a very far cry from his handsome leading man days of the silent era. It also didn't help that the copy on Netflix's on-demand feature was terrible. The print looked very degraded and I am surprised they featured a film in this condition. Frankly it's not a bad movie but in this condition it's really not worth the trouble except for silent film fans wanting to see one of Fairbanks' few sound films.

Alex da Silva Larry (Douglas Fairbanks) follows Viv (Bebe Daniels) to Southampton on a cruise ship. He takes his valet Roger (Edward Everett Horton) with him and Larry tries to win Viv's heart despite the fact that she is engaged to Sir Horace (Claud Allister).......things work out in the end.The film is a bore. It is only saved by the musical number - an upbeat jivey tune - that is sung by Bing Crosby, Bebe Daniels and June MacCloy as "Kitty" (check out her peculiar voice!) and has the cast dancing along. It is the ONLY good part of the film. That and the sets are the reason I have given the film a mark of 5. There are some great sets, eg, the office desk panels that open up into seats and pretty much every interior that you see! The script is dull and it's not particularly funny despite Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks provides some unintentional humour with his pointless leaping about. It's endless! And he has a terrible, shouty voice which makes him a pretty irritating man. Combine that with his endless inane grinning and you have to submit and start laughing at him. Hatred turns to mockery.It's all quite poignant, though as his character seems not to be able to cope with being mocked. He is continually asking Bebe Daniles "are you laughing at me?" and the audience is continually yelling back "Yes!" Without the music and sets, this film is a piece of junk.

irvthom1-1 While this film was apparently issued as a musical, there is really only a single musical performance in the entire 66-minute version that I saw, lasting only about 4 or 5 minutes. The original issue apparently had more in it, and considering that it was Irving Berlin material, it's a great pity that more of it didn't remain.That being said, however, the single production number that does come along, 45 minutes into the film, is easily worth the price of admission. Not only is it the earliest extant film version of a Bing Crosby performance (and I swear he was wearing a toupee, even then!), but his solo piece was wonderfully supported by a second from Bebe Daniels, and yet a third, from a sultry-voiced woman who is no longer recalled, and all of it given life by a jazzy dance troupe — not as performers, but as actual dancers. It projects the storied Jazz Age with marvelous resonance, and is a joy to watch.

bkoganbing Reaching for the Moon will never make anyone's list of top ten films, but it is valuable piece of Hollywood History because it contains one of Douglas Fairbanks's few sound films and it is the solo debut of Bing Crosby.Joe Schenck who was a partner of Fairbanks in United Artists got Irving Berlin to write an original score for this film and to do the screenplay. Fairbanks is a wizard of Wall Street who falls head over heels for aviatrix Bebe Daniels and chases after her on an ocean liner to England. Along for the ride is Edward Everett Horton who plays his butler/sidekick.During production it was decided to scrap Berlin's score with only one song remaining, When the Folks High Up Do a Mean Low Down. Bing Crosby sang a chorus of it and then passed it over to Bebe Daniels and bit player June McCloy. At the time of the filming Crosby was appearing at the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with his Rhythm Boy trio. Fairbanks was 48 when this was made and the athleticism that characterized his best silent films was a bit annoying here. But that's what his public expected of him. His role is the kind of part that Cary Grant could later play in his sleep.Bebe Daniels is pretty much forgotten today. But she was a beautiful woman and had a great singing voice. If people remember her at all it was as Dorothy Brock who breaks her ankle in 42 Street and allows Ruby Keeler to walk on stage a youngster and come back a star. Soon after 42nd Street, Daniels left the U.S. with her husband Ben Lyon for Great Britain where as expatriates they became very big stars there.Nothing fabulous about Reaching for the Moon, but it's a curiosity and a bit of history rolled in one.