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Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Mowbray, Marla Shelton ... see more see more... , Jack Carson , C. Henry Gordon , J.C. Nugent , Tully Marshall , William V. Mong

Bookish bank employee Atterbury Dodd (Leslie Howard) is ordered to investigate the near-bankrupt Colossal Studios in Hollywood, to see if the firm is any sort of good risk. Dodd's first brush with Tin... read more read more...seltown's cuckoo atmosphere occurs when he takes a room in a boarding house for extras, where all manner of eccentrics wander about as they wait for the phone to ring (Charles Middleton comports himself in an Abe Lincoln costume, on the off-chance that Hollywood will go back to making Civil War pictures soon). He befriends Lester Plum (Joan Blondell), a former child star now working as a stand-in for haughty movie queen Thelma Cheri (Marla Shelton), and perpetually soused producer Douglas Quintain (Humphrey Bogart). Aware that the latest epic of autocratic director Koslofski (Alan Mowbray) will ruin the studio, Howard investigates further, discovering that a rival company has bribed Koslofski to pad the budget and thus bring about the foreclosure of Colossal. While his business sense tells him that this is the next logical move, Dodd has fallen in love with Plum; thus, he gives Quintain 48 hours to re-edit Koslofski's fiasco into something workable, and himself staves off the studio's shutdown by rallying all the Colossal employees to stand firm against being removed from the premises. Based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Buddington Kelland, this is a light-hearted satire of the movie industry, the sort of amiable farce in which everyone--even the most contentious of characters--is shown to be basically decent underneath. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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64% liked it

638 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: Tay Garnett

Release Date: October 29, 1937

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DVD Release Date: January 28, 2003

Stats: 22 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (22)

  • rubystevens
    August 25, 2011
    rubystevens
    a sweet satire of the movie industry. leslie howard plays a strait-laced accountant sent in to cut costs at colossal studios, only to discover not everything is reducible to a balance sheet. humphrey bogart, in only his second film role, plays a drunken producer, and joan blond... read moreell, stand-in for the studio's diva, is leslie's adorable love interest. includes a hilarious shirley temple spoof

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Critic Reviews

Ken Hanke
March 18, 2003
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Clever, overlooked Hollywood satire from the quirky Tay Garnett.

Frank S. Nugent
March 25, 2006
Frank S. Nugent, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Dave Kehr
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Click to read the article Full Review

Emanuel Levy
June 11, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Derek Adams
June 24, 2006
Derek Adams, Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

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Stand-In Trivia

  • In Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace who played Sabé, Queen Amidala's stand-in?  Answer »
  • Samuel L. Jackson worked as a stand-in for Theodore 'Theo' Huxtable during the filming of "The Cosby Show" (1984).  Answer »
  • Jabba the Hutt was originally supposed to appear in Star Wars (1977), to be inserted optically on top of a stand-in. The effect was not acceptable and the scene was cut until CGI allowed it to be completed for the 1997 'Special Edition'.  Answer »
  • Who says this famous quote in "Cold Mountain": "They call this war a cloud over the land, but they made the weather and then they are standin' in the rain, sayin' shit, it's rainin'!"  Answer »
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