STAR DUST (1940)

Charming show biz comedy, apparently based loosely of the early career of actress Linda Darnell. Roland Young, a talent scout for Amalgamated Pictures, heads southwest by train to find new talent, even as we see the studio send back to the Midwest yesterday's new faces who didn't quite make the grade (including George Montgomery in a tiny role). It's interesting that the sendoff is played not for laughs, but in a bittersweet (though not despairing) tone. Young discovers three young people to send to Hollywood: John Payne as a college football star, Mary Healy as a singer, and Linda Darnell as a 17-year-old aspiring actress. Young actually thinks Darnell is too young, but she outsmarts him and gets handpicked by the studio head (William Gargan). The rest of the film is concerned with the ups and downs of the three, focusing on Darnell who winds up competing with a newly signed starlet (Mary Beth Hughes). A good supporting cast includes Charlotte Greenwood as the studio acting coach (who has some fun scenes with Young), Donald Meek as a rival talent scout, and Jessie Ralph as Darnell's aunt. Frank Coghlan Jr., who played bellboys and messengers in dozens of 30's and 40's movies, and Mantan Moreland have small roles. Sid Grauman, of Grauman's Chinese Theater, has a cameo as himself. Gargan is fun, playing a caricature of the real Fox exec Darryl Zanuck. In a running gag, Payne keeps breaking his nose at inconvenient times. It's not a musical, but Healy and Greenwood have a fun number, "Don't Let It Get You Down." [FMC]