IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD (1937)

In 1928, Tim Bart (Richard Dix) is one of the hot Hollywood cowboy stars, with a strong fan base among kids. When his latest movie is released, he arranges a showing at a children's hospital and announces that he'll soon be opening a Hollywood ranch resort for kids. One boy in particular, Billy, bonds with Tim and looks forward to the day when he can visit. But then the talkies arrive and suddenly Westerns are out of fashion. Tim and his leading lady Gloria (Fay Wray) get screen tests for a sophisticated high-society melodrama; the studio heads like Gloria but not Tim. Then someone gets the idea to try Tim in a gangster movie but he's afraid playing a bad guy will disillusion his following of kids. With no income, the property he wanted to turn into the kids' ranch is taken by the bank. Contemplating leaving Hollywood for good, Tim changes his mind when Billy, still not quite recovered, shows up at his door. Tim manages to sneak back onto the ranch and throws a big party for Billy, hiring celebrity look-alikes to appear to impress the kid—folks who look like W.C. Fields, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd and Bing Crosby (among others) show up. The party is a success, but when Billy collapses and Gloria confesses that she is also washed up, Tim is driven to desperate measures and decides to rob a bank. Could our cowboy hero end up in the pokey? Say it isn't so!

This cute B-film is one of Samuel Fuller's first screenwriting credits, though he would become better known as a director (THE NAKED KISS, THE CRIMSON KIMONO). There are some plot problems; the main sticking point for me was that Westerns most certainly did not vanish from the screens with the arrival of sound films. Dix is his usual "big lug" self and Wray is colorless, but the Hollywood party scene pretty much redeems the movie and that alone makes this a film that classic movies buffs will want to catch. Pictured are Wray and Dix. [DVD—part of a boxed Sam Fuller set]