365 Nights in Hollywood

                 
Director: George Marshall
Year: 1934
Rating: 5.5
The DVD of this film was always in the bargain bin back when stores sold DVDs. Its main selling point is Alice Faye whose name I imagine will bring a blank stare from most people these days. But from the late 1930's to the mid-40s when she retired, she was a big musical star in many of Fox's productions. Films like Alexander's Ragtime Band, Rose of Washington Square, Tin Pan Alley, Week-End in Havana, Lillian Russell, The Gang's All Here and Hello Frisco Hello were big hits.  She was a singer and had many hits. She and the equally blonde Betty Grable were the stars in nearly all of Fox's musicals. 365 Nights though was made before Faye became a star and was only 18.



Not much of a budget from its looks, with a forgettable leading man in James Dunn, Faye still comes through - looking a bit like Harlow and even tries to imitate her at one point. A bunch of Hollywood in jokes about Gable and Mae West.  And there are surprisingly two decent musical numbers. Faye was later to marry bandleader and actor Phil Harris and so after feeling snubbed by the editing in Fallen Angel in 1945, she just quit the film business and became a wife and mother. Later mainly appearing on Jack Benny's radio show with her husband. She isn't a dazzler or sexy - pretty I would say in that blonde bland way that was popular back then but with a suitcase of personality and she could launch a song.


 

Here she comes to Hollywood to make it big. She signs up for acting classes under the instruction of Jimmy Dale (Dunn) who was a flash in the pan as a director when he was young but his career has fallen off the tracks thanks to Jim Beam. He wants to kick her out because she shows so little talent until he hears her sing. He gets a chance to direct a low budget film for $75,000, gets friends to help out, folks in his acting classes and in the old parlance, he puts on a movie. 77 minutes and directed by George Marshall who would go on to a lengthy career. Plenty of character actors you might recognize. Hollywood loved making films about itself and fans loved watching them - me included.