Stagestruck's biggest asset is the performance of Joan Blondell as the Paris Hilton heiress of the day. Blondell plays Peggy Revere which is a takeoff on Peggy Hopkins Joyce whose antics back in the 30s kept the tabloids buzzing the way the Hilton twins do today. Blondell overacts outrageously, but it's all to the good.
Warren William plays ego-maniacal producer Fred Harris which is also a takeoff of producer Jed Harris. Legend has it that Jed Harris was as full of tricks and deviltry that Warren William's character in Stagestruck is. It's very similar to the John Barrymore character in 20th Century. In fact looking at William's profile it's like looking at a poor man's Barrymore. But that is unfair because Warren William did a lot of good work on screen.
Dick Powell is the director here and he gets a couple of good songs to sing. Mostly he has to act annoyed at Blondell and falling for newcomer Jeanie Madden. Since Powell and Blondell got married right after this film, that may have been the biggest performance in the movie.
Jeanie Madden was the love interest. Ruby Keeler had departed Warner Brothers so Powell got a new Ruby, a singing Ruby. Ruby Keeler's singing voice was as flat as her dramatic delivery. Madden couldn't dance, but she sang beautifully especially in the duet with Powell, Fancy Meeting You. But her acting was as bad as Ruby's and she was gone after two more films.
There was a quartet in the film called the Yacht Club Boys and they had a couple of funny bits, especially one in Warren William's office where William plays a straight man for them (and looks like he's having a ball doing it). I suppose they were too similar in style to the Ritz Brothers over at 20th Century Fox so they were gone after this film.
It's a funny film on its own merits, but unless you know who Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Jed Harris were, a lot of the lines will be lost on you.
Warren William plays ego-maniacal producer Fred Harris which is also a takeoff of producer Jed Harris. Legend has it that Jed Harris was as full of tricks and deviltry that Warren William's character in Stagestruck is. It's very similar to the John Barrymore character in 20th Century. In fact looking at William's profile it's like looking at a poor man's Barrymore. But that is unfair because Warren William did a lot of good work on screen.
Dick Powell is the director here and he gets a couple of good songs to sing. Mostly he has to act annoyed at Blondell and falling for newcomer Jeanie Madden. Since Powell and Blondell got married right after this film, that may have been the biggest performance in the movie.
Jeanie Madden was the love interest. Ruby Keeler had departed Warner Brothers so Powell got a new Ruby, a singing Ruby. Ruby Keeler's singing voice was as flat as her dramatic delivery. Madden couldn't dance, but she sang beautifully especially in the duet with Powell, Fancy Meeting You. But her acting was as bad as Ruby's and she was gone after two more films.
There was a quartet in the film called the Yacht Club Boys and they had a couple of funny bits, especially one in Warren William's office where William plays a straight man for them (and looks like he's having a ball doing it). I suppose they were too similar in style to the Ritz Brothers over at 20th Century Fox so they were gone after this film.
It's a funny film on its own merits, but unless you know who Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Jed Harris were, a lot of the lines will be lost on you.