Yes, there is a real Hollywood, and it is located west of downtown Los Angeles just east of the strip where the stars party and south of where most of the movies are made. One of those studios then and now is Warner Brothers who in promoting its many stars (less than MGM, but still impressive) created this comedy with a few songs to give movie fans of the late 40's an insiders view of what may or may not have been going on inside their lot.
Here, it is revealed, studio contractee Jack Carson has gotten the reputation of being such a ham that no director wants to work with him, and just the thought of being directed by him has sent recent Academy Award Winner Jane Wyman into a possible nervous breakdown. (Funny since in one of their films together, "The Doughgirls", it is Wyman who practically steals every scene from him, at least until Eve Arden comes on screen.) Dennis Morgan, sick of co-starring with Carson, has decided not to co-star with Carson in the film Carson himself will be directing. Morgan is visited by a commissary waitress (Doris Day, in one of her first films), who pretends to be Carson's secret wife in order to get Morgan to sign the contract. But once Morgan is on to the scheme, he has already signed, and it is too late to back out. Carson and Morgan decide that they need a new leading lady and set out to convince the film's producer (Bill Goodwin), that Day is the right one. Each scene with Day rolling her eyes at Goodwin (as an elevator girl, dental hygienist, and taxi driver) with a goofy smile (and silly sound effects) just gets funnier and funnier. Throughout all of this, a dozen Warners contractees pop in and out quickly as themselves, most notably Joan Crawford, repeating a scene from "Mildred Pierce" after which she slaps both Morgan and Carson, as well as Edward G. Robinson (being tough with a studio guard so he won't loose his Little Caesar reputation and destroy his box-office appeal), Jane Wyman (fainting after being told she will be Carson's next leading lady), and Eleanor Parker and Patricia Neal, who offer Day some advice, believing her to be a French actress imported to star as Mademoiselle Fifi. Gary Cooper is there with an overabundance of "Yeps", as are a slew of real Warners directors (Michael Curtiz, King Vidor, David Butler) and musical conductor Ray Heindorf.
As far as the real glamour days of Hollywood are concerned, this offers a fantasy look into what the studios wanted the fans to believe. Don't take it at all serious. It's more fun to just enjoy the goofy humour (although a sequence with Danny Kaye at Union Station is pretty unfunny---he's topped in that sequence by Mike Lally as the ticket information agent who has to pull out 15-year unused information books to find out how to get to Day's Wisconsin home town. The songs are not important enough really to mention, although the big dream sequence production number, "There's Nothing Tougher Than Love", is a homage to "Slaughter on 10th Avenue", just filmed a year ago in MGM's "Words and Music". That makes this more a comedy with songs rather than a musical.
Overall, this is an extremely enjoyable piece of fluff that promotes good cheer between a major Hollywood studio and their fans while giving build-up to Doris Day, their newest star who would soon replace long time studio queen Bette Davis, as the top actress on the lot.
Here, it is revealed, studio contractee Jack Carson has gotten the reputation of being such a ham that no director wants to work with him, and just the thought of being directed by him has sent recent Academy Award Winner Jane Wyman into a possible nervous breakdown. (Funny since in one of their films together, "The Doughgirls", it is Wyman who practically steals every scene from him, at least until Eve Arden comes on screen.) Dennis Morgan, sick of co-starring with Carson, has decided not to co-star with Carson in the film Carson himself will be directing. Morgan is visited by a commissary waitress (Doris Day, in one of her first films), who pretends to be Carson's secret wife in order to get Morgan to sign the contract. But once Morgan is on to the scheme, he has already signed, and it is too late to back out. Carson and Morgan decide that they need a new leading lady and set out to convince the film's producer (Bill Goodwin), that Day is the right one. Each scene with Day rolling her eyes at Goodwin (as an elevator girl, dental hygienist, and taxi driver) with a goofy smile (and silly sound effects) just gets funnier and funnier. Throughout all of this, a dozen Warners contractees pop in and out quickly as themselves, most notably Joan Crawford, repeating a scene from "Mildred Pierce" after which she slaps both Morgan and Carson, as well as Edward G. Robinson (being tough with a studio guard so he won't loose his Little Caesar reputation and destroy his box-office appeal), Jane Wyman (fainting after being told she will be Carson's next leading lady), and Eleanor Parker and Patricia Neal, who offer Day some advice, believing her to be a French actress imported to star as Mademoiselle Fifi. Gary Cooper is there with an overabundance of "Yeps", as are a slew of real Warners directors (Michael Curtiz, King Vidor, David Butler) and musical conductor Ray Heindorf.
As far as the real glamour days of Hollywood are concerned, this offers a fantasy look into what the studios wanted the fans to believe. Don't take it at all serious. It's more fun to just enjoy the goofy humour (although a sequence with Danny Kaye at Union Station is pretty unfunny---he's topped in that sequence by Mike Lally as the ticket information agent who has to pull out 15-year unused information books to find out how to get to Day's Wisconsin home town. The songs are not important enough really to mention, although the big dream sequence production number, "There's Nothing Tougher Than Love", is a homage to "Slaughter on 10th Avenue", just filmed a year ago in MGM's "Words and Music". That makes this more a comedy with songs rather than a musical.
Overall, this is an extremely enjoyable piece of fluff that promotes good cheer between a major Hollywood studio and their fans while giving build-up to Doris Day, their newest star who would soon replace long time studio queen Bette Davis, as the top actress on the lot.