Movie Crazy


Movie Crazy is a 1932 American Pre-Code comedy film starring Harold Lloyd in his third sound feature.
The film's copyright was renewed in 1959.

Plot

Harold Hall, a young man with little or no acting ability, desperately wants to be in the movies.
After a mix-up with his application photograph, he gets an offer to have a screen-test, and goes off to Hollywood. At the studio, he does everything wrong and causes all sorts of trouble. But he catches the fancy of a beautiful actress. He meets the actress, Mary Sears, at her home, but does not realize she is the same woman he saw at the studio. She puts Harold through various romance-loyalty tests that he fails, infatuated with the actress persona.
He accidentally wears a magician's suit at a fancy party and inadvertently causes havoc through the magician's tricks going off. Later, he is knocked out and ends up inside a trunk on the set of a film where Mary and her abusive would-be boyfriend are performing a scene. The scene involves multiple rooms and complicated effects, and the director strictly orders the scene to continue filming until he yells "cut." The director loses consciousness, and an unscripted real-world fight takes place between Harold and the boyfriend, activating the effects that were planned for the film. Harold wins the fight and the director finally ends the scene.
The studio owner sees footage of the fight. He recognizes Harold as a comic genius and offers him a contract, even knowing that the fight was not acting.

Cast

This was the first film for Harold Lloyd in two years. Clyde Bruckman, who had directed Lloyd in his first two talkie films along with the sound version of Speedy, was recruited to direct Lloyd, who also served as producer. However, Bruckman soon fell ill to a lingering problem with alcoholism, which led to Lloyd stepping into direct, although he did not take credit for it.

Background

The film was a major box office success. An estimated $675,000 was spent on the production and the film grossed over $1,439,000 in the United States alone. The film also proved to be a major critical success as the vast majority of film reviewers praised the picture highly. Cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller provided gags for the film.

Renewed interest in Harold Lloyd

In 1962, scenes from this film were included in a compilation film produced by Harold Lloyd himself entitled Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and created a renewal of interest in the comedian by introducing him to a whole new generation.