Make Me a Star (1932)

33% of users liked it
(66 ratings)

Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty… More Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty scenario on Henry Leon Wilson's 1922 novel Merton of the Movies, the 1923 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, and the 1924 Famous Players silent version starring Glenn Hunter. By 1932, the story was indeed well-known: Aspiring to become a famous screen cowboy, small-town delivery boy Merton Gill arrives in Hollywood, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and complete with a diploma from the National Correspondence Academy of Acting. Crashing the gates of Majestic Pictures (read: Paramount), Merton manages to fumble his one line bit in the latest Buck Benson (Dink Templeton) western and is fired on the spot. Unwilling to leave the studio, the hapless thespian survives on leftover scraps from the extra's lunch boxes until discovered by comedy starlet "Flip" Montague (Blondell), who takes pity on him and arranges a meeting with Jeff Baird (Sam Hardy), head of the slapstick comedy unit. Bestowed a new name, Whoop Ryder, Merton is starred in what he assumes to be a serious western melodrama but what in reality is yet another burlesque featuring cross-eyed low comic Ben Turpin. Although a big hit with preview audiences, a humiliated Merton is ready to return to the grocery business when "Flip" persuades him to stay by telling him that he is "darn near perfect." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 10 min.
Directed By: William Beaudine
Genres: Drama, Comedy

In Theaters: Jun 30, 1932 Wide

No Critic Reviews Found…

No Featured Audience Ratings Found…

Cast

            Stuart Erwin as Merton Gill

            Joan Blondell as "Flips" Montague

            Zasu Pitts as Mrs. Scudder

            Ben Turpin as Ben

            Charles Sellon as Mr. Gashweiler

            Florence Roberts as Mrs. Gashweiler

            Helen Jerome Eddy as Tessie Kearns

            Arthur Hoyt as Hardy Powell

            Dink Templeton as Buck Benson

            Ruth Donnelly as The Countess

            Sam Hardy as Jeff Baird

            Oscar Apfel as Henshaw

            Frank Mills as Chuck Collins

            Polly Walters as Doris Randall

            Billy Bletcher as Actor

            Maurice Chevalier as Guest Star

            Claudette Colbert as Guest Star

            Gary Cooper as Guest Star

            Phillips Holmes as Guest Star

            Bud Jamison as Actor

            Fredric March as Guest Star

            Jack Oakie as Guest Star

            Harry "Snub" Pollard as Actor

            Victor Potel as Actor

            Charlie Ruggles as Guest Star

            Sylvia Sidney as Guest Star

            Nick Thompson as Actor

            Bobby Vernon as Actor

            Clive Brook as Actor
See full cast

Now you can share movies with your friends on Facebook!

Discover movies your friends are watching
Keep track of what you want to see
Add your reviews to your Timeline

Get Started