Make Me a Star (1932)
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33% of users liked it
(70 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
- Directed By
- William Beaudine
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Jun 30, 1932 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Whimsical and occasionally witty, this inside-Hollywood comedy benefits from its all star Paramount cast.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
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Cast
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Stuart Erwin
as Merton Gill
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Joan Blondell
as "Flips" Montague
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Zasu Pitts
as Mrs. Scudder
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Ben Turpin
as Ben
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Charles Sellon
as Mr. Gashweiler
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Florence Roberts
as Mrs. Gashweiler
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Helen Jerome Eddy
as Tessie Kearns
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Arthur Hoyt
as Hardy Powell
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Dink Templeton
as Buck Benson
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Ruth Donnelly
as The Countess
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Sam Hardy
as Jeff Baird
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Oscar Apfel
as Henshaw
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Frank Mills
as Chuck Collins
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Polly Walters
as Doris Randall
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Billy Bletcher
as Actor
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Maurice Chevalier
as Guest Star
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Claudette Colbert
as Guest Star
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Gary Cooper
as Guest Star
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Phillips Holmes
as Guest Star
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Bud Jamison
as Actor
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Fredric March
as Guest Star
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Jack Oakie
as Guest Star
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Harry "Snub" Pollard
as Actor
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Victor Potel
as Actor
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Charlie Ruggles
as Guest Star
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Sylvia Sidney
as Guest Star
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Nick Thompson
as Actor
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Bobby Vernon
as Actor
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Clive Brook
as Actor
