Back when "Follow Thru" debuted, it must have been an incredibly prestigious film. After all, very, very few films were all-color productions and only a few others had color sequences buried within the picture. Yet, somehow, the studio scraped up the money to make this one color...albeit the old Two-Color Technicolor system...which looks pretty grotesque today. Part of it is that you never got true colors with the system...and everything tended to look orangy or greenish. But it's made worse because of nitrate stock degradation...and the print I saw on YouTube could use restoration.Another shortcoming of the film is the sound. While the speaking sequences are just fine, the singing, at times, sound rather tinny...and it was obviously recorded using primitive sound technology. This is no one's fault...it's just that sound movies were a relatively new thing and compared to films from just a year or two later, "Follow Thru" has sound that could be better. This, by the way, is probably why the movie was made on a sound stage instead of outdoors (which you'd expect in a film set on a golf course)....getting good sound was not easier...and would have been MUCH harder to do outdoors.The story finds Lora (Nancy Carroll) working hard to be a top golfer. She gets help from nice-guy, Jerry (Buddy Rogers) and the two fall in love. However, somehow Jerry is like catnip to the ladies and other women seem to want him as well...including Lora's nemesis! While all this is going on, Jerry's friend, Jack (Jack Haley) is there for comic relief and spends most of his time AVOIDING Angie...as he apparently doesn't like women.Throughout the film are a variety of songs and a few song and dance numbers. Most of them are very pleasant and enjoyable. The ones I noticed most were the devil and angel dance numbers....you just have to see them to believe 'em!Overall, this is a stagy old film...but an enjoyable one as well. Worth seeing...particularly if you love early talkies and don't mind that they lack the polish films Hollywood brought us just a year or two later.

The soft, dreamy early Technicolor (Nancy Carroll has the rosiest cheeks!), as well as some overhead camera angles at the golf course, make "Follow Thru" look like a more recent film than it is, and starting at the 54th minute there is a bizarre musical extravaganza, "I Wanna Be Bad", which, while no threat to Busby Berkeley, is quite imaginative. But the film goes on for 93 minutes although it has no story, and Jack Haley's comic shtick is dismally unfunny. **1/2 out of 4.

All reviewers seem to love this picture and I, too, tried to love it. The early Technicolor looked great and the whole production showed a lot of energy from all parties. True, several of them were in the Broadway musical and recreated their roles, chief among them were Jack Haley and Zelma O'Neal. I thought Haley hammed it up outrageously and was a grating presence much of the time. Zelma O'Neal, on the other hand, was terrific. She was energetic and showed a great deal of talent and overall ability; "Button Up Your Overcoat" belonged to her and Haley was just along for the ride.Buddy Rogers was the nominal star and looked heavily made up for some reason and didn't give one of his better performances. Nancy Carroll, on the other hand, was in her element and didn't disappoint. But the story was over the top and grew tiresome despite the short running time of 92 minutes. I appreciate comic zaniness but I felt this one ladled it on with a trowel. Tragic comedienne Thelma Todd was on hand but was largely wasted and Eugene Palette was too old for his part. To top it all off, the music was ordinary, except for the "Button Up Your Overcoat" number.As I said, I tried. Judging from the reception it got at Capitolfest in Rome,N.Y., I must have been the only wet blanket. "Follow Thru" is a Paramount picture, which could explain its absence from the public forum, as all early Paramount films are owned by Universal and are kept under lock and key.

This dizzy delight is a Paramount musical made in the snazzy jazzy days of 1929 and filmed in delicious two strip Technicolor. How much do I just love this funny silly film? 9/10 funny.... and a complete wish come true to see the modern fashions and elite life of the flapper 20s. Very stagy in its tone and just like a dream come true for anyone who also loves WHOOPEE and other dawn of sound Technicolor talkies FOLLOW THRU remains a modern film today and especially because of the fashion style and use of color. Filmed outdoors at a real golf hacienda which would have cut down costs considerably allowing for expensive use of color and great clothing designs, FOLLOW THRU is the real jazz flapper 20s at it's most silly funny best. Zelma O'Neal is terrific and Buddy Rogers handsome boyfriend stuff, the drag sequence with Jack Haley and Eugene Palette is literally a howler... and dance numbers, especially I WANT TO BE BAD hold up well. FOLLOW THRU is a must for your DVD collection if the restored UCLA tech print is given a proper transfer. The masquerade party sequence is enough to make anyone swoon with glee. Add this to your art deco musical wish list along with THE BOYFRIEND and ROBERTA and WHOOPEE and GOOD MORNING EVE and AT LONG LAST LOVE (which shares an especially uncanny resemblance) and VOGUES OF 1938.