Copyright 23 February 1938 by Samuel Goldwyn. New York opening at the Rivoli, 20 February 1938. Released through United Artists. U.S. release: 4 February 1939 (sic.). Australian release: 9 June 1938. 13 reels. 115 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Harassed film producer seeks a new star.NOTES: Academy Award, Edgar Bergen "for his outstanding comedy creation, Charlie McCarthy". Bergen received a wooden statuette. Oddly, although The Goldwyn Follies was his first feature film and not released until early 1938, the award was made at the ceremony (on 10 March 1938) honoring the 1937 year. Bergen had made one-reel shorts for Vitaphone since 1930, including Double Talk (1937).Also nominated (on 12 February 1939) for Art Direction (The Adventures of Robin Hood), and Best Music Score (Alexander's Ragtime Band).Screen debut of Vera Zorina. George Gershwin died while writing the film's songs (on 11 July 1937).Negative cost: nearly $2 million.COMMENT: No-one would say that The Goldwyn Follies is a good film. It is, alas, despite the beauty of its pastel-toned Technicolor photography, often plain dull or even irritatingly banal. Partly despite and partly because of the over-strenuous efforts of its cast, it is at best a mixed blessing. There are so many things wrong with the movie (flat direction, thin script, over-zealous acting, ho-hum choreography, unfunny comics, a sissy hero, never-never-land sets — have you ever seen a hamburger stand so impossibly squeaky clean?), it's a miracle that the total effect is one of a slightly bemused ennui rather than anger or loathing. Fortunately, it's impossible to put good tunes down. Both "Love Walked In" and "Love Is Here To Stay" are so delightfully catchy and melodious, we can even excuse the circumstances in which they are introduced. And thanks to Miss Leeds and the decorative Goldwyn girls — and the rewarding efforts of Messrs Toland and Rennahan — the picture is always attractive to look at. And it has a certain nostalgia value. In fact, if you're prepared to be indulgent and overlook its many shortcomings, The Goldwyn Follies has such undeniable charm it's almost entertaining. If only it were not so dull!

One thing you can say about Sam Goldwyn's ventures into musicals. He could either hit them out of the park ("Whoopee", "Palmy Days", "The Kid From Spain", etc.), he could miss completely ("One Heavenly Night"), or he could come up with a film that really is a bit of a mess but enjoyable for the classic film lover. The problem here seems to be that the film is trying to imitate to some degree the Warner Busby Berkeley films of 1933, the problem being that it is five years later. You'd think that of all people Goldwyn would have gotten that, since Busby Berkeley was directing his dance numbers in his Eddie Cantor films before Warner Bros. got a hold of him. Kenny Baker is obviously trying to stand in for Dick Powell, and he's good enough, it's just that musicals were transitioning to a different phase by 1938, the year this film was released. Thus the backstage banter between chorus girls doesn't come off very well after the code. The Ritz Bros. are obviously trying to stand in for the Marx Bros. and they do have a funny routine about a cat, but in the end they do get a bit tiresome. The film does have the dashing Adolphe Menjou, and he improves just about every film he's in including this one. The Technicolor is gorgeous and the Gershwin music is wonderful.However, the modern viewer has one strategic advantage over the viewer that saw this in the first-run. We're not trapped in the perspective of a 1938 movie-goer so we can enjoy the film for what it is - some great musical numbers with a little good comedy and a lot of silliness.One thing I don't get. This film first appeared on DVD as part of the giant Hollywood Musicals Collection late in 2008. One of the other films making its debut on DVD was the long awaited "Whoopee" starring Eddie Cantor. Why did this film get an individual pressed release rather than "Whoopee"? Was MGM allergic to money or something? Fortunately Warner Archives came to the rescue and procured the rights to almost everything Goldwyn and did release "Whoopee", although it was burned not pressed.

While there are a lot of things to praise about this Samuel Goldwyn musical extravaganza, the most obvious failure in this overlong attempt to bring the "Ziegfeld Follies" to the movies is its hypocritical fight against its own theme, bringing reality into the movies. Adolph Menjou is cast as a Samuel Goldwyn like film producer who keeps making the most pretentious movies with his temperamental star (Vera Zorina) and searches for reality after a preview goes bad. He happens to overhear two sisters discussing what they witnessed in the filming of his next opus, and hires one of them (Andrea Leeds, "Stage Door") to be "Miss Humanity", to tell him how to alter his plots to be more realistic and acceptable to the average movie goer. What happens then becomes even worse than the tripe he was making before as Leeds even makes him change the ending of "Romeo and Juliet", seen here in a modern ballet that is the epitome of audaciousness.When Leeds happens to meet a singing fry cook (Kenny Baker), she secretly pushes for him to get an introduction to Menjou in order to become the juvenile in the altered version of the movie she had seen him making before. Baker spends more time singing "Love Walked In" that you get to the point where you want to walk out if he warbles it again. When he breaks into "Our Love is Hear to Stay", he hits the nail on the head of the song you'd rather hear over and over. Both songs are classics in the Gershwin repertoire (two of the last he ever wrote), but in the case of "Love Walked In", less is more.Broadway legend Bobby Clark gets one of his rare film roles as a casting director who always seems to have future "Finian's Rainbow" star Ella Logan in his lap whenever Menjou calls and is responsible for the parade of buffoons who come in to audition for Menjou while he's looking for a tenor. This audition sequence reminded me of the "Hitler" auditions in "The Producers" with the line-up of high-pitched male voices singing everything with the exception of "The Little Wooden Boy".The presence of the Ritz Brothers will be a hit or miss with today's audiences. The pop-eyed trio first encounter Menjou with their various animals, and then harass him some more during the tenor audition scene where they sing a song about Old Man Jenkin's cat. Later on, they pop up in a water ballet where they encounter a plastic whale then later turn into mermaids. Some of the humor is silly and dated, yet you'd have to be made out of iron not to laugh at some point, even if you are raising your eyebrows while doing it. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy have a delightful routine of insults with the character man who keeps being shifted from one part to another, and never getting to play his accordion. McCarthy adeptly notes how the man sings through his teeth, praising his "falsetto". You get the drift of how this routine will play out.Menjou's character goes a little overboard when the tough producer becomes a bit lecherous towards Leeds, making demands that are totally absurd in nature. The ballet sequences might cause some viewers to hit fast forward, although a brief operatic sequence performed by Helen Jepson is a delight for the ears, even for a non opera buff like myself. I really didn't feel that this film really was made for "the common man", stuffing in several different styles of comedy and music that at times are a bit highbrow when mixed in with the likes of the Ritz Brothers.

Sam Goldwyn did this movie to imitate the Ziegfeld follies and (hopefully) rake in millions. Boy was he WRONG! Adolphe Menjou plays a producer whose movies are failing. He meets sweet, wholesome Andrea Leeds and hires her to be "Miss Humanity" and tell him what the public wants. (No it makes no sense to me either) She tells him all these howlers like "Romeo and Juliet should have a happy ending" and "love is the most important thing". Menjou manages to keep a straight face and says "That's brilliant" to all these pearls of wisdom. One day Leeds goes to a hamburger diner. She walks in to see sweet, wholesome Kenny Baker cooking hamburgers while singing "Love Walked In" (with a full orchestra being heard). Naturally they fall in love. That's when I gave up.Seriously this movie is just unbelievable. The dialogue was full of campy lines and groaningly bad jokes (my eyes hurt from rolling them so much). This movie is full of "speciality" act: Edger Bergman and Charlie McCarthy manage to get out a few good jokes; The Ritz Brothers (a comedy group that makes the Three Stooges look subdued) throw in some "comedy" bits that will have you gaping (in disbelief)--their "pussy cat" song is truly a jaw-dropper; Romeo and Juliet is done as a ballet--with tap-dancing too; there are THREE musical numbers from "La Traviata" worked in; Phil Baker pops up as a seriously untalented accordionist and a LONG dull ballet is shoved in.Acting doesn't help. Menjou manages to keep a straight face; Leeds is given nothing to do but look beautiful and wholesome and Baker is SO nauseatingly sweet that you just want to slap him. Beautiful Technicolor photography doesn't help. This is worth watching just for some nice visuals and the hysterically bad dialogue. Example: "Fill my bath with whipped cream" (????). This falls in the so bad it's good area--but still it's just a 1 all the way.