The Goldwyn Follies *** (1938, Adolphe Menjou, Vera Zorina, Edgar Bergen, Andrea Leeds, Kenny Baker, Ella Logan, Helen Jepson, Bobby Clark, Ritz Brothers) – Classic Movie Review 12,405

Writer Ben Hecht’s entertaining 1938 Hollywood satire The Goldwyn Follies is the first Technicolor film produced by Samuel Goldwyn and the last film score written by George Gershwin.

Directors George Marshall and (uncredited) H C Potter’s 1938 musical film The Goldwyn Follies is the first Technicolor film produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is a slightly shaky and patchy film, but overall an entertaining and effective Hollywood satire, with some excellent numbers choreographed by George Balanchine.

It features Adolphe Menjou, Vera Zorina, Edgar Bergen Andrea Leeds, Kenny Baker, Ella Logan, Helen Jepson, Bobby Clark and the Ritz Brothers.

The story and screenplay are written by Ben Hecht, with special sequences for the Ritz Brothers written by Sid Kuller and Ray Golden, and additional comedy sequences by Sam Perrin and Arthur Phillips, with music by George Gershwin, Vernon Duke, and Ray Golden, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Sid Kuller.

Adolphe Menjou and the Ritz Brothers, Ben Hecht’s sprightly satirical script and George and Ira Gershwin’s zippy songs mostly rescue this slightly shaky Hollywood comedy about a film producer (Menjou) who seeks the typical young woman to try out the viability of his stories with the paying public and chooses the simple girl Hazel Dawes (Andrea Leeds) to be his ‘Miss Humanity’.

Edgar Bergen as Himself brings along his popular puppet Charlie McCarthy.

Alan Ladd appears uncredited as First Auditioning Singer.

It is the last film score by George Gershwin before his death on 11 July 1937.

It was released on 20 February 1938.

It was nominated for Oscars for Best Score (orchestrated by Edward B Powell with musical direction by Alfred Newman) and Best Interior Decoration.

The songs include: “Love is Here to Stay’, “I Was Doing All Right’, “Spring Again’, “Love Walked In’, “I Love to Rhyme’, and “Where’s The Gosh-Darn Cat?’.

Big band vocalist Virginia Verrill performs songs in The Goldwyn Follies, and also dubbed Jean Harlow’s voice in Suzy and Reckless.

The cast include: Adolphe Menjou as Oliver Merlin, The Ritz Brothers as Themselves, Vera Zorina as Olga Samara, Kenny Baker as Danny Beecher, Andrea Leeds as Hazel Dawes, Edgar Bergen as Himself, Charlie McCarthy as Himself, Helen Jepson as Leona Jerome, Phil Baker as Michael Day, Bobby Clark as A. Basil Crane Jr, Ella Logan as Glory Wood, Jerome Cowan as Director Lawrence, Charles Kullman as Alfredo in ‘La Traviata’, The American Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera as Ballet Dancers, Nydia Westman as Ada, Alan Ladd (uncredited) as First Auditioning Singer, and Francis Xavier Shields Assistant Director.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,405

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