Make Me A Star (1932)

A star struck yokel (Stuart Erwin) from a small town goes to Hollywood to fulfill his dream of becoming a movie star. After crashing the gates of a major studio, he waits for his big break but he isn't prepared for how tough it is to make it in Hollywood. Based on the play MERTON OF THE MOVIES by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly by way of the novel by Harry Leon Wilson and directed by William Beaudine (BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA). The movie is hampered by the non descript Stuart Erwin as its chief protagonist. He's playing a naive dullard but when you have an actor who's a cipher on the screen, it's just not interesting. Fortunately there's the sassy Joan Blondell (borrowed from Warners) as an actress who takes him under her wing to compensate for Erwin's lack of sparkle. I was taken aback by the film's ambiguous ending which leaves Erwin's future up in the air. With Gary Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric March, Sylvia Sidney and Maurice Chevalier playing themselves and Ruth Donnelly and Ben Turpin.