Movie Crazy

98 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$675,353^[1]Box office$1,439,000^[2]

Movie Crazy is a 1932 American Pre-Code comedy film starring Harold Lloyd in his third sound feature.

The film's copyright was renewed in 1959.^[3]

Plot

Harold Hall, a young man with little or no acting ability, desperately wants to be in the movies.

After a mix-up with his application photograph, he gets an offer to have a screen-test, and goes off to Hollywood. At the studio, he does everything wrong and causes all sorts of trouble. But he catches the fancy of a beautiful actress, and eventually the studio owner recognizes him as a comic genius.

Cast

• Harold Lloyd as Harold Hall / Trouble
• Constance Cummings as Mary Sears
• Kenneth Thomson as Vance
• Louise Closser Hale as Mrs Kitterman
• Spencer Charters as J.L. O'Brien
• Robert McWade as Wesley Kitterman, Producer
• Eddie Fetherston as Bill, Assistant Director
• Sydney Jarvis as The Director
• Harold Goodwin as Miller
• Mary Doran as Margie
• DeWitt Jennings as Mr. Hall
• Lucy Beaumont as Mrs. Hall
• Arthur Housman as The "Customer Who Didn't Order Rabbit"
• Grady Sutton as The "Man Afraid Of Mice"
• Noah Young as The Traffic Cop
• Edward Peil as The Waiter

Production

This was the first film for Harold Lloyd in two years. Clyde Bruckman, who had directed Lloyd in his first two talkie films along with the sound version of Speedy, was recruited to direct Lloyd, who also served as producer. However, Bruckman soon fell ill to a lingering problem with alcoholism, which led to Lloyd stepping into direct, although he did not take credit for it.^[4]

Background

The film was a major box office success. An estimated $675,000 was spent on the production and the film grossed over $1,439,000 in the United States alone.^[2] The film also proved to be a major critical success as the vast majority of film reviewers praised the picture highly.^[5] Cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller provided gags for the film.^[6]

Renewed interest in Harold Lloyd

In 1962, scenes from this film were included in a compilation film produced by Harold Lloyd himself entitled Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and created a renewal of interest in the comedian by introducing him to a whole new generation.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of United States comedy films

References

External links

• Movie Crazy at IMDb
• Movie Crazy at AllMovie
• Movie Crazy at the TCM Movie Database
• Movie Crazy at the American Film Institute Catalog