Movie Crazy

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

Movie Crazy
Original Poster
Directed by	Clyde Bruckman Harold Lloyd (uncredited)
Written by	Vincent Lawrence
Produced by	Harold Lloyd (uncredited)
Starring	Harold Lloyd Constance Cummings Kenneth Thomson
Cinematography	Walter Lundin
Edited by	Bernard W. Burton
Music by	Alfred Newman (uncredited)
Production company	The Harold Lloyd Film Corporation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 12, 1932 (1932-08-12)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$675,353
Box office	$1,439,000

The film's copyright was renewed in 1959.

Plot

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

Harold Lloyd in "Movie Crazy" ad from The Film Daily, 1932

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. He meets the actress, Mary Sears, at her home, but does not realize she is the same woman he saw at the studio. She puts Harold through various romance-loyalty tests that he fails, infatuated with the actress persona.

He accidentally wear's a magician's suit at a fancy party and inadvertently causes havoc through the magician's tricks going off. Later, he is knocked out and ends up inside a trunk on the set of a film where Mary and her abusive would-be boyfriend are performing a scene. The scene involves multiple rooms and complicated effects, and the director strictly orders the scene to continue filming until he yells "cut." The director loses consciousness, and an unscripted real-world fight takes place between Harold and the boyfriend, activating the effects that were planned for the film. Harold wins the fight and the director finally ends the scene.

The studio owner sees footage of the fight. He recognizes Harold as a comic genius and offers him a contract, even knowing that the fight was not acting.

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.

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. The film also proved to be a major critical success as the vast majority of film reviewers praised the picture highly. Cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller provided gags for the film.

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.

See also

• Harold Lloyd filmography
• List of United States comedy films

External links

• Movie Crazy at IMDb
• Movie Crazy at AllMovie
• Movie Crazy at the TCM Movie Database
• Movie Crazy at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films