MERTON OF THE MOVIES

US, 1947, 82 minutes, Black and white.
Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien, Alan Mowbray.
Directed by Robert Alton.

Merton of the Movies is a pleasant Red Skelton vehicle, based on a play by Miles Connelly and George Kaufman. It was directed by choreographer Robert Alton. It gives Red Skelton and opportunity to do some of his comic routines in the context of silent filmmaking. Gloria Grahame enjoys herself as the movie femme fatale. Leon Ames is the fickle movie hero. Virginia O'Brien has a good role as a stuntwoman turned leading lady and Red's romantic interest. The film re-creates the atmo6phere of the early studios in Hollywood, the deals, the styles of film-making, stardom.

1. Enjoyable comedy? Piece of Americana? Red Skelton vehicle?

2. Black and white photography, the re-creation of Hollywood in 1915, the Hollywood studios and sets? Filmmaking?

3. Red Skelton and his comic style, earnest, pratfalls and comic action, his comic dialogue? The picture of him as the simple man, laughed at, innocent, earnest and serious? And yet comic nonetheless?

4. The old story of the usher who trained to be an actor, was a ham, got in everybody's way, foiled a robbery attempt by using his hero's methods and is taken to Hollywood? He is feted but ignored by the star? Who stays in Hollywood to get a job, is unemployed, gets mixed up in various films and routines? Becomes a star and a success?

5. The humorous scenes: Merton watching the cinema, foiling the robbery, the photos with Rupert, fixing the light at the men's club and his fall, the routine of phoning to get into the filming, diving for Beulah, the cat as his hat, taken to be an extra and having to play dead, drinking with Beulah, the filming of the mock-heroics for his film, the hiccups, the film preview, being chased under the rows of seats and the carpet? The finale?

6. Merton as a character? Nice,. hopes, believing everyone? Phyllis and her friendship, liking Merton, helping with the movie, not telling him the truth, finally revealing it ? and his being persuaded? Beulah and the send-up of the vamp? Rupert and the send-up of the star who drinks? His bodyguards and thugs? The directors and their treatment of the stars, the
scenes? The producers?

7. The film's comment on the popular entertainment of the time and the perspective of 30 years later?