calvinnme One thing you can say about Sam Goldwyn's ventures into musicals. He could either hit them out of the park ("Whoopee", "Palmy Days", "The Kid From Spain", etc.), he could miss completely ("One Heavenly Night"), or he could come up with a film that really is a bit of a mess but enjoyable for the classic film lover. The problem here seems to be that the film is trying to imitate to some degree the Warner Busby Berkeley films of 1933, the problem being that it is five years later. You'd think that of all people Goldwyn would have gotten that, since Busby Berkeley was directing his dance numbers in his Eddie Cantor films before Warner Bros. got a hold of him. Kenny Baker is obviously trying to stand in for Dick Powell, and he's good enough, it's just that musicals were transitioning to a different phase by 1938, the year this film was released. Thus the backstage banter between chorus girls doesn't come off very well after the code. The Ritz Bros. are obviously trying to stand in for the Marx Bros. and they do have a funny routine about a cat, but in the end they do get a bit tiresome. The film does have the dashing Adolphe Menjou, and he improves just about every film he's in including this one. The Technicolor is gorgeous and the Gershwin music is wonderful.However, the modern viewer has one strategic advantage over the viewer that saw this in the first-run. We're not trapped in the perspective of a 1938 movie-goer so we can enjoy the film for what it is - some great musical numbers with a little good comedy and a lot of silliness.One thing I don't get. This film first appeared on DVD as part of the giant Hollywood Musicals Collection late in 2008. One of the other films making its debut on DVD was the long awaited "Whoopee" starring Eddie Cantor. Why did this film get an individual pressed release rather than "Whoopee"? Was MGM allergic to money or something? Fortunately Warner Archives came to the rescue and procured the rights to almost everything Goldwyn and did release "Whoopee", although it was burned not pressed.

bkoganbing For a film entitled The Goldwyn Follies Sam Goldwyn got some of the very best acts from the opera, the ballet, and the radio to make a nice musical for United Artists to release. A very skimpy backstage plot doesn't get too much in the way. And any film that has everything from the grand opera to the Ritz Brothers has got something for everyone to enjoy.Truth be told the plot is a bit silly, a kind of modified and lighter version of Maytime. Producer Adolphe Menjou has had a run of bad pictures and he gets the idea that he's losing touch with the public. So fresh and wholesome Andrea Leeds is hired to be his influence with her being attuned to the movie-going public. Menjou's condition is that she have no contact with other show business entertainers lest she be unduly influenced. But one fine night she finds short order cook Kenny Baker flipping hamburgers and singing to the radio. After that it's Maytime though it ends a lot better for all three of these people.For ballet you have a couple of numbers choreographed by the immortal Georges Balanchine with his prima ballerina Vera Zorina who was also Mrs. Balanchine. Zorina had just scored very big on Broadway in Rodgers&Hart's On Your Toes and she had a brief Hollywood career as well. Opera lovers will like hearing Charles Kullman and Helen Jepson singing some selections. The radio furnished us with Phil Baker, Bobby Clark appearing solo for the first time since the death of his partner Clyde McCullough and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.Andrea Leeds who was fresh from her Oscar nominated performance in Stage Door also with Menjou does well when she doesn't sing. But with Kenny Baker's tenor and Helen Jepson in the cast her non-singing singing stands out like a sore thumb. As for Baker he was appearing around this time on the Jack Benny Show as Benny's vocalist before Dennis Day came on the scene. Baker introduces those two Gershwin classics Our Love Is Here To Stay and Love Walked In. Those were the last songs composed by George Gershwin who died before seeing this film.One thing Goldwyn completely ripped off was a sequence with the Ritz Brothers and Menjou. A similar sequence was done in the Warner Brothers musical Varsity Show with Warren William and a quartet of Ritz Brothers like burlesque comedians. Jack Warner could have sued.The Goldwyn Follies is a fun bit of entertainment fluff with something literally for all kinds of taste.

Neil Doyle The only real compensation for watching THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES is the pleasing Technicolor--but, unfortunately, none of the plot is believable nor are any of the characters likely to resemble anyone in real-life Hollywood.There are some worthwhile bits. The opera sequence with HELEN JEPSON is well done--including a lovely version of "Siempre Libre"; EDGAR BERGEN and CHARLIE McCARTHY are pros in a few amusing sketches; KENNY BAKER does a professional job on songs like "Love Walked Right In"; VERA ZORINA adds some dancing magic and ANDREA LEEDS lends her bland presence to the role of a naive young girl asked to give ADOLPHE MENJOU pointers on what the public wants. Leeds looks an awful lot like either Donna Reed or Olivia de Havilland in her close-ups.ADOLPHE MENJOU, too, is professional enough as the producer foolish enough to get ideas from a romantic young girl so he can produce the right kind of movie. Too bad Goldwyn didn't get some advice from good script-writers on how to stage this sort of thing.Summing up: Noteworthy only for the color cinematography and some of the talented bits, but the script is full of dull clichés, lifeless and unbelievable. I found Bergen and McCarthy gave the film its most enjoyable moments.

DeborahPainter855 A sweet romance, good character actors, vivid Technicolor, a little behind-the-scenes work at a major studio, and great songs make this a pleasant way to spend two hours. It's also interesting historically because it marks the transition between the end (for only a few decades, thankfully) of tap and the beginning of ballet in film musicals.