mark.waltz There's two fantastic production numbers that come out of nowhere in this poverty row romantic comedy that features the Wampas Baby Stars, a beauty pageant of young hopefuls, none of whom here went onto anything outside of some minor parts. The first production number has the Wampas beauties being escorted by masked look-alikes of stars of the time: Laurel and Hardy, Clark Gable, George Arliss, Joe E. Brown, Buster Keaton, Maurice Chevalier, and yes, even Eddie Cantor who originated the song "Keep Young and Beautiful" in the Samuel Goldwyn musical epic, "Roman Scandals", the previous year. Three years before "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" in "The Great Ziegfeld" and 36 years before Sondheim had his own salute to those "Beautiful Girls" in "Follies", this Mascot film saluted what Broadway and Hollywood were striving for in keeping the public entertained during the depression. For a film studio that never rose above the low B's, Mascot had its share of glamorous looking programmers, even though it focused on quickly filmed action films and mysteries.Having just finished up his long term contract at MGM, William Haines ended his career with two B films on Poverty Row, but in this one, he's still at the top of his form as the sneaky Robert Preston (!), a Hollywood publicity man out to find the next greatest female star. Like the real Robert Preston's Harold Hill of "The Music Man", Haines isn't above using a little bit of chicanery in getting what he wants, and what he wants is rising star beauty Judith Allen who is both amused and turned off by his antics. Tired of his sneaky antics, Allen turns to aging millionaire John Miljan whom she intends to marry for his money. Haines uses all his resources to get her back, and this leads to a very amusing finale where he cons her again, reminding me of the type of hijinks that fellow 30's fast talking actor Lee Tracy would get up to regularly. A second musical number, set on the studio streets, has an impromptu group of Wampas Baby Stars and some masculine crew men doing the same type of dance steps and is quite funny. Prints of this vary in length, the one I saw obviously a cut TV broadcast version, missing about 14 minutes. In smaller roles,Joseph Cawthorn and Vince Barnett give amusing performances. I would rank this high among poverty row films, one which I'd like to see fully restored. But what remains in its edited form is still worth seeing, surprising when you look at the history of the B-Z grade studios that tossed out movies on a weekly basis at the same rate as the people who went to see them were tossing out their weekly garbage. Some of those films are indeed garbage, but on occasion, a gem popped out, and this one is very close to being a gem.

ksf-2 Right at the opening credits, we can see this one is badly in need of restoration. Alpha Home Movies has taken a scratchy, faded copy and put it on DVD, now available on Turner Classics page. I gave up waiting for this to come on TCM and ordered the DVD online. Some biggies in here... Franklin Pangborn, William Haines ( the second to last film that he did!) and the "Wampas Baby Stars"... the up and coming movie starlets chosen each year. We're sixteen minutes in, and there isn't really much of a plot yet... just an odd modeling show for the Wampas starlets. They are accompanied by guys wearing masks of movie stars of the day. One of the models (Judith Allen as "June") pretends to be almost kidnapped, and of course the papers put the story in big headlines. She gets a couple big breaks, and gets a contract and a husband, Bob. "Shaw and Lee" do a bit as piano movers... that bit goes on WAY too long. "Gordon" (John Miljan) is also after June, and never misses a chance to try to get between her and Bob. It's sort of a "behind the scenes" in Hollywood. All's well that ends well, I guess. It's mildly entertaining, but having seen it, I can see why no-one is in a hurry to restore it. Pretty simple plot, but the real story here is the collection of stars, at various stages of their career arc. Written and directed by Joseph Santley. According to IMDb, Santley had appeared in Pony Express in 1907, at the age of 17 !

JohnHowardReid "Young and Beautiful" (1934) must be included in any keen movie- lover's must-see list for its one outstanding musical number in which the engaging dancers wear masks of many famous Hollywood players. Whilst this sequence is definitely the high point of the movie, it is on the whole a very entertaining effort from "B" studios' Mascot Pictures, who are doubtless making a determined effort to step into the big time. Producer Nat Levine collared for his principal players, popular William Haines, recently fired by M- G-M, plus Joseph Cawthorn (who provides a wonderful running gag with his side-splitting impersonation of Universal's then-embattled founder, Carl Laemmle) and the beautiful Judith Allen. Whatever happened to her? 1934 was her greatest year, with no less than nine movies to her credit. Her career slowly wound down. After playing the female lead to Frankie Darro's "Tough Kid" (1938), she made a bad career move by accepting a job as a walk-on in "Four Girls in White" (1939). Anyway, getting back to the fast-paced "Young and Beautiful", also on hand are no less than twelve of the year's Wampas Baby Stars. We don't see much of them, despite all the razzamataz, and there should be thirteen. See how many you can count on the Alpha DVD!

David Atfield In film mythology it is usually assumed that William Haines' final films, made for the little known Mascot Pictures, were low quality disasters. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that this movie is actually a very enjoyable comic romp through the back-lots of Hollywood. Sure, it's no masterpiece, but it is a lot of fun.Haines, looking great, gives his usual exhaustingly energetic performance as a high-powered Hollywood publicist. One can only speculate on how much he may have enjoyed the scene where he tells off a pompous studio head, just a year after his famous fight with Louis B. Mayer. The studio head though seems to have been based more on Carl Laemmle than Mayer - and Joseph Cawthorn does a fine job in the role (he looks remarkably like Laemmle too).There is some fairly unfunny comic routines from a couple of piano-movers that could have been cut, but the dance routines are pretty good - one involving some excellent caricatured masks of famous movie stars. Lots of pretty starlets, a fast-paced plot, and the glorious William Haines - what more could you ask for?