Surely it would be forgotten had not one of the stars been Bela Lugosi. It starts with a bang: a murder on a person on a street, and the camera pulls back to reveal a camera crew is filming it. And that’s a literal “pull back” too – the camera actually moves around here quite a lot for an early sound film. In fact, the handling is energetic and brisk all the way through. Lugosi plays a producer – his more deliberate delivery isn’t quite right for the rat-tat-pace of everyone else. David Manners is a screenwriter, who investigates the murder (wishful thinking) – and Edward van Sloan is a director. So the three stars of Dracula are reunited.
Manners is the real star of this film, handsome, intelligent and likeable. But to be honest the film gets a little dull after its promising melo – it’s a run of the mill. There’s not enough Lugosi (he plays a red herring – something he was to do far too often in his career) or even Van Sloan. Not enough humour either, considering the studio setting. This film would provide the inspiration for the 1976 New World opus, Hollywood Boulevard.
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