Going Hollywood
The second of three consecutive films Marion Davies starred in at MGM that grossed more than $1,000,000 .. when a movie ticket cost 25 cents. The other two were Peg o' My Heart (1933) and Operator 13 (1934).,Bill 'Billy' Williams: [singing] Out where they say, "Let us be gay," I'm going Hollywood. I'll ballyhoo greetings to you, I'm going Hollywood. Hey, while you sleepyheads are in that hay, I'll be dancing - I'm gonna be dancing with a sun-kissed baby. And I'm on my way - here's my beret, I'm going Hollywood!,Edited into The Big Idea (1934),Going Hollywood
(1933) (uncredited)
Music by Nacio Herb Brown
Lyrics by Arthur Freed
Played during the opening credits
Sung by Bing Crosby at the railroad station
Played as background music twice,I watched this movie because I wanted to see what Marion Davies could do in a comedy, which is supposedly what she did best. She was an attractive woman, with - at least on screen - a pleasant, unpretentious personality, so I figured she might indeed do well in comedy.

But this script, by the much admired David Ogden Stewart, gives her nothing to work with. She delivers her lines ok, but the lines are so uninteresting that I don't know what Helen Hayes could have done with them.

Davies has to dance, and she's passable but no better. But then, no worse than Crawford or some other actresses of the era who were given dance numbers. Davies has to sing, and again, she's not bad, but nothing special.

In short, this movie doesn't make a case for Davies as an actress in comedy. It doesn't make her look bad, but it doesn't make you think she was a great comedian, either.

For me, the best thing, the only really good thing, in this movie was Bing Crosby's delivery of some of his musical numbers, in particular *Temptation*, a great song that he brings off very well. The other musical numbers, like the script, are bland and forgettable.

I'm surprised that Hearst, with all his money and power, couldn't have seen to it that Davies had better material. But then, perhaps the problem was not with her but with him: maybe he couldn't tell if a movie script was good or bad and imposed bad ones on her.,