It's hard to believe that this screenplay by Delmer Daves was based on a novel (by Peter B. Kyne), as it bears all the earmarks of an expanded short story. Something like forty-five minutes of footage is devoted to an elaborate, over-talkative build-up that leads us to the story proper – a very amusing sequence, lasting about 35 minutes, in which our hero attempts to buy a blue vase, with all the cards stacked against him. It is only in this sequence that director Busby Berkeley gives any indication of his training as a dance director. George Brent is the go- getter of the title and he turns in a very good performance. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Charles Winninger. His scenes in which he shouts and screams to little purpose should have been drastically trimmed. Ninety-two minutes is far too long for a support feature anyway. In my day, if a support feature ran over seventy minutes, it would never be booked by anyone, but would stay in the exchange and gather dust.
Review of The Go Getter
