5/10
You need a collaborator
16 June 2017
Crashing Hollywood has recently released from prison Paul Guilfoyle and moll Lee Patrick meeting aspiring screenwriter Lee Tracy on the train. As Tracy is writing about crime Gulfoyle decides he needs a collaborator for a little realism.

Guilfoyle's material is based on his time with the gang of the infamous criminal known as The Hawk still at large and still unknown to the public. But he does look a whole lot like ham actor Bradley Page.

Crashing Hollywood is based on a flop play Lights Out which only ran 12 performances in 1922. Back in the day studios bought all kinds of material even stuff that flopped on stage because they needed dialog for those new fangled talking pictures. In this case there was a silent version which seems to have disappeared into obscurity.

Dwarfed by the much larger budgeted Boy Meets Girl over at Warner Brothers also about zany studio goings on, Crashing Hollywood does have its moments. Bradley Page is great in the dual role of the Hawk and the ham. Tom Kennedy is always funny and here's the Hawk's thick as a brick trigger man. Richard Lane however steals the show as the zany head of the studio, Wonder Pictures where Lucille Ball would work in The Affairs Of Annabel.

Tracy is good, but almost subdued here for him. Crashing Hollywood will be enjoyed by fans who liked Boy Meets Girl like me.
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