Tuesday, April 10, 2018

The Road to Hollywood (1947), 5-

Film director Bud Pollard appears on screen to tell us of Bing Crosby's rise to fame, using scenes from four early Crosby shorts to illustrate his fictional biography.
56min | Biography, Comedy, Musical | 4 July 1947
Directors: Bud Pollard, Del Lord, Leslie Pearce, Mack Sennett
Stars: Bing Crosby, Luis Alberni, Ann Christy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174168/
Watched on AmazonPrime; also on a megapack.

This would have been better if they'd just concatenated the 4 source shorts together, complete with credits footage. They are (about 20 min each); see Connections for links:
I Surrender Dear (1931)
One More Chance (1931)
Dream House (1932)
Billboard Girl (1932)

I don't begrudge Sennett trying to capitalize on BC's popularity with archive footage. But the joining footage of director Pollard claiming any biographical content of the old shorts is silly while non-funny/boring. Each short might make more sense if shown complete.

Mack Sennett Comedies, dir. Pollard et al; 5-