Hollywood Boulevard
Cast & Crew
Robert Florey
John Halliday
Marsha Hunt
Robert Cummings
C. Henry Gordon
Esther Ralston
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As actress Eleanore Whitney makes footprints in the wet concrete outside Graumann's Chinese Theatre, washed-up star John Blakeford strolls nonchalantly down Hollywood Boulevard and enters the Cafe Trocadero. There he telephones his agent, desperate for work, then holds a loud, fake conversation to convince onlookers that he is in demand. After telling Gary Cooper and other friends that he is doing "magnificently," Blakeford's account at the Trocadero is closed because of overdue bills. Publisher Jordan Winslow approaches Blakeford and offers him $25,000 for a ghostwritten, serialized autobiography to appear in his gossip magazine, Modern Truth . At home, Blakeford begins to dictate his thoughts and tells Martha, his maid, that only two women have truly been important in his life: his ex-wife Carlotta, and his lover, Alice, who broke his heart. Despite the author's complaints, Winslow orders the memoirs "spiced up" and turned into "The Life and Loves of John Blakeford." While in New York and then Malibu, California, Winslow's wife Alice worries that her husband will learn of her affair with Blakeford twelve years earlier when he reads Blakeford's memoirs. In Santa Barbara, Blakeford's daughter Patricia, who owns a flower shop with her mother, meets a vacationing scenarist from Occidental Studios, Jay Wallace. Jay falls in love with Pat, who explains that she hates Hollywood, having lived there with her estranged father until she was twelve. Although he claims to live a monk's life, Jay fails to convince Pat that their romance could work despite Hollywood. Winslow's venture with Blakeford, meanwhile, has been so successful that he is financing a new film vehicle for him at Occidental. During a visit to the Mission in Santa Barbara, Pat finally decides to accept Jay's proposal. To distract temperamental Occidental actress Flora Moore, Jay, the most junior author at the studio, is sent to rewrite her latest part. Later, at a loud nightclub, Hollywood couples, including the slightly intoxicated Jay and Flora, are photographed by reporters. Intending to punch the nightclub's bouncer, Jay unintentionally slugs Blakeford, and the incident appears in the newspaper. Pat and Jay end their engagement, and she asks her father to cancel the publication of his memoirs before exposing his family. Blakeford begins to realize the hurt he has caused, but Winslow refuses to terminate their contract. Alice asks Blakeford to spare her and shoots him when he insists he has no choice but to write of their relationship. After Winslow takes his wife away, Pat tells him that she and Jay still plan to marry. No one is aware of how badly Blakeford has been hurt. Later, when the police find Blakeford, Pat is arrested. Jay discovers that a dictaphone recorded the confrontation between Alice and Blakeford and blackmails Winslow into ending the memoirs. The recovering Blakeford then claims the gunshot wound was a self-inflicted accident, thereby exonerating both Pat and Alice.
Director
Robert Florey
Cast
John Halliday
Marsha Hunt
Robert Cummings
C. Henry Gordon
Esther Ralston
Esther Dale
Frieda Inescourt
Albert Conti
Thomas Jackson
Oscar Apfel
Purnell Pratt
Hyman Fink
Irving Bacon
Richard Powell
Rita La Roy
Francis X. Bushman
Maurice Costello
Betty Compson
Mae Marsh
Charles Ray
Herbert Rawlinson
Jane Novak
Bryant Washburn
Jack Mulhall
Creighton Hale
Gary Cooper
Roy D'arcy
Ruth Clifford
Jack Mower
Frank Mayo
Harry Myers
Mabel Forrest
Tom Kennedy
Pat O'malley
Bert Roach
Lois Kent
Gregory Gaye
Eleanore Whitney
Ed Cecil
Lowell Drew
Phil Tead
Robert E. Homans
Eddie Dunn
Monte Vandergrift
Kitty Mchugh
Matty Roubert
Frances Morris
Ed Dearing
Charles Williams
Otto Yamaoka
Gertrude Simpson
Johnny Fletcher
Joanne Dudley
Hal Prince
Charles Morton
Margaret Harrison
John Sylvester
William Desmond
Edmund Burns
James Ford
Franklin Parker
William Wayne
Eddie Room
Margaret Hourian
G. H. Gordon
William Farnum
Crew
A. M. Botsford
George Clemens
Edward F. Cline
Hans Dreier
A. E. Freudeman
Earl Hedrick
Harvey Johnston
William Lebaron
Joe Lefert
Max Marcin
Louis Mesenkop
Boris Morros
Boris Morros
Walter Oberst
Marguerite Roberts
William Shea
Karl Struss
Faith Thomas
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although many reviews and publicity items credit George Clemens as cinematographer, Karl Struss is credited on the screen. Most contemporary sources give Faith Thomas sole story credit and make no mention of Max Marcin, who is credited on the screen with Thomas. In a modern interview, director Robert Florey states that the idea for this film was taken from his 1927 experimental short film, The Life and Death of 9413-a Hollywood Extra. Many former and present stars appear in the film. According to Florey, before principal photography started (in late May 1936), he shot a week of location sequences on Hollywood Boulevard and in Santa Barbara and Malibu, CA. Florey had planned to have each scene in the film open on an exterior of a well-known location. However, after the initial editing, associate producer Edward Cline ordered the picture trimmed to emphasize the plot line, and eighteen exteriors were cut. The appearances of Evelyn Brent, Louise Brooks, Alice Lake, Florence Lawrence, Rosemary Theby and a major cameo by Harold Lloyd were edited out; while the roles of Mae Marsh and Gary Cooper were reduced. Hollywood Reporter production charts list Dorothy Wilson, Ann Evers and Louise Stanley in the cast, although their appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. Modern sources credit Gregory Stone with music.
