Starlit Days at the Lido (1935) User Reviews

Starlit Days at the Lido was another M-G-M Technicolor short that I actually found a little more entertaining than previous ones in the series

[tavm · 6/10 · 23 August 2009]

This was another M-G-M 3-strip Technicolor short produced by Louis Lewyn featuring many musical performances and many movie star cameos that I watched on YouTube. Reginald Denny was the emcee this time. There's some amusing silent comedy courtesy of Arthur Lake before he become Dagwood in Columbia's "Blondie" series and cross-eyed Ben Turpin who gets some attention from the Tic-Toc Girls, a funny-looking female trio that sings about needing a man. Quite funny, they are. Clark Gable is among the stars sitting as part of the audience with the woman sitting next to him identified as only Mrs. Clark Gable (psst, it's NOT Carole Lombard who he'd marry several years later). While Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards sings accompanied by his instrument as he sits at the bar, a woman next to him keeps taking cigarettes from various places in his suit. (Hope she didn't die from all that smoking!) A few more stuff happened like cute Baby LeRoy dancing and playing the violin with a girlfriend (though we hear nothing from it) and an impressionist convincingly doing Jimmy Durante with fake big nose and Ed Wynn with his then-trademark fireman hat. On that note, Starlit Days at the Lido was a little better than the other M-G-M/Louis Lewyn shorts I saw on YouTube.

A daytime outdoor nightclub.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 April 2017]

In the mid-1930s, MGM made several promotional films supposedly set at night clubs...or day clubs like this one where the stars all go to be entertained by song and dance acts of the day. They all were supposed to represent the stars as they really are and the effect comes off as completely polished and staged!

In "Starlit Days at the Lido", Reginald Denny is the emcee of this somewhat entertaining concoction. Apart from introducing some acts, he also points out various stars in the audience. The best acts were Cliff Edwards (the voice of Jimminy Cricket) and a woman who made lit cigarettes appear from no where and the acrobats. The other acts, especially the creepy dancer and impersonator, were godawful. Among the stars there were Buster Crabbe, Constance Bennett, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery and Richard Barthelmess.

So is it any good? Well, I liked the music. Otherwise, pretty skippable.

Colorful Time Capsule

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 23 April 2014]

Lively showcase for the Lido Lounge and MGM stars of the time. The musical performances are fine. The movie star cameos (including Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Buster Crabbe, and Constance Bennett) are fun. But the real selling point here is the gorgeous three-strip technicolor. I had no idea they could do color this beautiful and rich in 1935. Cheesecake enthusiasts will be happy to know there's also footage of 1930s babes in bathing suits. Nice gams, ladies! Oh and there is also rare footage of Clark Gable with his then-wife, who is noticeably older than him. A very interesting short for a lot of reasons!

Worth Checking Out

[Michael_Elliott · 27 March 2010]

Starlit Days at the Lido (1935)

*** (out of 4)

This short from MGM is a must-see because of the 3-strip Technicolor used and the number of stars that get thrown into the mix. The actual story is pretty weak as we get introduced to a few musical groups while we then get to look at the people in the stands and this is where we find the celebrities. This here was produced by Louis Lewyn who is best remembered for creating all those Hollywood ON PARADE and THE VOICE OF Hollywood shorts. I'm going to guess his main goal here was to sell MGM on the idea of what 3-strip Technicolor could look like. The result is drop-dead gorgeous as the color is amongst the most beautiful that I've seen from any film from this period. The colors just jump off the screen and it almost looks as if we're looking at painted items just because of how wonderful they look. The grass is so rich and detailed that it almost seems like you're watching a HD product. That's the main reason to watch this film but we also get various stars making cameos and these stars include Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Francis Lederer, Cliff Edwards, Reginald Denny, Johnny Mack Brown, Buster Crabbe, Richard Barthelmess, Constance Bennett and Baby LeRoy.

Stars lounge away at the Lido

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 2 July 2016]

Starlit Days At The Lido is not only a commercial for the Lido Beach Club, but it contributes to the notion that it's always sunny in Southern California. No doubt Mr.&Mrs. Tourist visiting the movie capital just hoping to get a glimpse of as many celebrities as are shown in this 20 minute short subject from MGM.

Reginald Denny serves as host and there are some guest stars like Cliff Edwards who give us a song and Buster Crabbe who gives us a glimpse of his biceps. Some stars are dragged into this film surreptitiously with imitations from the Radio Rogues who were a comedy team of three at the time who made a few film appearances and specialized in doing imitations of radio stars. Ed Wynn and Jimmy Durante came in via the Rogues.

I wonder if the Lido is still in business.

Smokin' Hot!

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 18 April 2019]

Yet another of those novelty shorts in Technicolor that contains cutaways to big names of the period one isn't used to seeing in colour, including a tanned Clark Gable, Richard Barthelmess, Ben Turpin; and the dreaded Ritz Brothers.

A lot of the women are smoking, notably the one being serenaded by Cliff Edwards.

Delightful Early 3-strip Technicolor Musical Short

[glofau · 8/10 · 2 July 2010]

When I am feeling blue, I often play my copy of Starlit Days at the Lido (included as an extra on the Astaire/Rogers "Roberta" DVD) to cheer myself up. The film (one of the best of these early Lewis Lewyn musical shorts) is filled with a sense of insouciant fun and frolic from a bygone era, an ebullient combination of "hot jazz," 1930's Hollywood star-gazing by the Lido's pool, and entertaining novelty acts firmly grounded in a pop-culture sensibility drawn from vaudeville and early radio.

What could be more delicious than a woman pulling lit cigarettes out of a bewildered Ukulele Ike, a man dancing with a life-sized female puppet attached to his hands and feet, and chorus girls in brightly colored cellophane hats and parti-colored tights doing a kickline while handsome hunks in bathing suits toss a pretty girl through the air? The illusion of giddy optimism generated by all this good clean fun may be even more engaging today than it was in 1935.

There is also something ineffable about this movie, enhanced by the beautiful Technicolor photography, which makes you feel completely immersed in the world of the past, the best parts of 1930's Hollywood. The music and entertainment on display, which by today's standards seems terribly square or utterly absurd, are performed with an edgy, hip coolness which transform them into something endlessly delicious.

Almost every musical number in this piece is memorable. "Hot Lips" is a terrific example of a certain type of 1930's white jazz. I love the faux-Latin American quality of "The Martinique," accompanied by the bizarre dancing of that man with the full-sized Garbo (?) puppet attached to his feet. "Love Dropped In For Tea," sung with almost ludicrous suaveness by a male and female vocal duo and acted out by an entire cast of characters around the pool, charms and delights. But my favorite number has got to be "Oh! Honey, It's So Funny" where Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) sings and plays while the blonde woman he is romancing pulls lit cigarettes out of his ukulele. Priceless!

And who can resist Ben Turpin and his googly eyeballs being romanced by 3 gals in "Gay 90's" swimwear?

With Reginald Denny's MC adding a refined yet ridiculous wink-wink-nudge-nudge air to the proceedings, cameos by stars like Clark Gable and Buster Crabbe, terrific impersonations of Ed Wynn, Jimmy Durante and others by the 3 Radio Rogues, and all of the aforementioned music and frolic, Starlit Days at the Lido packs plenty of entertainment into 20 minutes! I love this film.

Stick to the music and star cameos and give the impressionists back to the now deceased vaudeville.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 13 October 2015]

Truly bizarre and not really funny, this is not bad when it simply focus is on the band music. I love the sound of a trumpet with that little thing inside its opening ("the muter") that gives off that delightfully funny sound. The music that the band leader plays throughout this beautiful looking MGM short is one of my favorite instrumentals of the 1930s. Appearances by some genuine actors (including mega-stars Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery and Constance Bennett) and a few forgotten ones are amusing from a publicity point of view but imitations of Ed Wynn, Jimmy Durante and others by the Three Radio Rogues are simply embarrassing and interrupt the more enjoyable parts of this short. There are some glorious musical moments in this but the narration is pathetic and it seemed to go on longer than it actually is. The film sometimes seem like they were made independently from MGM and only released by them to feel some sort of quota. However, as another look into the lives of the rich and sometimes not so famous, it does provide some sort of morbid curiosity. But of the shorts of this nature that I've seen, this one has to be the weakest.

Surprisingly interesting.

[hmpulham · 8/10 · 18 January 2007]

I'm guessing that this short was made for MGM as an experiment to gain experience with full color film. Or maybe it was produced by the Techincolor Corp. to show off the quality of their product. Earlier color films lacked the spectrum of vibrant colors, but this film was beautiful. I did not know how good Technicolor was in 1935. Another thing that was interesting was that unlike most Technicolor films of the 1930's, this was not a costume picture. We saw many scenes of ordinary people eating, dancing, or lounging around a swimming pool in all kinds of dress. In other words, it was a full color look into the past. I haven't mentioned the script because, there really wasn't one. The band music was nothing special, so too, were the vocalists. Several comedy bits ranged from corny to plain bad. I might add that movie buffs would enjoy seeing shots of various film stars that were part of the crowd.

Some of the egregious excesses of the "studio system" . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 1 June 2015]

. . . are on display in STARLIT DAYS AT THE LIDO. The MGM Studio demeans stars such as Clark Gable by making them an on-screen captive audience for some of the most banal, bizarre, and boring shenanigans ever foisted off on a paying public as "entertainment." Imagine a tuneless bozo abusing a ukulele as a platinum blonde pretends to find one lit joint after another in the folds of his tacky blazer. That's entertainment?! Or a klutz singing about meeting his True Love by spilling item after item at his dining table. Or a parade of 288 young females surrounding all of MGM's A-Listers and pelting them with dodge balls as they are attempting to finish their lunches by the end of their breaks. Or exposing the same galaxy of luminaries to five minutes of some pervert "dancing" with a blown-up sex doll attached to his pants cuffs. Or a group of body builders tossing a terrified swimsuit model around like a rag doll. Throw in a dozen more "humorous" bits that totally pancake, and you can understand why actors soon after this unionized for the sake of self-preservation.

The 34 Year Old Clark Gable

[Single-Black-Male · 5 November 2003]

With the help of Columbia Pictures, Gable's career was carried in a succession of films leading up to his academy award winning film, 'It Happened One Night'. From that point on, he was a star. In this film he is making a guest appearance as himself.

For decades puzzled viewers have been watching . . .

[pixrox1 · 4/10 · 9 February 2017]

. . . this hodgepodge of sub-par entertainment, wondering how the studio of Prissy and Ashley Wilkes could have foisted off this fluff upon a Paying Public. As it turns out, the MGM Brass was COMPELLED to by the Quantum Physics Principle of String Theory (which can be summarized by the algorithm that any world event, no matter how bizarre, MUST be telegraphed decades in advance by a lame MGM short). Surely half the devotees of this past summer's Cleveland Convention (aka, The Mistake by the Lake) must have recognized the blow-up doll dancing with the sex pervert as Melancholia "I Vant to be Alone!" Rump. Similarly, the blonde chick plucking half a dozen lit cigarettes from the ukulele-strumming bozo's garments and then chucking them Unextinguished into the dry grass at her feet is a Dead Ringer for our newly-minted Miseducation Secretary, "Burn Down the Public Schools!" Devos. The nude guy poking just his head through a tent flap is a harbinger of none other than Jeff Sessions, changing into his KKK gown. And the oaf knocking all the plates and condiments off his tea table can only signify our just-confirmed Environmental Pollution Agency (EPA) Chief, who's single-handedly increased the average number of annual earthquakes in his home state from 2 up to 800, and promises to get the same results nationwide!

Extraordinary Time Capsule

[jacksflicks · 9/10 · 26 January 2015]

I think this MGM color short is quite underrated. You need to look past the, to us, cornball routines to the vivid color which makes Starlit Days an extraordinary time capsule. Look at the daytime clothes of the era. People would dress up in public whether out shopping or at an afternoon "tea dance." Look at the couples holding each other like they used to do, dancing the foxtrot to an elegant turned-out band. This was long before Hollywood was invaded by the tourist hordes and paparazzi. It was a company town, and you could see the stars on the streets or buying groceries or watering their lawns.

I give Starlit Days a Nine because of its quality and rarity. The Technicolor print has survived very well, including the sound. Yes, by the mid-30s there were a few full Technicolor features, but MGM was late to the party. To make it up, the studio released a series of shorts that were dripping with color and shot at notable venues around Hollywood, such as the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Catalina Island and Mission Santa Barbara.

The location here is the Lido Spa behind the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. The "guests" are screen icons we still remember, plus pop stars who were hot at the time. MC Reginald Denny (whose later namesake won notoriety as a victim of the 1992 Los Angeles riots) played mainly second leads but had a fine career on-screen and then off, as proprietor of a popular Hollywood hobby shop and a radioplane works that employed a much-photographed girl named Norma Jeane Mortensen.

Luminaries present include heartthrob Francis Lederer, who does something kinda kinky with a beach ball. Then, there are Buster Crabb, Robert Montgomery, Richard Barthelmess, Lili Damita (soon to cross swords with Errol Flynn), John Boles, Clark Gable, Constance Bennett, Johnny Mack Brown. There's a novelty act called The Tic-Toc Girls with their hands all over a prone, cross-eyed Ben Turpin who exclaims joyfully, "Can I take it!"

Then, there's Cliff Edwards aka Ukulele Ike aka Jiminy Cricket, strumming his uke while a lovely lady works her cigarette magic on him, which he reciprocates for the finale. There is also a trio of radio impersonators, playing George Arliss, Jimmy Durante and a wacko Ed Wynn.

My favorite part is Henry Busse (pronounced "Bussy") and his band. Henry was a founding member of Paul Whiteman's orchestra. (It's his trumpet that starts off Rhapsody in Blue.) He also played with Bing Crosby and the Dorsey brothers. Here he plays two numbers, the first with vocalists Judy Randall and Carl Grayson, the lyrics comically acted out by Arthur Lake aka Dagwood Bumstead. Grayson would later become a front man and then novelty singer for Spike Jones.

The second number is Busse's great Hot Lips, vocalized by Miss Randall and accompanied by the amazing chorus line of the Franchonettes. Those hat brims, I think, were cut from gel filter sheets by studio wardrobe. Watch those shoes when they're kicking! And look closely at each of the pretty, shapely, bra-less girls (one amazing shot got past the censors), hoping for their big break.

The stars' sunlit faces look un-made-up (except for the pale, sunglassed Miss Bennett), giving them a vitality you don't get in their movies. This is a "typical lunch in Hollywood" fantasy, but through the silliness and artifice are the everyday styles, fashions and looks of a black & white world now given startling immediacy by vivid color. We see beyond just a show to a glimpse into another world -- a real world long past.

This and other Technicolor Louis Lewyn shorts are part of a 4-disc set, "Classic Musical Shorts from the Dream Factory," currently available.

Beautifully photographed

[brackenhe · 8/10 · 10 June 2007]

I'm giving this film an eight only because of the brilliant Technicolors filming. This production took full advantage of the process by having everyone dressed in colorful costumes and the setting has lots of colorful umbrellas, a swimming pool and the lawn is so green. What I found fascinating is that all the "stars" are seated with a member of the same sex such as Robert Montgomery & Richard Barthelmess, Constance Bennett and some other woman, Johnny Mack Brown and some tennis star with the exception of Clark Gable and his wife who looked old enough to be his mother. What does that all mean? I don't know since is was all an innocuous lunchtime crowd at a private club. But it seemed to insinuate that these folks only went out with their "buddies" or maybe they're all gay. The only "romance" were the scenes between Arthur Lake and some woman and Cliff Edwards with some woman magician, two men not exactly known as heartthrobs. It's a fun short with lots of women in hilarious bathing suits and some awful musical numbers.