365 Nights in Hollywood (1934) User Reviews

Early Faye Shows Much Promise

[sobaok · 7/10 · 28 December 2002]

This a quite an enjoyable early Faye effort. At 19, she's quite the trouper and gives a convincing, compelling performance. The big production number of "Yes, To You" is a real show-stopper and I think this is one of Faye's best songs. She gives a playful, comic touch to her impersonations of a Dutch girl, French Chanteuse, and exotic Asian doll. The plot is pure make-believe and everyone seems to be having fun with it. Jimmy Dunn is good and well as such stand-bys as Grant Mitchell. The comic duo Mitchell and Durant are tolerable at best. It's good someone saved this film from obscurity -- it's good entertainment -- now when can they do the same for NOW I'LL TELL? The Faye/ Spencer Tracy Fox film needs the same treatment.

Alice Faye Adds Some Spark to So-So Musical

[movingpicturegal · 6/10 · 7 February 2006]

Washed up motion picture director, Jimmy Dale (James Dunn), joins forces with a shyster named Delmar who runs a Hollywood dramatic school for young hopefuls (which seems heavy on the bratty little girls with moms that hope for them to become the next Shirley Temple). Dale starts work as the school's new dramatic coach, and they place an ad promoting that "Jimmy Dale wants to find the new Star of Tomorrow" ("Talent Not Necessary") to get new students to the school. This school also boasts former student, actor Adrian Almont, who never really went there but takes bribes for the use of his "name" (and he seems to be always hanging around there too, with not much to do even though apparently he's still a "success"). Lured by the dramatic school's ad, pretty gal from Peoria, Alice Perkins (played by Alice Faye), soon arrives in town in hopes of making it big in the movies and meanwhile spends her days working as carhop at a local burger joint and her nights taking "acting" lessons at the school. When Alice meets a man who just inherited $75,000, Dale, who doesn't really *seem* like a crook, agrees to go along with a scheme to rook the man out of his money. Delmar convinces the guy to invest his $75,000 in a new movie which will be directed by Dale, and meanwhile has plans to pocket $30,000 of the money split between Delmar, Adrian Almont, and Dale. But Jimmy Dale would like a comeback more than anything, and with pretty Alice as the star of his film, how could it not be a success?!

This film is a bit creaky, but it does have Alice Faye who pretty much steals the picture, looking loads like Jean Harlow in this, she performs in a couple of very fun, enjoyable musical numbers. Mitchell and Durant play two goofballs that are supposed to be a sort of Laurel and Hardy of the ice delivery world, but manage to not be funny and come across as just annoying.

A bit rough...but enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 18 July 2012]

James Dunn plays a down and out film director. While he's won the Oscar in the past, currently he's unwanted in Hollywood and goes to work for a fly-by-night acting school run by Grant Mitchell. However, when a genuinely talented lady (Alice Faye) enrolls, Dunn is in a bind when his boss wants him to con her out of money. You see, the angle is to pretend to make a movie with her and take her money--but Dunn can't bring himself to do this and plans on REALLY making a movie with Faye. Will his scheme work?

As for the quality of this film, it's pretty obvious that Faye was yet to become an A-list star for Fox Studio. The writing is rather pedestrian, the two idiots provided for comedy relief were (to put it bluntly) just awful and the film very, very uneven. A few of the groan-inducing moments included the Tarzan/Mae West bit as well as anything involving the two idiots. As a result, this film is one mostly of interest to die-hard Alice Faye fans. Not terrible but also not very good.

Above-average Faye musical Offers Pleasing Diversion

[Kalaman · 8 October 2004]

This is one of the earliest Alice Faye musicals I have seen and it's strictly for us, her fans and, perhaps, the connoisseurs of early musicals. While Not among Faye's best musicals, I thought "365 Nights in Hollywood", directed by George Marshall, was above-average musical: likable, pleasing, unpretentious effort that just passes the time. Ms. Faye - very young and looking exactly like Jean Harlow - plays an aspiring, talented movie star that joins a bogus film school, run by Grant Mitchell, and through the help of a has-been director, played by James Dunn, whom she ultimately falls in love, she succeeds and becomes a rising musical star. The songs and production numbers are well mounted and pleasing throughout.

If you like this one, I recommend "George White's 1935 Scandals"(1935), again with Faye and Dunn.

When Hollywood was trying to make Alice a musical Jean Harlow

[jjnxn-1 · 5/10 · 12 May 2013]

Negligible low budget very early Alice Faye musical which is in terrible shape. The picture is full of scratches, very washed out and over-bright so that it's rather hard on the eyes of the viewer. This is from the period where the studio was still trying to push Alice as a musical Jean Harlow so she looks awful with too much makeup and ridiculously thin and distracting eyebrows. As for the plot, it's the old saw about a girl from the sticks looking for her big break and the down and outer who helps her get it. Still Alice sings well and the view of Hollywood it presents is interesting in a historical aspect. But if you're just looking for an enjoyable Alice Faye musical go for one of her later films where the production values were higher and she was presented in a more flattering way

A rare classic musical saved from destruction.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 28 September 2001]

According to the video intro to "365 Days in Hollywood", the print was taken from the only one surviving. An early film for the fairly recently deceased Alice Faye, it was made before she had proven herself to be more than just another Jean Harlow knock-off. After Harlow's death, she was allowed to be more than just a pretty face, and was able to show her own personality.

The story focuses on a pretty young girl (Faye) who enrols in Grant Mitchell and James Dunn's school for hopeful movie actors, and ends up becoming a musical star. Predictable, yes, but filled with some fun comic character bits, and a great production number that casts Faye in a variety of world-wide stereotypes. Not as notorious as Al Jolson's "Heaven" number from "Wonder Bar", but laughingly tacky in spots.

This film is worth a look for early Alice Faye (possibly her earliest film available on video), and also includes four Faye movie trailers at the very end. This is a collector's treasure!

film within a film in old hollywood

[ksf-2 · 5/10 · 22 January 2019]

This is pretty much a collection of vaudeville bits stapled together. It's a film within a film, and the teachers at the film academy want to bilk a rich guy (Mr. Young) out of his money. Sound quality is pretty shredded in this oldie black and white from 1934. At the opening, "Alice" (Alice Perkins) walks into the film academy and meets the teachers Jimmy (James Dunn) and Delmar (Grant Mitchell). At one point, Grant Mitchell makes a reference to Shirley Temple.... James Dunn had actually worked with Temple several times. Frank Melton is "Young", and talks about coming from Pineapple Alabama... he actually WAS born there (but sadly croaked at 43 from a heart attack). Keep an eye out for Clarence and Percy at the talent show (Jack Durant and Frank Mitchell ); they had done vaudeville together for years, as well as appearing together in NINE films! Some silliness with them as two goofy ice delivery guys... The plot and the song & dance numbers are pretty hokey, but it's all just an opportunity for us to see the actors and vaudeville guys doing their acts. Directed by George Marshall, who had been around forever, and done about every role there is in the industry. It's all pretty silly, but if you hang in there, you'll get to the end. It's pretty much a "How-Not-To-Make-a-Film" !

Too Little Singing, Too Much Rigmarole

[LeonardKniffel · 4/10 · 6 April 2020]

An early star-making vehicle for the under-appreciated Alice Faye, this movie spends too much time on the behind-the-scenes rigmarole that goes into the process of turning an aspiring singer into a marketable commodity. Favorite line "Go back to Peoria, learn to cook, and raise a family!" While Faye is given ample opportunity to imitate Jean Harlow, she is given too little to sing; nevertheless, the fabulous production number casting her in a variety of worldwide stereotypes is a hoot. Some of the sexual innuendo is obviously free of the censorship brought on by the Hays Code.

A good night in Hollywood...

[MikeMagi · 8/10 · 30 May 2014]

If you're a film buff, "365 Nights in Hollywood" is well worth watching. It's hokey, frenetic and plot-wise doesn't always make sense. But you won't find a better example of where movies were at just a few years after the introduction of sound. Alice Faye, in her second screen role, plays a star-struck kid from Peoria who's conned into signing up with a phony Hollywood talent school. Back when "365 Nights..." was made by Fox (sans Twentieth Century,) she was just hitting her stride as an actress. But she nails the production numbers -- as a succession of singing sirens in one sequence and a chorus of Alice Fayes in another. James Dunn co-stars as the down-on-his-luck movie director, fronting for the school, who sets out to outwit his employer and give her a shot at stardom. And before the fun is finished, he returns to his hoofing days to join Faye in a climactic song-and-dance routine that's a pleasure to watch.