Second Fiddle (1939)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A struggling actor, badly needing publicity, a publicity man, ready to anything for his studio and its stars, a naive girl, catapulted in limelight as the fresh new face, and the system, for which humans don't matter, the money they bring it does, and there can be no wrong methods,if it can spin in money. That in brief is what the movie was about. Did I like it? Frankly no, since the plot was too near reality, and who likes reality ? When one watches off beat movies, one is mentally prepared for that, but not in these type of movies. This dislike of course shows,to me, that the movie was well made and there were not many irritants, which would have brought it into the fantasy zone, and I would have dismissed it. Of course it was all well, till the ending. naturally I won't like the black-guard to go with the reward. There was that steady Lyle Talbot, who unfortunately almost always got the role of the sacrificial lamb, this was no exception. In this case, he could as well had been the winner, since the change of heart of the heroine wasn't called for since (a) there is the steady man (b) She at least considers herself to be in love with some one (c) there is a third person, who might be in love with her, but for her, he didn't exist, till the director told her he did, on rebound, she would have rather hated him, than being in love.The ending was rather forced and unnatural. It was made to make a hero of hero. Probably the hero could have been the one who stayed home, like in say Bucking Broadway (1917). I don't think a girl would reverse the affection. That is the other factor of my not being high on the movie.

Suggested by the making of "Gone With The Wind", this one promises to be a very pleasant Irving Berlin musical. It certainly opens with all flags flying, and features a very inventively staged rendition of "An Old-Fashioned Tune". With the introduction of Miss Henie, however, the story settles down into the usual romantic complications. These are a little hard to take, since Ty Power is hardly God's gift to young women. With this fact staring everyone in the face, it seems incredible that such disappointingly little use is made of Harry Losee's shooting ensembles. Instead, Leon Shamroy's camera keeps on tracking back to Ty Power. This undoubtedly worked back in 1939, but it makes the movie of little interest to today's audiences. Fortunately, Berlin's pleasant melodies do save the day and, as noted above, I was particularly pleased by the staging of "An Old-Fashioned Tune".

When seen today, Sonja Henie films are incredibly strange and the notion that this Norwegian skating champion could be one of the biggest stars at Twentieth Century-Fox is just baffling. After all, Henie was cute--but not exactly a big star due to her looks. And, in each of her films, they SOMEHOW contrived to get her onto the ice SOMEWHERE!! The films really make no sense...though I must admit that most are still entertaining if you see them today. You just need to be sure to suspend all disbelief, otherwise your brain will nag you with 1001 questions!The film revolves around a slick publicity agent, Jimmy (Tyrone Power). He's an amazingly good liar--even for a P.R. man and his routine is pretty funny. However, when he gets the smart idea of creating a fake romance between two new studio stars, Roger (Rudy Vallee) and Trudi (Henie), things get complicated. Roger is already in love with another woman and he's apprehensive to play like he's in love with Trudi. Worse, however, is that slowly Jimmy is falling for Trudi himself...but when the plan backfires and Trudi learns that Roger is only PRETENDING to love her, she is furious as well as hurt and leaves Hollywood. What is that weasel, Jimmy, to do?!In addition to the strange plot, the studio cast Edna May Oliver as Trudi's aunt. This is ridiculous, as Oliver seems about as Norwegian as pizza! And, there are LOTS of ridiculous songs and skating numbers that make the whole thing a bit on the silly side. BUT, the leads try there best and despite all the silliness, it IS enjoyable.By the way, the studio head who you hear but never see is played by Charles Lane--the old familiar character actor.

This is a pleasant enough diversion which pokes gentle fun at the search for an 'unknown' to play the eponymous role in a film adaptation of a best selling novel. Someone actually gave this more than the customary ten seconds thought because it was released in 1939, the same year as Gone With The Wind, a film that had hogged headlines around the world via its search for the perfect heroine, Scarlett O'Hara; Scarlett was a Southern belle and in Second Fiddle the fictitious novel is The Girl From The North, the North carries connotations of snow and Sonja Henie came from a Northern country, Norway and was herself associated with both snow and ice and as if that were not enough, in Second Fiddle she is a resident of Bergen, Minnesota and Bergen is also, of course, an island off the coast of Norway. So, was it worth all this care. More or less. Publicist Tyrone Power is sent to bring Henie to Hollywood and naturally he falls in love with her but his job obliges him to engineer a 'romance' between Henie and Rudy Vallee, another studio 'property' in need of publicity; we now have a touch of the Cyrano's as Power is not only buying the flowers and candy that Henie thinks is coming from Vallee but is also writing the billed-doux and even goes so far as to compose a ballad, I Poured My Heart Into A Song, ostensibly written by Vallee. Edna May Oliver is also on hand to lob the odd droll asides into the mix and it all ends happily. A diverting 80 minutes or so.