Tay Garnett was one of the better, now-forgotten directors. After studying at MIT and serving as a pilot in World War I, Garnet debuted in the film industry as a gagman, graduated to screenwriter and then a director competent and comfortable with any style of movies from comedy to drama to film noir to Westerns. Independent producer Walter Wanger hired Garnett to direct Stand-In, a combination screwball comedy and a satire of Hollywood. Wanger provided the director with two stunning costars, Leslie Howard and Joan Blondell, and a fine supporting cast, headed by Humphrey Bogart, Alan Mowbray and Jack Carson, and peopled with character actors such as Charles Middleton (Emperor Ming in the Flash Gordon chapter play), silent stars Tully Marshall and Mary MacLaren, and dependable regulars Esther Howard, J. C. Nugent and Olin Howland. It's a shame that Joan Blondell and Leslie Howard never made another comedy—indeed any kind of movie, because the two pros play off each other as brightly and snappily as Hepburn and Tracy, William Powell & Myrna Loy, or Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Ginger Rogers, James Stewart or Jean Arthur. Other reviewers have made clear the plot, and a couple have decried the rushed turnabout ending. Perhaps producer Wanger didn't want the film to run more than an hour and a half. Or maybe Tay Garnett took a hand in the adaptation of the novel and bent the story to the progressive politics of FDR's newly inaugurated second term. (Stand- In was adapted from a novel by politically conservative Clarence Budington Kelland.) In either case, Mr. Howard's reticent efficiency expert rescues Colossal Studios—not only for the bankers who hired him, but also more for the many workers who would lose their jobs at the studio in the middle of the Great Depression. Clever comedy actors and an experiences director put over a witty screenplay. Good fun, smart and snappy.

. . . about 25 minutes into STAND-IN. The title of Leslie Howard's next novel "Picturization"--GONE WITH THE WIND--already has been trotted out by another character at this point in STAND-IN. Based upon Flint's on-going United Autor Workers' Sit-Down strike of 1936-37, STAND-IN depicts Mr. Howard's character as a One Per Center defecting to The People, rather than as a Plantation Master fighting to preserve Slavery, as he morphed into for GWTW. Though Mr. Gable is nowhere to be seen in STAND-IN, Leslie's "Duke Mantee" buddy from THE PETRIED FOREST (Humphrey Bogart) shows up here unarmed, at the mercy of Mr. Howard's new-found Ju Jitsu skills. Also in the background is the Pettypacker Family, led by a patriarch who's a dead ringer for Leatherface's grandpa in A TEXA$ CHAINSAW MASSACRE. But most viewers of GWTW will be thrilled to see Joan Blondell throw the Namby Pamby slave-driving Ashley over her shoulder and onto his rump several times in STAND-IN.

When a Hollywood studio called ¨Colossal Productions¨ is threatened with bankruptcy , the bank sends a shy efficiency expert (Leslie Howard) to save it from financial ruin . A former child star (interestingly cast Joan Blondell) falls in love with the stuffy as well as head-in-the-books accountant , who wants to learn why his firm's movie studio is losing money . Meantime , there appears Bogart playing a drunken filmmaker in love with star Shelton . Soon Leslie discovers there's a scheme to sabotage ¨Colossal¨ and sell it to the unscrupulous Ivor Nassau (effective Henry Gordon). While , the studio is shooting a failed film titled ¨Sex and Satan¨ starred by Cheri (Marla Shelton) . A high-grade as well as amusing comedy on Hollywood low-life filled with laughs , fun happenings , sentiment and funny events . This is an intelligently made picture blend of satire , humor and farce . The main actors play such an amusingly made movie that spectators will appeal too much . Nice acting by Leslie Howard as a hard-working , timid and stiff accountant expert on mathematics . Humphrey Bogart is well cast in his first comedy role playing a drunk producer at a quite amazing character . This is an absolute gift for fans of Howard and Bogart to watch them step outside their ordinary genres . Special mention to delicious Joan Blondell as likable and fiery stand-in actress called Lester Plum ; she bares some resemblance Marie Osborne, a child actress in the silent era who returned to the film industry in the 1930's as an extra and stand-in . Good support cast such as Alan Mowbray , Marla Shelton , Henry Gordon , Jack Carson and uncredited Charles Middleton . The former silent film star in the boarding house , desperate for a small role in a film, is played by Mary MacLaren, a former leading lady of the silent film era who, by the time this film was made, was working as an extra . Atmospheric musical score by Heinz Roemheld . Adequate and evocative cinematography by Charles Clarke . This lavishly and highly budgeted motion picture was well produced by Walter Wanger , being professionally directed by Tay Garnett , a good Hollywood craftsman . Tay entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter . After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company . Garnett garnered some attention in the early 1930s with such films as Bad company (1931) and Way Passage (1932) , but his best work came in the mid-'30s and early 1940s with such films as S.O.S. Iceberg (1933) , China seas (1935), Slave Ship (1937) and Trade Winds (1938) . His best known film would have to the John Garfield/Lana Turner vehicle : The postman always rings twice (1946), although his version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) was a well-deserved critical and commercial success as well . Other successes were the followings : Bataan (1943) , The cross of Lorraine (1943) , Soldiers Three (151) , The Black Knight (1953) , and , of course , this ¨Stand-in¨ , among others . As ¨Stand-in¨results to be a treat for Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard enthusiasts .

This is a satire on big business types who let a perfectly viable business (in this case, a film studio) fail for their own profit, leaving all the "little people" in the lurch. The words "capital" and "labor" even get bandied around! A few years ago modern viewers might have found this boring, but with today's economy, people may find that they can relate to it better than they expected! Besides that, it's an interesting "behind the camera" look at Hollywood, 1930s style.Leslie Howard is great as the sheltered accountant who comes to Hollywood to see what's up with his bank's film studio, Joan Blondell is also great in her usual breezy, funny style as the former child star now working as a stand-in for a famous actress. There's also a youngish Humphrey Bogart as a film producer. I really wonder if Howard and Blondell did those ju-jitsu throws themselves, and if those outdoor scenes really were shot in downtown Los Angeles! Quite funny and definitely recommended!