We first meet Goldie stranded with a travelling troupe of bad actors - they certainly cast them well - they're terrible! Fortunately we only have to endure them for five minutes but they do serve a purpose in making Alice White look like a good actress.
That's not meant to sound nasty, Alice White is so utterly adorable that although she's a pretty awful actress you want all the stars to align for her or for some miracle to happen to make her seem better than she actually is. It can't be just because she's so amazingly pretty, it's certainly not her acting ability but there's something magical about her which makes her so endearing. She's got real star quality, you can't put your finger on why she's so adorable, she just is!
This film however is a stinker. In 1930, Warner Brothers / First National were still doggedly using their beloved Vitaphone system despite realising that competitor systems were better. Vitaphone was a cumbersome system which severely limited the movement and imaginative use of the camera, it kept the actors still, confining them to where the microphones were and made it impossible to edit or re-shoot. Warner's output consequently in 1930 was looking very dated compared with what the other studios were producing. Over at Paramount for example, Rouben Mamoulian made his musical drama APPLAUSE at the same time as this yet his movie is as watchable now as anything made today. This picture suffers horribly with all these problems. It looks awful.
It's not however just the crippling production techniques which hamper this. The story is absurd, the dialogue is completely unrealistic and the direction is shocking. Edward Cline, director of silent slapsticks seems out of his depth. None of his characters are remotely believable, you can't engage with any of them or be interested in the plodding plot. With a running time of less than an hour you'd think this would be fast-moving but no, it's really boring. You'd think therefore that this rubbish must be unwatchable. It would be were it not for one thing - Alice White, she is just so mesmerising!
