Film

Going Hollywood

A 1933 musical comedy where a lovestruck French teacher abandons her job to chase a radio crooner to Hollywood. It's a breezy, flirtatious affair—more interested in songs and romantic misunderstandings than plot logic. For fans of early talkies who enjoy Marion Davies' comic charm and Bing Crosby's smooth presence, even when the story doesn't quite hold.

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42nd Street1933

Another 1933 musical romance set in showbiz, with lavish production numbers and that same giddy energy about fame and reinvention. Warner Baxter and Ruby Keeler have real chemistry.

But The plot is tissue-thin and the dancing numbers, while spectacular, grind the narrative to a halt if you're not there for spectacle.

42nd Street poster

Ninotchka1939

Greta Garbo as a stern Soviet official who thaws for love in Paris. It has Going Hollywood's romantic comedy structure but with sharper dialogue and Garbo's effortless elegance lending real weight.

But The political satire feels dated now, and the tone shifts awkwardly between comedy and romance.

Ninotchka poster

It Happened One Night1934

Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in a screwball romance about impulse and reinvention. The banter is witty, the chemistry unmissable, and it moves with genuine urgency.

But It's far snappier and smarter than Going Hollywood; if you're comparing them, this one will show up the slightness of the earlier film.

It Happened One Night poster

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Applause1929

Both are early 1930s films about women chasing showbiz dreams, but Applause uses that setting to examine sacrifice and regret rather than as a backdrop for romance.

Joan Crawford in an early talkie about a stage mother and her daughter caught between ambition and morality. It has Going Hollywood's backstage milieu but trades romance for genuine emotional complexity and moral weight. The early sound design crackles.

But It's a cautionary tale, not a lark—genuinely sad in places, and the print quality can be rough. Going Hollywood is sunnier by miles.

Applause poster
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Breakfast at Tiffany's1961

Audrey Hepburn as a woman chasing dreams and romance in New York, with charm, style, and a genuine emotional core beneath the sophistication. Bing Crosby even appears.

But It's glossy 1960s artifice; the casual cruelty embedded in its treatment of certain characters hasn't aged well.

Breakfast at Tiffany's poster

Royal Wedding1951

Fred Astaire and Jane Powell in a lighter musical about a brother-sister dance act caught up in romance and London society. It's frothy, charming, and includes some genuinely inventive numbers.

But The romance side of the plot is unmemorable, and the whole thing relies on your appetite for mid-century MGM fluff.

Royal Wedding poster

Singin' in the Rain1952

Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds in what many consider the greatest movie musical ever made. Even if you're not a musical person, the energy is contagious.

But The backstage plot is serviceable at best, and yes, you've probably seen it or heard it referenced endlessly.

Singin' in the Rain poster

Phantom Lady1944

Ella Raines as a woman trying to clear her boyfriend's name, with noir atmosphere, genuine suspense, and some real romance woven through. It's a thriller first, love story second.

But The tone is far darker and the pacing less playful; you're signing up for danger, not charm.

Phantom Lady poster

Pennies from Heaven1981

Both use the Depression and showbiz as settings for romance, but Pennies from Heaven interrogates whether the dream of escape is real salvation or just fantasy.

Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in a Depression-era musical that's structured like a standard romance—poor, desperate people who meet and fall in love—but filmed and performed with genuine artistry and a melancholic edge. The fantasy sequences are astonishing.

But It's a commercial and critical failure for good reason: the tonal whiplash between gritty Depression reality and lavish musical fantasy confuses rather than enchants. It's willfully strange.

Pennies from Heaven poster

The Earrings of Madame de...1953

Both follow a woman's pursuit of romantic fantasy, but where Going Hollywood is cheerful improvisation, Madame de... is baroque artifice—the same impulse toward self-delusion dressed in silk instead of cotton print.

Max Ophüls' exquisite French film about a woman's romantic self-deceptions, told through the journey of a single piece of jewelry. It's shot and choreographed like a dance; every frame is composed with mathematical precision. Danielle Darrieux is luminous.

But It's in French with subtitles, glacially paced by modern standards, and utterly committed to surfaces and style over plot. There's almost no plot. If you want narrative momentum, you're watching the wrong film.

The Earrings of Madame de... poster

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