Make Me a Star is a 1932 film directed by William Beaudine.
Merton Gill is an errand boy for a general store in a small town in Middle America. He isn't a very good delivery boy, failing to pay much attention to his job because he is obsessed with becoming a movie star. Merton worships a cowboy movie star named Buck Benson, and imitates him slavishly. Despite lacking any whiff of talent, Merton has studied acting from a correspondence course and, when he's fired from his errand boy job, lights out for Hollywood and stardom.
Armed only with some stills and his acting school correspondence school diploma, Merton shows up at the casting office of Majestic Pictures and asks for a part—not extras or bit parts or anything, because he has a diploma, but leads. The secretary at the front desk cackles in disbelief, then ignores Merton. Merton spends every day waiting on the bench at the casting office, and is approaching starvation when a slapstick actress, "Flips" Montague (Joan Blondell) takes pity on him. Flips asks a favor of a director, Merton gets hired to be an extra, and then after a couple more plot twists, he's playing a lead role. But not the type of lead role he wanted.
Tropes:
- As Himself: Ben Turpin, the king of Comically Cross-Eyed, appears in this film as himself, playing a part in Merton's silly movie.
- Brand X: Merton, talking about how much he hates the Comically Cross-Eyed trope, specifically mentions "those awful Loadstone comedies." This obviously is a dig at Keystone Studios, the slapstick studio where Ben Turpin played for years.
- The Cameo: This was a Paramount production and several of Paramount's big stars can be seen. Gary Cooper and Tallulah Bankhead walk by Merton, Merton sees Maurice Chevalier dropped off in front of the studio, and several other major stars appear briefly.
- Captain Ersatz: In-Universe. Merton's imitation of cowboy star Buck Benson is so slavish that Flips calls him "a blurred carbon copy." It's Flips who realizes that this could be used in a satire of Buck Benson movies.
- Chroma Key: In-Universe. Baird puts Merton up on a horse and instructs him to wave to the camera. Merton is up against a curtain, but Baird explains that they'll just superimpose him on a background of a cheering crowd. In fact, in the movie, the clip of Merton on the horse is used for a ridiculous shot in which he's crossing a canyon on a tightrope on horseback.
- Comically Cross-Eyed: Discussed Trope. Merton, who believes in the movies as an expression of high dramatic art, disapproves of Slapstick and specifically dislikes the Comically Cross-Eyed trope. When he finds out that Ben Turpin, the patron saint of this trope, has been cast in his film, Merton is horrified. Baird the director, who is actually making a slapstick satire of westerns but doesn't want Merton to know what he's starring in, lies and says that Ben Turpin has always dreamed of playing a dramatic role.Merton: Those cross-eyed comedies are kind of debasing to a noble art.
- The Comically Serious: In-Universe. Merton is so deadly serious in his approach to a dumb cowboy B-Movie that Flips and Baird think that will just make the movie all the funnier. They're right.
- Creative Closing Credits: Opening credits. The opening credits flip past the camera as if they are pages being turned in a book, a creative touch uncommon for the era.
- The Determinator: How determined is Merton to make it in movies? He sits in the casting office all day, every day, even as he runs out of money and food. When he's fired from a job as an extra, he realizes that if he leaves the lot he might never be able to get back in, so he sleeps in an abandoned set.
- Everytown, America: Simsbury, Merton's hometown, seems to have no distinguishing characteristics other than being 1000 miles from New York and 2000 miles from Los Angeles.
- Maintain the Lie: Baird, the director of Merton's movie, has to work hard to keep Merton thinking they're making a drama. When Merton spots Ben Turpin the Comically Cross-Eyed guy in the cast, Baird says that Turpin is trying to be a dramatic actor. Baird gets a comic shot of Merton putting on makeup by hiding a camera. When production is wrapping, Baird tells Flips that he's relieved, because he's "running out of alibis."
- Right Behind Me: Merton gets back to his room at Mr. Gashweiler's, after bungling another delivery and letting the horse loose. He finds that Mr. Gashweiler has been in his room and has found his acting school correspondence materials. He starts ranting about how "it's not fair!" that Mr. Gashweiler searched his room, only to turn around and find Mr. Gashweiler standing right behind him.
