Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Stand-In Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 7, 2019

When did Frank Capra become “Frank Capra” — you know, the acknowledged cinematic champion of the Ordinary Joe, the American Everyman who espoused the great noble sentiments of our way of life? Capra’s film directing career was long, spanning several decades, reaching back into the silent era and continuing on (with regard to feature films) through 1961’s Pocketful of Miracles, but it’s at least probably arguable that Capra’s “Capra-esque” reputation relies largely (if not solely) on only four films, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe (arguably the single best exemplar of some of the themes running through many of Capra’s films), and of course It's a Wonderful Life, which was famously dismissed by many at the time of its release but which has gone on to certified classic status courtesy of nonstop holiday broadcasts through the years. Taking this quartet of “Everyman” offerings as having helped to define the quality of being “Capra-esque”, it’s salient to note that only one of the four, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, preceded the 1937 release of Stand-In, a film which in its own way tends to ape, or perhaps presage, several ideas that Capra himself would address. Stand-In also utilizes a few elements that were also used in later films skewering the film industry, including such well known offerings as Sullivan's Travels and another, lesser remembered, farce from 1941, World Premiere. (For you trivia hounds, World Premiere co-starred Frances Farmer, in one of her last pre-institutionalization roles. Farmer was reportedly one of Preston Sturges’ first choices for the role Veronica Lake would ultimately play in Sullivan’s Travels.)

One of the tropes in a lot of Capra films is the kind of “class consciousness” many of his stories purvey where an everyday, presumably working class, shmoe has some kind of interaction with those who at least perceive themselves as being hoity toity. In that regard, Stand-In may not be able to fully recover from the fact that most of its characters are spoiled rotten showbiz types. Even the putative hero of the piece, accountant Atterbury Dodd (Leslie Howard), is decidedly patrician, as can perhaps be gleaned from his very name. This “upper crust” quality is probably subliminally reinforced by Howard’s almost inherently sophisticated and suave qualities, despite the fact that the character he’s playing here is a bespectacled, socially awkward sort who’s somewhat reminiscent of the Cary Grant character in Bringing Up Baby.

Dodd is in the employ of crusty elder banking impresario Fowler Pennypacker (Tully Marshall), whose assets include Colossal Studios, a Hollywood entity drowning in red ink for which Pennypacker has received a handsome five million dollar offer from studio raider Ivor Nassau (C. Henry Gordon). Dodd, who insists his analysis is purely scientific, warns Pennypacker that while the studio may have some issues, it’s actually valued at ten million and therefore Pennypacker would be a fool to sell. Pennypacker sends Dodd out to investigate and either prove or disprove his theory, putting him temporarily in charge of the studio, in one of the film's kind of odd plot setups that just need to be accepted even if they don't make a whale of a lot of sense.

Almost immediately Dodd “meets cute” with the (similarly) oddly named Lester Plum (Joan Blondell), the titular “stand-in” of the film, who works at Colossal as the doppelgänger for studio star Thelma Cheri (Marla Shelton). Cheri is the studio’s biggest attraction, though she’s been on a downslide for a couple of years. It’s revealed early on that Cheri, her ex-boyfriend producer Doug Quintain (Humphrey Bogart in a rare comedic role) and pretentious director Koslofski (Alan Mowbray), along with glad handing public relations man Tom Potts (Jack Carson), are in cahoots with Nassau, bleeding the studio dry intentionally on the production of a big epic called Sex and Satan. The “economics” of this film, like a few other plot points, may not stand up to a lot of scrutiny, but one way or the other, Dodd finds himself trying to learn the vagaries of how movies are made, with a little help from Lester of course, as various vignettes between the supporting players occur, many dealing with Nassau's efforts to get the studio for the perceived "deal", after which it turns out he simply plans to fire all the employees and sell all the studio assets.

It's here that Stand-In starts to get into an almost screed like "analysis" of capitalism, with Dodd forced to confront the studio "working class" (i.e., all the "below the line" technicians), all of whom are attempting to walk off the job. It's a rather odd closing act for a film that otherwise attempts to purvey more of a screwball sensibility. Ironically, though, it's in these scenes that Stand-In is arguably at its most "Capra-esque", with Dodd kind of (unintentionally) comically explaining how the traditional Capra Everyman is often a stockholder in a movie studio, and that therefore a "workers unite" attitude may have more far reaching consequences than even those on the studio lot. Stand-In unfortunately has a somewhat more proletariat screenplay than many a Capra film, by which I mean that the dialogue never quite achieves the "noble purpose" proclivities that tend to be a staple in Capra outings. There's also a really odd closing moment between Dodd and Lester, where it looks like maybe the actors hadn't quite decided if they were going to hug or not.

Stand-In Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stand-In is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This presentation starts with an informational text card that offers the following information:

Stand-In was the first film scheduled for release after our label was established in 2016. However, shortly after performing some test scans, the project was permanently shelved due to severely deteriorated film elements.

That changed in late 2018 when we were able to locate materials at the British Film Institute that, while not optimal, were in good enough condition to warrant a major restoration of this rare comedic gem and present in this home video edition for all to enjoy.

While the restoration gauntlet Stand-In was quite evidently put through was commendably extensive (as evidenced by the Restoration Demonstration included on this Blu-ray as a supplement), there are still some signs of age related wear and tear that crop up here, but other issues, like what looks like almost insane levels of wobble in the original element, have been massively ameliorated if not completely eliminated. There are definitely variances in clarity, detail levels and grain structure here, but, again when compared to what was worked on, the uptick in stability, contrast and gray scale representation is often quite remarkable. This is arguably not that well known or remembered of a film, and so any restoration is to be applauded, even if the source element offered so many hurdles that not all of them could be completely overcome.

Stand-In Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stand-In features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that shows its own signs of age, mostly in a somewhat muffled high end that is probably most noticeable in the minimal music. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly enough, though there is some background hiss that is still discernable despite the high end sounding a little masked at times.

Stand-In Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration Demonstration (1080p; 5:18) documents the rather severe damage the original element had.

The Extra Features submenu (which includes trailers for other Classic Flix releases) can be a little hard to read, since when a selection is chosen, its title turns to red, making it all but disappear against the large red "Stand-In" that is part of the Menu art.

Stand-In Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You can almost feel Stand-In aiming for but never quite reaching the giddy heights of the best screwball antics, something that could arguably have been improved with some sharper writing and perhaps even some other actors. Still, the film has some occasionally acerbic reactions to what were even back then the excesses of the film industry, and there are some fun supporting bits offered as almost throwaways. ClassicFlix has done a remarkable job with its restoration, though the source element looks like it was so fraught with issues that not all of them could be completely eliminated.