Fans of the Jones family films had watched June Carlson as Lucy (Evers) Jones ever since the very first film in 1936, and from the very first one, she was seen emoting as a hopeful actress to be. For the most part, all she had to do was walk through a scene imitating Garbo or speak theatrically or correct others for their abuse of the English language, and on occasion, hide her crush on her brother's friend, Tommy. Now she's a pretty young lady and when the opportunity comes for her to go to Hollywood to try and make it as a star, she's determined to take that chance...or bust. Papa Jed Prouty is going for a small town mayor's convention and wife Spring Byington joins forces with her mother-in-law Florence Roberts to get other family members to go along. A lot of funny stuff happens, yet two of the younger family members, Carlson included, find heartache.
When one of the younger of the large family (now in their late teens) walks onto the set of a movie, he thinks what is going on is real and gets involved. He becomes entranced by a starlet who uses him for "research" to get better in her part of a small town girl. Carlson finds herself involved with a young Lothario who treats every young hopeful with tenderness, promising a screen test, then dumps her to move on to his next victim. Papa Prouty briefly gets caught up in the Hollywood game too when he is found with the same ingenue who flirted with his son, and he has a lot of explaining to do as Mama and Grandma prepare to help Carlson deal with her heartache before they return to their dull small town. The highlight of the film is 78 year old Roberts getting to jitterbug a bit, and that helps add some comedy on top of the lessons the younger members of the family are forced to learn to grow up. All in all, not bad, but one of dozens of "A Star is Born" type films showing young people the ups and especially the downs of the dreams of making it big on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
When one of the younger of the large family (now in their late teens) walks onto the set of a movie, he thinks what is going on is real and gets involved. He becomes entranced by a starlet who uses him for "research" to get better in her part of a small town girl. Carlson finds herself involved with a young Lothario who treats every young hopeful with tenderness, promising a screen test, then dumps her to move on to his next victim. Papa Prouty briefly gets caught up in the Hollywood game too when he is found with the same ingenue who flirted with his son, and he has a lot of explaining to do as Mama and Grandma prepare to help Carlson deal with her heartache before they return to their dull small town. The highlight of the film is 78 year old Roberts getting to jitterbug a bit, and that helps add some comedy on top of the lessons the younger members of the family are forced to learn to grow up. All in all, not bad, but one of dozens of "A Star is Born" type films showing young people the ups and especially the downs of the dreams of making it big on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.