This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Better Late Then Never

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

'Reaching for the Moon' is interesting for being one of the few talkies/sound pictures that silent star Douglas Fairbanks, and for seeing singing/crooning legend Bing Crosby in a very early role.It is a decent, at its best great, film in its own right. But in serious need of a restoration other than the shoddy DVD it's presently got, with its crackling and sometimes muffled sound quality and haphazard and lacking in sharpness picture quality, that does cheapen an otherwise good-looking film. It does stick out like a sore thumb when the production values of the actual film look great and like real care went into them, but the DVD looks like it was made in haste and with limited technology.There is not an awful lot wrong with the film itself. The storytelling is a little jumpy and incomplete at points early on, which does suggest heavy editing and cuts. Fairbanks is a mixed bag, he is fun and charming with envious athleticism but he also does try too hard in some of his line delivery and a few facial expressions and his voice doesn't fit his persona, one would expect one more muscular rather than the anaemic one here, an example of a transition from silent to talkie being less than smooth.Despite the DVD quality, 'Reaching for the Moon' does look as though it was made with love and care. The costumes are lavish and the photography skillful and often luminous but the biggest star is the incredible art-deco sets, a masterpiece of art-deco design. The music is melodious, romantic and beautifully orchestrated, while Irving Berlin's "When the Folks High Up Do the Mean Low-Down" is the highlight of the film, so much so that one does really wish that there were more songs as apparently intended. The script is witty and romantically heartfelt, while a vast majority of the story goes at a snappy pace and entertains and moves.Very nicely directed too, and apart from reservations about Fairbanks the cast are uniformly good. Edward Everett Horton's very funny performance is particularly great, while Claud Allistair also has fun. Bebe Daniels is a beguiling screen presence and sings a dream. Even so early on in his career, Crosby's voice still makes one want to listen to him for hours and still can't get enough of, just wish that he had more than one song.Overall, interesting early talkie and a nice film, but desperately needs restoration. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Larry (Douglas Fairbanks) follows Viv (Bebe Daniels) to Southampton on a cruise ship. He takes his valet Roger (Edward Everett Horton) with him and Larry tries to win Viv's heart despite the fact that she is engaged to Sir Horace (Claud Allister).......things work out in the end.The film is a bore. It is only saved by the musical number - an upbeat jivey tune - that is sung by Bing Crosby, Bebe Daniels and June MacCloy as "Kitty" (check out her peculiar voice!) and has the cast dancing along. It is the ONLY good part of the film. That and the sets are the reason I have given the film a mark of 5. There are some great sets, eg, the office desk panels that open up into seats and pretty much every interior that you see! The script is dull and it's not particularly funny despite Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks provides some unintentional humour with his pointless leaping about. It's endless! And he has a terrible, shouty voice which makes him a pretty irritating man. Combine that with his endless inane grinning and you have to submit and start laughing at him. Hatred turns to mockery.It's all quite poignant, though as his character seems not to be able to cope with being mocked. He is continually asking Bebe Daniles "are you laughing at me?" and the audience is continually yelling back "Yes!" Without the music and sets, this film is a piece of junk.

I didn't know they made movies about scoring back in the 30s. The Jeckel/Hyde effects of Edward Everett Horton's "spanish fly" brew are a hoot. I found this gem on a miss marked double feature Bing Crosy DVD at the dollar store. The DVD titled "Road to Hollywood"/"Sound of Laughter" did not contain the film "Sound of Laughter" but instead "Reaching for the Moon" This copy contained no opening or closing titles or credits, indeed the menu screen was just a still frame from the middle of the picture with the sole option of "Play". With "zip" for information, It took me some time just to Identify the title. There is a token appearance of Bing Crosby in the film to sing one song. Fairbanks, Horton and Bebe Daniels all sparkle in this Society film about a beautiful flirt and the wall-street tycoon she taunts.

At not quite 71 minutes, the version of this film that I have seen is even shorter than the theatrically shortened version listed by IMDb, although it does retain the Crosby footage. Perhaps the severe editing is one reason that I found this to be the most confused (and confusing) film of its period. We are given no clue as to why characters suddenly behave in a completely different way than they have previously conducted themselves, allegiances dissolve and reform for no apparent reason, and what might have made for an interesting plot twist (the introduction of drugs into a cocktail by Horton as valet) becomes no more than an excuse for Fairbanks's financial wizard to leap around his stateroom like a monkey playing football. Still, all the actors seem to be giving it everything they've got, trying to put the script across, and being able to see the three leads and Bing at the top of their games is the only thing that makes this movie watchable.