Let's Go Places is a weird, loud relic of early Hollywood

Is it worth the time?

You should probably only watch Let's Go Places if you are a completionist for early talkies or you really like seeing how movies worked before they figured out how to record sound properly. It is a loud, messy musical that feels like it was filmed inside a tin can.

If you hate movies where the main character is a total liar but everyone loves him anyway, you will absolutely hate this. But if you want to see a fourteen-year-old Betty Grable in one of her first roles, it has that going for it.

The Identity Theft Plot

So the main guy, Paul Adams (played by Joseph Wagstaff), wants to be a star in Hollywood. Instead of auditioning like a normal person, he just starts calling himself Paul Du Bonnet, who is a famous opera singer.

He doesn't just take the name. He literally moves into the guy's mansion.

There is a scene where he is just hanging out in this giant house that isn't his, and you keep waiting for the police to show up. But they never do. Hollywood in 1930 seems like a very easy place to commit high-level fraud.

It reminds me a bit of the lighthearted energy in Call of the Cuckoo, though that one is way more of a short-form gag fest. This movie tries to have a heart, but it's hard to care about a guy who is basically a squatter with a good voice.

Things I noticed while watching:

• The sound is really crunchy. Sometimes the singing is so loud it distorted my speakers.
• The outfits are incredible. Even the background characters look like they spent three hours getting dressed.
• There is a lot of frantic hand waving during the musical numbers. Like they didn't know what to do with their arms.
• Betty Grable is barely in it, but you can see that star power even when she's just standing there.
• The comedy is... well, it's very 1930. Lots of people falling over or looking shocked.

The Wife Problem

The middle of the movie gets really confusing because the real Du Bonnet has a wife. She shows up and claims Paul is her husband.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Let's Go Places (1930) through its definitive frames.

Now, she hasn't seen her husband in a long time, but she just accepts this random guy? It’s one of those plot points that only works if every character in the movie has terrible eyesight.

Marjorie, the girl Paul actually likes, gets upset because she thinks he's married. This part drags on for way too long. The movie stops being a fun musical and becomes this weird domestic drama that doesn't fit the vibe at all.

It’s not as dark as something like The Woman and the Law, but the misunderstandings feel just as heavy-handed. You just want to yell at the screen for them to talk to each other for five minutes.

The "Wait, What?" Ending

The way they fix the whole mess is so lazy it made me laugh. The real Paul Du Bonnet finally shows up.

Does he call the cops? No. Does he kick Paul out of his house? No.

"Oh, you're my long-lost nephew!"

That is literally the solution. They just decide they are related so everything is fine. It’s such a convenient way to end a movie that I'm not even mad at it. It’s just funny how little they cared about logic back then.

If you're looking for something with a bit more substance from that era, maybe check out What Every Woman Learns. But if you just want to see people in tuxedos singing about nothing while committing crimes, Let's Go Places is your movie.

It’s short, it’s noisy, and it’s very, very silly. 🎬