Best movies like Polly of the Follies

A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star.

In 1920s New York City, W. C. Fields is a successful headlining entertainer, but when his girlfriend leaves him and his broker loses his money, Fields begins anew in California. Working at a wax museum, Fields eventually lands a film role that ascends him to stardom. Back in the limelight and palling around with John Barrymore and the like, Fields meets an aspiring actress Carlotta Monti at a party, with whom he forms a rocky relationship.

Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.

A cloak room girl (Alice White) falls for a rich boy who may not actually be rich.

With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. Can the show be saved?

Set in New York City, flapper Pink Watson works a telephone operator at a cement factory who dreams of marrying rich. Her constant daydreaming of wealth annoys her fellow workers, and ruins the heart of one of her worshiping colleagues.

A young songwriter struggles to make good in New York.

Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took Joan, a policeman's daughter, to the theater, sneaked out during the intermission to commit the crime, then used her to support his alibi. The detective squad employs its most sophisticated and barbaric techniques, including planting an undercover agent in the gang, to bring him to justice.

Once a famous Ziegfeld star, Dodo Delwyn, is reduced to playing clowns in burlesque and amusement parks as a result of his drinking. His son Little Dink idolizes Dodo and faithfully believes in a comeback. He persuades "Uncle" Goldie, Dodo's agent in the good old days, to find a booking for Dodo. He can't, and Dink is sent to live with his remarried-and-wealthy mother, Paula. The unhappy Dink runs back to his father. His welcome return gives Dodo the courage needed to try a knockabout TV show offered by Goldie

Calvin Jones is a cowboy who wants to invest in a Broadway play. Joe Lehman's secretary Ruth learns that her boss is attempting to swindle Jones and pulls a successful coup d'etat producing a play that she stars in.

Famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the Great Depression she has trouble finding work as an artist, but meets Billy Rose, a newcomer who writes lyrics and owns a nightclub.

A young woman, who wants to be in the Follies, is making ends meet by working at a department store's sheet music department, where she sings the latest hits. She is accompanied on piano by her childhood boyfriend, who is in love with her, despite her single-minded interest in her career. When a vaudeville performer asks her to join him as his new partner, she sees it as an opportunity to make her dream come true. Upon arriving in New York City, our heroine finds out that her new partner is only interested in sleeping with her and makes this a condition of making her a star. Soon, however, she is discovered by a representative of Ziegfeld.

The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.

A gridiron rivalry between two colleges is entering its third generation, and the Norton family (father and grandfather were members of teams defeated by rival squads captained by members of the Brawn family) rears Johnny Norton, 3d, to be a star football player. The lad is underweight, however, and initially shows a talent only for drop kicking. During the big game, Johnny is substituted for another player and leads his team to victory, winning for himself the love of Gloria Havens.

A young couple marries in secret. Judy's afraid her parents won't approve of Dick and she'll lose her generous allowance. Her parents bring her home from the city where she's been studying art and encourage the attentions of Tom, a persistent suitor. Judy and her jealous husband have an argument that leads her back to the city, a drunken, amorous Tom and a tragedy.

A sailor finds himself the object of a cafe owner's affections.

Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.

A night club singer falls for a gangster.

Chorus girl Peggy Lane, finds a small part in a new show for David North, a stages-truck country boy. At rehearsal, David meets Delerys Devore, the show's star, and she quickly offers him a larger part in her act. Quite taken with David, Delerys invites him to her home on the pretext that Peggy will be there; when Peggy does not show up, David leaves, infuriating his hostess. Derelys has Peggy fired the next day, and in reprisal Peggy goads her into a Carmenesque fight backstage just before the show. Derelys is unable to go on stage, and Peggy takes her place, becoming the hit of the show. Peggy and David are later married and give up show business, finding contentment living on a farm.

Norma Martin is an American movie star in France trying to avoid the attention of men. Going to visit a friend in Southern France, she finds herself "married" to a playboy song writer Ralph Forbes she hadn't yet met. Some of his lady friends then show up. Some very good sequences, but also some flat spots. Her "husband's" house is very Hollywood deco and some of the costumes are very good.

Elizabeth Rimplegar inhabits a household populated by virtual lunatics. Her mother, Nellie, mishandled the family fortune, and, alas, the stock market crash has depleted their worth. Elizabeth's goofy brothers cannot easily adjust to the life of the average worker. Meanwhile, the family doctor has his eye on Elizabeth, but he will have to compete with her suitor, an ill-informed writer.

Musical about vaudeville performers, from 1944.

On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by the police, he escapes into a Turkish bath on ladies night, ending up disguised in drag and with difficult explanations to make.

Starving playwright Judith Wells meets playboy writer of musicals, George Macrae, over a plate of stolen spaghetti. He persuades producer Sam Gordon to buy her ridiculous play "North Winds" just to improve his romantic chances, and even persuades her to sing in the sort of show she pretends to despise. But just when their romance is going well, Gordon's former flame Lulu reveals the ace up her sleeve...

Ex-vaudeville performer Trixie makes a come-back, and threatens to thwart the ambitions of her song-writing step-children, Bob and Judy.

Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit and lands on the drum of musician Al Cassidy. One thing leads to another, they fall in love and get married. Al becomes a famous songwriter and Maggie stays home and has children. One day Al is hired to write a big number for Selma Larson, one of the Follies' most beautiful stars, and falls for her.

A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.

Lila Beaumont is an understudy in a Broadway musical. Her boyfriend, George Shelby, arrives in New York hoping to take Lila back home with him to marry.

Benny and Flo are a husband and wife dance team, Sloane and Darrel, traveling around the country as part of a revue. The revue gets picked up and taken to New York City, to be on Broadway. However, it quickly folds, and the two are forced to look for other employment. They eventually find work in a nightclub, becoming famous.But while performing at the nightclub, Flo becomes entranced by a young, sophisticated millionaire playboy, Winston.

Marjorie, a song-and-dance girl in the stage show of a palatial movie theater, becomes interested in Al West, a warehouse clerk who has put together an unusual jazz band, and uses her influence to get him a place on one of the programs. Max Mindel, the house manager, has a yen for Marjorie and, discovering that she is in love with Al, gives the band notice and hires harmony singers Barney & Bey as a replacement. Marjorie makes up to both men and soon breaks up the team. Al learns of her scheme, however, and makes her confess to the singers. Barney and Bey make up, and Max gives Al and his band one more chance. Al is a sensation, and Max offers him a contract for $1,000 a week.

Finding herself in dire circumstances, the widowed Sylvia Darling determines that her son, Stephen, will complete his college education and develop his supposed literary talents; thus, she accepts a contract as singer in a Broadway nightclub, billed as "Dearie," and becomes an immediate sensation.

A 1929 film directed by William A. Seiter.

Broadway dancing star Adele Dorey who, overworked and exhausted, suddenly ups and leaves New York in favor of a country village. But when promoter Bobby Lewis (Egan) of the barnstorming Gay Girlies Burlesque Company arrives in town, he picks an incognito Adele among all the pretty village girls to star in his new show. On a lark, Adele introduces her maid Jane (Louise Fazenda) as her mother and accepts a contract. When Adele's identity is finally revealed, the slumming star apologizes for her deception by offering Bobby a Broadway job.

Tommy Mills and Marie Thurber, sweethearts, plan to marry when Tommy sells some land he has inherited. Marie's parents favor the match, as they prefer Tommy over Bernard Norton, another suitor. Her father, Warren Thurber, however, is in financial straits and plans to sell land to a civic improvement association headed by David Tuttle. When he discovers that Tommy has agreed to sell his land to Mrs. Oberlander, he berates him; but Tommy agrees to boost the price so that Thurber will win out. Tuttle, who favors Bernard as Marie's husband, persuades Tommy that he must endure the displeasure of the Thurbers, and as a result a misunderstanding arises over the sale of the land. But Tuttle's scheme backfires, and Tommy wins the girl after all.