As with practically every movie made during this particular time period, you should expect some pops and hisses and maybe a bit of static to be embedded in the film's audio track, but to be honest, I didn't seem to notice any. Optional English subtitles (and closed captioning) are available should you feel the urge to sing along with the Gershwin tunes.
It bombed at the box office. Composer George Gershwin died before principal photography had started and was replaced by "April In Paris" songwriter Vernon Duke. Samuel Goldwyn went through a slew of writers before hiring future Spellbound and The Kiss Of Death screenwriter Ben Hecht (who wrote the whole thing in two weeks). It even received a (dis)honorable mention in Harry and Michael Medved's book The Fifty Worst Films Of All Time. Okay, so while it certainly isn’t the greatest musical to ever emerge from Tinseltown’s School of Song and Dance, The Goldwyn Follies is best recommended for classic movie musical lovers, the devout fans of Edgar Bergen and his wooden wisecracker Charlie McCarthy, and anyone who just wants to snicker over The Ritz Brothers singing “Here pussy, pussy, pussy…” That’s just pure gold, baby (and the reason the film made it into the Medved's book).
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