Reaching for the Moon

This was, or would have been, Berlin's first Hollywood musical, but in a fit of early-talkie jitters United Artists cut out all the numbers but one. What survives is an awkward comedy-drama featuring an aging but still energetic Fairbanks as a bumptious tycoon humbled by glamorous aviator Daniels and then by the Wall Street crash. Surprisingly, coming from old pro Goulding, some scenes look more like rehearsals than the real thing. But there are engaging elements: the fantasia of Menzies' Art Deco sets, bursts of mike-defying camera movement and lashings of pre-Code innuendo involving, who else, Edward Everett Horton.