One of the first feature-length Hollywood-on-Hollywood comedies, Ella Cinders was based on a widely read comic strip and starred the enormously popular screen ingenue, Colleen Moore. Locked into a domestic situation as slave to her mother and selfish step-sisters, Ella Cinders takes the classic 1920s escape route, entering a movie contest in which she wins a free trip to Hollywood. Once there, however, she finds herself in the (also classic) situation of the unemployed hopeful, until a series of reactions to stage ploys which she mistakes for real life convince studio execs of her acting ability.
Directed by Alfred E. Green (who directed several Hollywood-on-Hollywood stories including the biographies of Jolson and Eddie Cantor), with gags written by ace comic Mervyn LeRoy, Ella Cinders sparkles with such appealing scenes as Colleen Moore imitating the day's shining stars - Jackie Coogan, Lillian Gish, Charlie Chaplin. A cameo appearance by Harry Langdon adds to the fun. (JB)