Boy Meets Girl

James Cagney and Pat O'Brien give Hollywood an affectionate chuck under the chin (and a comic kick in the keister) in this filmmaking spoof based on the same-titled 669-performance Broadway hit by Bella and Samuel Spewack (My Favorite Wife, Kiss Me, Kate) and zestily directed by Lloyd Bacon (42nd Street). In roles based on colorful screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, Cagney and O'Brien fling words around like hot potatoes as they invent boy-meets-girl storylines to please a fading cowboy star (Dick Foran) and a huffy producer (Ralph Bellamy). Their latest idea has a new wrinkle - revenge against the cowboy and the exec. And the madcap way they pull it off places Boy Meets Girl alongside such deft 19305 jabs at Tinseltown as Once in a Lifetime and Bombshell. joining the fun in the role of a beleaguered movie premiere emcee is Ronald Reagan.

• comedy