Hot Picks
|
|
|
Hellzapoppin'
USA 1941
produced by Jules Levey for Mayfair Productions/Universal
directed by H.C. Potter
starring Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Martha Raye, Hugh Herbert, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, Mischa Auer, Richard Lane, Lewis Howard, Clarence Kolb, Nella Walker, Shemp Howard, Elisha Cook jr, Frank Darien, Catherine Johnson, Gus Schilling, the Six Hits, Slim and Slam (= Slim Gaillard, Slam Stewart), the Harlem Congeroos (= Ann Johnson, Frankie Manning), Olive Hatch, Eddie Acuff, Jody Gilbert, Jean Porter, Bert Roach, Bob Rose, Angelo Rossitto, Andrew Tombes, Dale Van Sickel
screenplay by Nat Perrin, Warren Wilson, based on the play by Nat Perrin, music by Frank Skinner
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
The New Chic Johnson & Ole Olsen movie Hellzapoppin' starts
with a musical number and a series of sight gags set in hell - but the
director (Richard Lane) doesn't like it. Sure, the whole thing is just
like the play the film is based on, but this is Hollywood, and in
Hollywood, things are changed around (seems like nothing has changed in
the last 70 years, right?) - in case you're wondering, this is part of the
plot. So ok, the setting of the film is no longer
hell but a high society mansion. The daughter of the house, Kiotty (Jane
Frazee) is madly in love with playwright Jeff (Robert Paige), but her
parents insist she marries Woody (Lewis Howard), a slacker who's seriously
lacking in the talent-section, but comes from a rich family. Of course,
Kitty doesn't love Woody, but he loves her, and while Jeff loves Kitty as
well, he is also best friends with Woody and doesn't want to stand in the
way of his romance. So far, so boring. Enter Chic and Ole as two
propmen who help Jeff set up his musical revue scheduled for tonight to
impress broadway impresario Kane (Andrew Tombes). This would make him a
man worthy in Kitty's parents' eyes of course. But there's still Woody ... Chic,
Ole and their friend Betty (Martha Raye) make up a plan to make Woody
think Kitty has an affair with the Russian aristocrat Pepi (Mischa Auer),
who pretends to be a fake aristocrat for various reasons - and wouldn't
you know it, the plan works, too. But it works too well, because now Chic
and Ole also think Kitty has an affair with Pepi (actually, it's Betty who
does), and now they figure they have to break up Jeff and Kitty out of
friendship - so they totally sabotage his show. However, the sabotaged
show turns out to be so hilariously funny that Kane hires Jeff right on
the spot, and now finally Kitty's parents will accept him as their
son-in-law ... Granted, in writing the story sounds less than
promising - actually it sounds positively appalling -, but on film that's
a rather different matter, because the script is very much aware of its
shortcomings, interrupts romantic scenes with mad sight gags, turns
musical numbers into chaotic setpieces, and successfully replicates
cartoon style humour. Actually, the film only gets slightly derailed in
the finale, when Johnson and Olsen are sabotaging the musical revue and
the chaos gets narrative backing, but by that time, too many good gags and
funny bits have already come your way to still care much. In all,
anarchic cinema at its best, and one comedy not to be missed!
|