Cult Flops - Hollywood Party (1934)

MGM, 1934

Starring Jimmy Durante, Jack Pearl, Lupe Valez, and Polly Moran

Music and Lyrics by various

Directed by various

This movie began life as The Hollywood Revue of 1933, the next in a series of revues that began with MGM's first variety show in 1929. It took a lot of wrong turns on the way to the screen, running through a series of screenwriters and directors who tried to make sense of the strange numbers and random bits from some of the best comedians at MGM, not to mention the addition of a Disney short. How does Durante's wild Tinseltown blow-out look today? Let's begin at a theater with the newest film starring jungle hero Schazeran the Conqueror (Durante) and find out...

The Story: Durante's pictures are flopping fast. His manager (Richard Carle) insists he needs to start fighting real lions again, rather than the worn-out stuffed ones he's been using. Durante holds a huge party to draw Jack "Baron Munchausen" Pearl (himself) and his menagerie, including lions. Also at the party are an Oklahoma oil family hoping to break into California society, Liondora (George Givot), Durante's rival, who also seeks to buy Pearl's lions, and Durante's female co-star in the Schazeran movies (Velez), who doesn't appreciate being left off the guest list.

The Animation: Mickey Mouse himself appears in a very cute sequence where he imitates Durante, then plays the piano for him. Mickey's typical of the stretch-and-squash animation in his shorts at the time, but he interacts very well with Durante and even has a few nice gags with a piano. "Hot Chocolate Soldiers" is better, a three-strip Technicolor short about a chocolate soldier army who attacks gingerbread men. It's on a par with the Silly Symphonies Disney made at the time, particularly in details like their uniforms and the candy animals they ride before and after their battle. 

The Song and Dance: This is one heck of a party! The barely-there story is merely a framework to hang some creative numbers and a lot of goofiness from some of the top comedians in Hollywood at the time. Durante revels in his rare leading man status, happily vamping Moran and looking ridiculous in his half-naked Tarzan spoofs and "reincarnation" number. Larry Fine and Curly and Moe Howard, the original Three Stooges, have a short bit with their original leader Ted Healy as autograph hounds and a photographer, and Laurel and Hardy get a very funny gag with Lupe Velez involving a lot of broken eggs.

Favorite Number: We kick off with the racy title song, as scantily clad phone operators announce the party to all of Southern California, and then we see people getting dressed and ready to dance the night away. "Feelin' High" takes us into the actual party, as Shirley Ross, Arthur Jarrett, Harry Barris, and The King's Men drink to their heart's content and the chorus whirls over the dining tables. Liondora's young cohort Ben Benson (Eddie Quillan) and the Clemps' starry-eyed daughter Linda (June Clyde) perform a cute near-touch dance to "I've Had My Moments." Arthur Jarrett performs the title song of "The Hot Choc'late Soldiers" animated short, written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed in the cutesy style of "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" from The Broadway Melody. 

Trivia: Among the directors who worked on this movie are Richard Boleslawski, Edmund Goulding, Allan Dwan, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, and Sam Wood. George Stevens directed the Laurel & Hardy scenes. 

Some of the many numbers deleted from the movie still exist, including a spoof of "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" for Jimmy Durante and Polly Moran called "Fly Away to Ioway." Others whose skits and numbers ended up on the cutting room floor included Zazu Pitts, Jackie Cooper, Thelma Todd, Max Baer, and real-life Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller. 

Dwan's complaints that the unfinished film was "a nightmare" inspired the finale, where Durante awakens to see his real wife and concludes the whole thing was a dream.

What I Don't Like: Like many real-life wild parties, this one doesn't make a shred of sense. As much fun as it is to see Mickey Mouse, The Three Stooges, Lupe "Mexican Spitfire" Valez, and Laurel & Hardy in the same movie, they don't really interact with one another, and other than Valez, don't have much to do with what very little plot there is. You can absolutely see the tinkering and many cooks involved. It lurches from number to gag with no form or real reason for existing. That may have worked in 1929, but by the era of the Busby Berkeley Warners extravaganzas, it's silly, annoying, and a bit dated.

The Big Finale: Harmless hour's worth of lunacy if you're a huge fan of Durante or any of the comedians involved. 

Home Media: DVD and streaming, the former from the Warner Archives.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Broadway to Hollywood

MGM, 1933

Starring Frank Morgan, Alice Brady, Russell Hardie, and Eddie Quillan

Directed by William Mack

Music and Lyrics by various

Dancing Lady wasn't MGM's only attempt to imitate the new Warners-style backstagers then in vogue...but this one has an unusual pedigree. In 1930, MGM producer Harry Rapf filmed a series of enormous dance numbers in 2-strip Technicolor for what he intended to be his biggest revue yet, The March of Time. Filming began in mid-1930...just as musicals began to fall out of favor with the viewing public. He tried for the next three years to figure out how to get those numbers to the public. Some ended up in a movie made for the German market; others were dumped in shorts. The rest finally went into this through-the-years melodrama...or at least, they originally did. How does this tale of three generations of a show business family look now? Let's begin at the theater, as Lulu (Brady) and Ted (Morgan) Hackett begin their performance, and find out...

The Story: Lulu and Ted raise their son Ted Jr. (Hardie) to be part of their vaudeville act, The Three Hacketts. He's even more popular on the vaudeville circuit than they are, and is soon offered a starring role in a Broadway show. He also goes against his parents' wishes and marries the lovely Anne Ainsley (Madge Evans). Mistrust and his big head after his success tears apart him and Anne, even after they give birth to a son, Ted III (Quillan). When tragedy strikes, he turns his son over to Lulu and Ted Sr. to raise and joins the army. Years later, when Ted III becomes and even bigger success in talking pictures, he brings his grandparents out to be a part of his success...but his grandfather ends up having to save him from following the same path of drink and degradation as his father.

The Song and Dance: Brady and Morgan dominate the film as the central Hacketts. Brady has some hilarious moments, especially early in the film, where she has to keep her husband on the straight and narrow and away from conniving chorus girls. Morgan does equally well; he has a wonderful speech to his grandson in the finale where he reminds him of just how much show business is in his blood.

Favorite Number: "We are the Two Hacketts" introduces us to Lulu, Ted, their old-fashioned song and dance act, and the running gag of some unknown admirer always tossing Lulu flowers. Later, it becomes "We are the Three Hacketts" when first Hardie, then a fast-tapping young Mickey Rooney joins the act. "The Honeysuckle and the Bee" is the big dance routine for Evans and the Albertina Rasch Dancers. Evans gets to show off some amazing limber acrobatic work at one point as she turns cartwheels in a huge dress. The brief "Snow Ballet" returns us to the Albertina Rasch girls, as chorines in fluffy winter wear prance in a winter landscape. The finale has us "Knee Deep In Rhythm," as the girls join Quillan for a big dance routine that shows just what Ted III learned from his vaudeville roots.

Trivia: For all the fuss over using the March of Time numbers, they're mostly missing from the copy currently shown on TCM. 

Moe and Curly Howard of The Three Stooges have cameos as the clowns who strip off Ted Jr.'s costume when he's fired from a show. They're virtually unrecognizable in the makeup. 

Nelson Eddy debuts, briefly singing "In the Garden of My Heart," though it's mostly heard in the background.

The film also features many similarities to the life of Buster Keaton, who was working at - and feuding with - MGM at the time. He was all too aware of it, and it only added to the growing friction between him and the studio. Didn't help that his March of Time scenes were cut from the film. 

What I Don't Like: Oh lord, the melodrama runs thick and fast here. I love the "through the years" theme that focuses on one family, but neither Hardie nor Quillan can handle the dramatics and come off as silly and dull next to Morgan, Brady, and even Madge Evans. You'd never believe these apple-cheeked pretty boys would drink anything worse than an ice cream soda on a Sunday, let alone allow their families to fall to ruin. 

I wish director William Mack would focus on the musical numbers. He keeps cutting away to everyone's reactions to them and things going on in the background...which is why we don't get to see any number complete and in full. The movie is really something of a mess. It was created to showcase those huge March of Time numbers and seems dull and pointless without them. 

The Big Finale: Completely unnecessary unless you're a huge fan of 30's musicals, historical show business stories, or anyone involved.

Home Media: At the moment, it can only be seen occasionally on TCM.

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