HOLLYWOOD PARTY

What it lacks in plot it makes up for in entertainment, Hollywood Party is a lot of fun to watch even if I doubt I'll remember it tomorrow morning.
The film plays out almost as a sketch comedy, with Jimmy Durante's plot playing the string that hooks random segments of party guests together. The funniest moments go to Jack Pearl, who is reprising his radio personality of Baron Munchausen.
"This is the son of King Kong! His name…is Ping Pong!"
Laurel and Hardy get some strong laughs for their climatic bout with Lupe Velez. Ted Healy and the Stooges have a terrific scene in which a group of professors deduce their place on the evolutionary ladder. Mickey Mouse's cameo is gold, along with The Hot Chocolate Soldiers animated segment that follows.
By the end of its runtime, Hollywood Party runs very tired. It's a little sad, since it's barely an hour long, but it has enough steam to keep its wacky situations going for such a short period.
Final Shemp's Final Word: 2 1/2 Pokes

I didn't enjoy this film. The Stooges barely got a part in it. Plus, when I first saw this, the word that came to mind was, "fluffy," because it doesn't have much of anything to it, only stars of the day showing one-by-one, doing their thing, and getting on with it. Good to be seen for reference, not good for entertainment.

A very brief Stooge/Healy appearance, though production stills indicate they may have had a more extended turn at annoying various partygoers (one still, printed in MOE HOWARD AND THE THREE STOOGES, shows them with boxer Max Baer, who's also missing in action from the final print). HOLLYWOOD PARTY, originally planned as THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1933, was a film with a long and erratic filming history; the fact it wasn't in general release until the Stooges were at Columbia and already at work on their second short there is a clear indication of the delays which beset this movie. One critic wrote that the picture was in production during 2 presidential terms (accurate if you consider that Hoover was still president during pre-production in early '33). Laurel and Hardy show up fairly late in the film w/an extended turn and the film overall manages to sustain a wacky 30s sensibility despite uneven pacing and some overlong musical numbers. Probably more interesting as a cross-section of early 30s popular comedy, ranging from the sight-gags (virtually silent) of L&H to the knockabout of the Stooges to Durante and radio comics like Jack Pearl (Baron Munchausen) and Ben Bard, plus character comedy from Polly Moran and Charles Butterworth and some requisite titillation from Lupe Velez. Plot is negligible (they took 9 months to film and all they could come up with was something about buying lions?), some pretty good camerawork (James Wong Howe), and almost every director under contract to MGM (plus a few like George Stevens who weren't) took a hack at a scene or 2.

Stoogaholics will find this disappointing, but fans of this era of movie history will be fascinated by this one-off curio's curio. I think this was scheduled to be a much bigger & more-ballyhooed production at first. Somewhere along the line, Plan A got abandoned; the truncated half-fish/half-fowl that got released became sorta the first Allan Smithee production (no director is listed). Worth watching just to ogle Lupe Velez in a dress that surely had Johnny Weissmuller doing a full-blooded Tarzan yell later that night.

Good film. Durante and Laurel & Hardy were show stealers. I can't say enough good things about L&H, but this IS a Stooge site. This is the least favorite of all Stooge performances I've seen, but I still like it. The above mentioned line of Moe's was hilarious. It made me think of Moe's line from "Malice in the Palace", "Hey, spinach-chin!" (talking to another bearded man). The presence of Mickey Mouse and the cartoon they showed was anadda good highlight. I recorded this, but I may be keeping it more for L&H than the Stooges.ISLIPP- dogs YIPP. ©2001Edited by - ISLIPP on 8/30/01 4:39:05 AM