Fantasmas rumberos

Once the movie....in the movie--the "Crazy House" outdoor set starts; watch for the two boys licking the barber pole. The skinny, seven year old boy in the sideways striped shirt is me!!! One of those watching is Shemp Howard (in a cutaway shot). The other boy and I were having a hard time licking that barber pole; it was just dry painted wood, and even in a B&W "el-cheepo", many takes were made. Then (before the director was satisified and called, "O.K., print it); the A.D. called, "Lunch, one hour," and we walked off and around some corners to the back lot for lunch on outdoor tables. A strange event took place while we were gone and I am writing about it in a book called, "Peeping Into Hollywood." The non-fiction book takes place around 1962, when I myself was directing a film called, "BACHELOR TOM PEEPING." (Look it up on IMDB). In that book I tell many stories about my eighteen years as a child extra and sometimes bit player. Watch for the book, due out some day? The barber pole and it's aftermath is a funny, strange event.

I just saw this film in NYC at the Film Forum, where it was introduced by a nephew of Billy Gilbert, who has a small part in the film.

It was one wild ride.

The audience enjoyed the film thoroughly for what it is, a B movie musical starring Olsen & Johnson that is insane. The comedy duo has to break into Universal in order to make a film there, since no one wants them - in fact, a secretary, on learning who they are, jumps into her desk - we got to see that bit twice because the film broke.

If you want to call the plot a plot, O & J run into difficulties getting financing for their film and, faced with huge debts, decide to auction it to the highest bidder. The film they make is awfully short.

Some of O & J's bits are quite funny and others are of the groan variety. There are many familiar faces in the film - Patric Knowles, Percy Kilbride, Hans Conried, Thomas Gomez, Franklin Pangborn, Shemp Howard, and some funny cameos by Universal stars in the beginning of the movie when they realize Olsen & Johnson are in the building - Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce, Alan Curtis, Leo Carrillo.

Allan Jones sings "The Donkey Serenade," the De Marcos dance, and the end of the film within a film is a huge musical number done by The Glenn Miller Singers, Count Basie's Orchestra, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Leighton Noble's orchestra, and Chandra Kaly's Dancers.

"Crazy House" has a great deal of energy and is a real oddity. It was fun to watch, but I don't think I'd want to watch it again.

I recently saw this film with Quentin Tarantino's introduction to this film on video tape from Trio. Quentin goes on about how Mel Brooks lifted a good chunk of the premise of this movie for Silent Movie. While the basic idea is the same, down on their luck film makers try to sign big stars for their up coming film, the results are decidedly different. Brooks played it pretty much as a straight film, while Olsen and Johnson used it as an excuse to do silly things with famous people. I prefer the pure insanity of Olsen and Johnson's take.

This is one of the best films that Olsen and Johnson ever made, even if it has one really big problem (which I'll get to in a minute). This is pure Olsen and Johnson insanity. Its a film where anything can happen, usually the silliest of all possible options. Its wild and wacky with Olsen and Johnson acting as steam rollers over Hollywood and the studio system. When the comedy is happening its a rapid fire collection of jokes and gags that never seem to stop.

Or rather stop a bit too often. The one really big problem I was talking about is that the comedy and the madness stops every couple of minutes for a musical interlude. These interludes pretty much stop the movie dead since any of the momentum thats been built up comes crashing to a halt. Most of the numbers are played straight so its a radical shift in tone that really annoyed the heck out of me. (Actually the numbers aren't bad they just belong in a different film) I know that the numbers are the result of this being one of those "studio" films where everyone in the studio appears partly as part of the story, but also as an advertisement for themselves and what ever movie they are currently promoting. (Hollywood turned these out every now and again often to mixed results)

Music aside I really like this movie. If you want to see Olsen and Johnson in great form this is a good choice to make.

This is the third Olsen & Johnson vehicle I have watched; in a way, it is a direct follow-up to their most notable outing i.e. HELLZAPOPPIN' (1941) since the latter is mentioned a number of times throughout. Like that film, this one has only a wisp of plot: turned down by Universal after their zany antics in the earlier title, the duo here try to finance their own movie – helped by producer wannabe Patric Knowles and Percy (Pa Kettle) Kilbride as a man suffering from delusions of being a millionaire! The rest is taken up by typically surreal gags (funny while they are on but not exactly memorable, except for the opening which sees the entire studio personnel bolting at the comics' arrival at the studio gates…including Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in character as Holmes and Watson, then appearing in a series of films for Universal!) and numerous specialty – and boring – musical numbers (the most irritating of which being that of Cass Daley who not only shouts her lyrics but even plays dual roles!). In pure Hollywood terms, Knowles discovers – and falls for – a female singing 'sensation'; also, when the film is finally completed and the backers see no remuneration coming their way, they decide to sabotage the premiere…only that, when most of the reels go 'missing', Olsen & Johnson have the brilliant idea of enacting the situations live (since most of it is revue-style material anyway)! For the record, director Cline was a comedy expert and, while producer Erle C. Kenton directing films in this genre himself, is perhaps best-known for his horror output at Universal itself and other studios.

Olsen & Johnson go to Universal Studios to film their successor to Hellzapoppin', while everyone at the studio runs for cover. Since no one at the studio will back them, O&J decide to return to Miracle Pictures to get their film started. Since O&J can get no bankable stars, they decide to do the novel approach of having a film w/ new faces including singer Marjorie Nelson (who happens to catch the eye of director Ed MacLean). When films creditors find out that O&J's backer is an eccentric sort who thinks he's a millionaire broker, they put an injunction on the film, and its up to Olsen & Johnson to prove their case in court to save the film. Probably this film was on the same page w/ the WC Fields film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break with the plot of the comedian(s) trying to film the movie. Olsen & Johnson are up to their same antics again, but after the opening scene of the Universal lot running for cover, the film can't maintain the pace of that scene or what made Hellzapoppin a laugh riot. The musical numbers are nice, but there just seems to be so many in the film, that this is a jukebox film more than a comedy. Still the film has many funny moments and is a sure treat. Rating, 7.