Hi Diddle Diddle

This period in American movies saw such delights as "Hellzapoppin". Here the actors bring to attention that they are playing in a film. They make faces at the audience, wallpaper comes alive, there is a woman who keeps popping up in scenes where she isn't even acting. The dialog and the plot move lightning fast and there's no time at all to waste in this pleasant and often hilarious comedy. There's a wedding reception before the wedding, fortunes earned and lost in a space of minutes, a married couple disunited throughout. What's not to like? This film has been in public domain and has been copied, often badly and on stock of poor quality, so viewer beware...

This film starts out differently, with an animated sequence before the opening credits. This is the first of several off-beat touches which makes Hi Diddle Diddle an enjoyable film. Pola Negri, former silent star from Valentino's day registers well here as a temperamental opera star. Not only is her voice understandable, but it is downright good here. She is also still quite beautiful in 1943, and it seems a pity that she did not have a bigger career in sound films. The rest of the cast, headed by Adolphe Menjou, Martha Scott, Dennis O'Keefe and Billie Burke are all in top form, and a special mention for a musical sequence featuring June Havoc singing along with herself on a soundie screen. There are some good belly laughs to be had and, all in all, this is a charming piece of forties fluff which will whizz by painlessly enough.

With too little music to call it a musical and too silly a plot to explain why it drew audiences at the height of World War II, the movie is best remembered for its early mix of animation and live action, wherein the wall paper comes to life as the cast mutilates "The Pilgrim's Chorus" from Richard Wagner's opera "Tannhauser." Also worth noting: the unmistakable voice of Billie Burke (the good witch in The Wizard of Oz), June Havoc singing "The Man with the Big Sombrero," and a rare talking film appearance by gorgeous Pola Negri, the Polish silent film siren who once called Rudolph Valentino the love of her life.

The names of Adolphe Menjou and Pola Negri in the cast might lead you to expect the date of this film to be 1923 rather than 1943 (and the two did in fact make a couple of films together that year), but this is actually a relatively late screwball comedy with an on-form once-in-a-lifetime cast (although Denis O'Keefe rather strains credibility as Menjou's son).

Billed third, Negri, who was then 46 and hadn't made a film in Hollywood for over ten years (her next and final film was Disney's 'The Moonspinners' twenty years later) actually has a relatively small role as Menjou's wife, but looks great (along with Martha Scott and Billie Burke she sweeps about in a succession of fabulous creations by Adrian) and one gets a rare chance to hear what she actually sounded like. We first meet her singing the Ride of the Valkyries, and Wagner - whose music one character says "had some beautiful moments but some ugly half hours" - is later the victim of a priceless sight gag. The best performance as usual is by Menjou, but right down to the bit players the cast all seem to be enjoying themselves (including veteran composer & musical director Richard Hageman unexpectedly playing the small part of a company director).

The same year as he made the all-black musical 'Stormy Weather' the always surprising independent producer-director Andrew L. Stone here shows early evidence of the good naturedness and flair for organising complicated story lines that found full flower in his later thrillers; and this may be his only film to receive an Oscar nomination (for Phil Boutelje's score). Frederick Jackson's screenplay crackles with saucy throwaways and there are some sublime breaches of the fourth wall, including a couple of animated inserts by Friz Freleng.

A B film but a very funny comedy starring Martha Scott and Dennis O'Keefe as newlyweds who get caught up in the schemes of daddy (Adolphe Menjou) as he tries to win back mama's (Billie Burke) money at a crooked roulette wheel. Not much on plot but very funny with Menjou's opera singer wife (Pola Negri in her first American film in more than a decade)) singing Wagner at any given moment.

The film rushes between standard comedy and weird comments to the camera. There's also a running gag about an actress who is only in the film because she's dating the director. And then there's that animated wallpaper.

Co-Stars include June Havoc, who steals the film as a nightclub singer who at one point sings a duet with herself, Walter Kingsford, Bess Flowers, Barton Hepburn, Georges Metaxa, Paul Porcasi, Harry Tyler, Matt McHugh, and Bert Roach. as the flustered cab rider.

The real interest here is of course Pola Negri in a talkie ... and she's very funny indeed and looks great.