Hi Diddle Diddle

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.

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.

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.

Even though I'm an old movie freak I'd never heard of the movie. I checked Maltin's Classic Movie Guide before catching the flick on the internet. Maltin didn't like it, so I wasn't expecting much. But, boy, was he wrong! It's a delightful chuckle-fest with a load of imagination, double entendre, and ditzy fast-moving plot. Okay, I can understand some folks finding it too silly. Still, for folks willing to move with the ditz it's a genuine novelty. So, can inventive Menjou gyp rascal Hepburn out of big bucks so as to pay back sailor son O'Keefe and new bride Scott before O'Keefe gets shipped out to fight the war. After all, Hepburn gypped Scott's mother Burke so, as the saying goes, what goes around, etc.

The result is a rapid-fire bang-around that couldn't bore a centipede. And catch the animated wallpaper, the playing to the camera, and songstress Haver singing even while she eyeballs her own performance. No realism here. Anyway, it's 1943 and I'll bet all those brave nervous guys in uniform got 70-minutes of sheer escape thanks to the enveloping results. Meanwhile, here's my 2001 salute to the cast,crew, producer and director. All in all, the flick's a low-budget sleeper, while Maltin needs to go stand in a corner.

(In passing- the famous German composer Wagner is somewhat mocked in the film. I expect that was a shot at the Nazis and their favorite composer. After all, it is the height of WWII.)

Sailor Dennis O'Keefe has a two-day shore leave and the wedding is all planned out by bride Martha Scott and her family. Unfortunately, O'Keefe's ship comes in late and that delay is followed by the discovery that Scott's mother has been swindled out of her fortune....Can they manage to get hitched before O'Keefe is called back to his ship?

O'Keefe and Scott are attractive and funny, and Adolph Menjou is outstanding as O'Keefe's father, a con man who means well but never quite hits it big. Menjou vows to help restore the lost fortune and sets about using his connections at the casino.

A wonderful and unique supporting cast includes Billie Burke as Scott's mother, cheerfully goofy as always; June Havoc as a spirited song-and-dance girl who helps Menjou out; and Pola Negri as a temperamental opera singer who loves Wagner ("She half wildcat!" a casino employee exclaims—a clever nod to Negri's wacky 1921 picture The Wildcat.)

The plot itself is just okay but much enhanced by memorable little bits that surprise and delight. One such moment features Burke and friends sitting around a nightclub table practicing doing double takes; another is the musical number in which Havoc duets with a movie of herself. Then there's the slinky babe who keeps popping up in different scenes for no apparent reason—until Burke finally fills us in: "She's a very particular friend of the director who's making this picture. He sticks her in every scene he can."

It doesn't aim too high but it sure is lots of fun.