Hi Diddle Diddle

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.

HI DIDDLE DIDDLE is one of those pictures that, because it has fallen into public domain, is almost always seen in dreadful dupe prints. Well, don't let that dissuade you from seeing this picture. It is one of the fastest-paced, downright hilarious comedies of the early 40's. The combination of sharp dialogue and impeccable characterizations make this a real winner. Here is Dennis O'Keefe at his farceur best. He's a sailor-on-leave-bridegroom who spends his wedding night doing everything EXCEPT what he's supposed to be doing. Adolph Menjou is his pop, a conniver (not Connover this time!) who pledges to help Dennis' mom-in-law, dizzy Billie Burke, regain her fortune. Menjou is married to Pola Negri, a domineering Wagnerian opera singer. June Havoc is a lady friend of Menjou's and is she hot! They're all a riot. One of my favorite bits is when waiter Joe Devlin, taking Billie's order at a night club, does a double take and walks away. Billie exclaims - "He did a double take - just like in the movies!" Then Billie, Martha Scott (the bride), Walter Kingsford and Barton Hepburn all proceed to practice doing double takes. Devlin gets a gander at this and does - A DOUBLE TAKE! A wonderful musical moment is June Havoc singing alongside herself in a Panaogram Soundie machine. Composer Richard Hageman, who also appears in director Andrew Stone's SENSATIONS OF 1945, does a very wry bit as a brokerage firm president.

If you need a laugh - see HI DIDDLE DIDDLE by any and all means!

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.)

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.

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.