Festa de Hollywood

That romantic & devilishly handsome movie star, Jimmy Durante, decides to throw the HOLLYWOOD PARTY every celebrity in town will want to attend. And he does, with somewhat mixed results.

This nonsense film (no directors are credited, but several important ones were involved) was an excuse for MGM to show off, somewhat ostentatiously, its comedy talent. Enough talent, indeed, to waste. Laurel & Hardy show up for a scene with Lupe Velez and it is hilarious. The ubiquitous Polly Moran, Charles Butterworth & Arthur Treacher are generally worth watching. Ted Healey & The 3 Stooges, Jack Pearl & Eddie Quillan are hampered by inadequate material. Even Robert Young appears for a few moments, playing himself and looking a wee bit silly.

Apparently having wandered over from another studio, Mickey Mouse shows up unexpectedly, in animated form & voiced by Walt Disney. He proves he can hold his own in trading wisecracks with Durante and then introduces a fairly good Disney Technicolor cartoon, `Hot Chocolate Soldiers' and it's enjoyable.

If you get invited to this party, try hanging out with Stan & Ollie, or The Mouse. They're where all the fun is.

This film is excellent if you take it for what it is - a thin but pleasant comical storyline as an excuse for what turns out to be practically a revue of MGM's lesser stars of the day, plus two great stars - Laurel and Hardy - that didn't even work for the studio. However, Hal Roach did distribute his films through MGM, thus the boys do show up in a couple of MGM films of this era. Also, Disney's Mickey Mouse shows up for a comedic bit. I'd love to know how MGM ever worked that out with Walt.

The jist of the plot is that Schnarzan (Durante) is losing his audience for his jungle jaunt movies since the death of his original lion. People think that the subsequent lions he wrestles in his films are flimsy excuses for courageous carnivores and box office receipts are beginning to drop. His producer says that he can guarantee a hit if Durante can procure one or more of the lions of the famous Baron Munchausen who is a renowned hunter of wild beasts. Durante decides to wine and dine the baron at his mansion and give a big party in his honor.

There are a couple of very good precode musical numbers in this film including the title song featuring scantily clad chorus girls in various states of undressing/dressing and singing and dancing telephone operators dressed up in weird metallic outfits. At the party Lupe Valez spars with Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges put in an appearance back when they were still with Ted Healy, and there is an early musical cartoon number involving chocolate soldiers with music by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. Finally there are Charles Butterworth and Polly Moran as a wealthy oil magnate and his wife who have some hilarious moments.

If you don't know who any of the people I just mentioned are, you are probably not going to like this film. If you know who all or most of them are you are sure to enjoy it as one of the last pre code films made, released just one month before strict enforcement of the code began.

This is really a scrapbook of bits linked together by the word "party."

If you have ever wondered why The Three Stooges are so called, it is because they began life in vaudeville as the butt of Ted Healy's gags. In this film we see a rare instance of Healy and his stooges in action.

Classic is the piece where Lupe Velez teams up with Laurel and Hardy. A battle begins, which has since been quoted in a number of compilation films.

Perhaps the piece which steals the show is the colour cartoon by Disney. I have never ever seen it shown on Disney programmes, even though it is one of his best sequences.

It's worth watching just for these three features.

The hilarious Jimmy Durante, known for making fun of his own large schnozzola, sings his signature song in this film, "Inka Dinka Doo." Along the way some great songs by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart (before Rogers teamed with Oscar Hammerstein II to create some of America's greatest musicals), including the title song performed by Frances Williams, "Reincarnation" performed by Durante, and "Hello" performed by Durante and Jack Pearly. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

I thought this Golden Oldie was great fun. Puzzling how it gets short shrift from IMDb reviewers, as it sustains itself throughout the 75 minutes with a consistently high level of humor and music. It is also puzzling how few people have actually seen it in comparison to the goodly number of reviews.

In any case, I love Laurel and Hardy and Charles Butterworth always adds a great deal to any picture with his befuddled 'Tom Smothers' brand of humor. The main star is old reliable Jimmy Durante doing his familiar schtick, and there are a couple of good musical numbers, especially one with Eddie Quillan and June Clyde called "I've Had My Moments", and also the title song written by Rodgers&Hart.

It is a fast-moving 75 minutes, too fast and too entertaining for such a low IMDb rating. If you're a fan of movies, especially old movies, I recommend this one. And there's no 'message' here; it's just old-fashioned entertainment, accent on the 'old-fashioned'.