International House

Why did Gracie Allen's sister learn French? Because she inadvertently took home a French baby, rather than her own, and wanted to be able to talk to him when he grew up. And why does cheerfully soused W.C. Fields have a roadster in his auto-gyro? For side-trips, of course -- like the one that takes him careening through the corridors, lounges and lobbies of the grandest hotel in Wu Hu China. It's right across the street from the flophouse where Bela Lugosi as gold digger Peggy Ann Joyce's insanely jealous ex-husband has been forced to reside. As for how Cab Calloway, singing a tribute to the heady pleasures of pot, and Rudy Vallee, serenading his megaphone, wander into the movie, they're among the images scanned up by a Chinese inventor who's attempting to televise a six-day bike race before television (as we know it today) was invented. Other pleasures in "International House" range from ten-year-old baby RoseMarie (who would eventually be the adult RoseMarie of the "Dick Van Dyke Show") doing a Sophie Tucker low blues and some surprisingly agile hoofing by Sterling Halloway. Fields' mumbling, bumbling, boozy millionaire staggers off with the comedy honors. But you don't even have to be Wiliam Claude Dukenfeld fan to find a lot to enjoy.

Early form of television that doesn't need a broadcast station brings people from all over the world to Wu Hu China with the hopes of buying it. Among those at the hotel guests are George Burns and Gracie Allen (as the hotel doctor and nurse), Bela Lugosi as a Russian General, WC Fields as a mad Professor, Frank Pangborn as the Hotel manager, and Sterling Halloway. While through the magic of TV we see Rudy Vallee, Rose Marie and Cab Calloway (who performs Reefer Man).

Wild comedy that is the sort of big budget multi star film that could only have been made in the studio system. Tighter story wise than many of the films of this sort its really more an excuse to have Burns and Allen and WC Fields be very funny for just over an hour. The jokes come along at a good clip, and since this is really pre-code they are often shaded slightly blue. To be certain the Burns and Allen stuff is close to being a cliché form of their routine, but its still funny. Fields arrival by auto-gyro heralds the arrival of Fields as a comic force to be reckoned with, as the film ceases to be about nothing so much much as Fields running over everyone and everything.He's a hysterical. Also amazing is Bela Lugosi in a rare comic turn. Bela plays it straight and his slow burn is funny enough that he clearly in the running with Edgar Kennedy as the man with the best one in Hollywood. He's so good at being silly one can't help but wish he had never made Dracula and been typecast as such.

This is a real gem.

A lot of commotion falls upon the International House hotel in Wu Hu China. Doctor Wong is planning to demonstrate a new television device and sell it to Tommy Nash, representative of the American Electric Company. Nash escorts Peggy Hopkins Joyce to the hotel as well, which makes his fiancé jealous. Also jealous is Joyce's ex-husband, Gen. Nicholas Petronovich, who is also trying to buy the invention. Gen. Petronovich tries to have Nash quarantined, but only succeeds in quarantining the hotel, with him outside the hotel. The arrival of Prof. Quail, millionaire and drunkard, creates more chaos in the hotel with his crude manners, and enrages Gen. Petronovich when he mistakenly believes Quail is sleeping with Peggy. The International House turns into madness as everyone tries to return the hotel to normal. The movie is entirely plot less, but relies on its silliness to move along, and it works. Fields is a riot drunkenly stumbling around delivering his trademark one liners. Many of the other big stars make appearances via Wong's television (Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, Stoopnagle and Budd). Gracie Allen's hair-brained lines have a slight logic behind them to make them funny. The movie seemed to be a bit too chaotic at times, but the chaos works in certain scenes. Rating, 7

I've always wanted to use the word 'melange' in a review and here I finally have done it. That word is appropriate because this film is jam-packed with a wide variety of items--like a chef salad of films! There's a lot of comedy with W.C. Fields as well as Burns and Allen, romance with Stu Erwin and his sweetie, a jealous ex-husband (Bela Lugosi) and a lot of special appearances by radio stars (such as Baby Rose Marie--the same lady who later starred on "The Dick Van Dyke Show") and Cab Calloway--singing the ultra-bizarre "Reefer Man"--a film that makes fun of pot smoking! Yes, I did mean marijuana! This Pre-Code film has a lot of racy material other than the film--such as plenty of double-entendres by Fields, cohabitation and a song and dance number with surprisingly scantily clad ladies. Only a year later, after a tougher Production Code was enacted, much of this film simply wouldn't have been allowed--it just wasn't "proper family entertainment" according to the Hays Office (which is lampooned in a comment by Fields late in the film).

In many ways, the film is like a variety show and the plot really is rather irrelevant, though it is interesting to see such an early film talk about and supposedly demonstrate television. With so much variety in the film, many of the segments fall a bit short, but since they come and go so quickly, you're bound to be entertained only a moment later. Not great entertainment, but clearly an important film for lovers of classic cinema.

International House (1933)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

An all-star cast is the highlight of this comedy about a wacky group of characters who go to a Chinese hotel to bid on a new invention (the television). With a cast that includes W.C. Fields, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Stewart Erwin, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Bela Lugosi, there's really something here for everyone. The film is certainly uneven but that's not really a problem since the movie is just set up to gets laughs at any way possible. I'm really not that big of a fan of Fields but I enjoyed his performance here. Burns and Allen certainly steal the show but I felt Lugosi gave one of his best performances here as well.