Mad Holiday

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made tons of mystery films in which amateurs solve crimes that the police are just too stupid to solve. It seems that anyone who wanted to be a detective could solve crimes in these pictures....school teachers, reporters, and, in "Mad Holiday", actors.

When the story begins, Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) is finishing up his sixth mystery movie...and he's sick of them. He feels that the stories are trite and he refuses to do any more. Before he'll even consider returning to the studio to work in any film, he wants a vacation. However, when he takes a cruise, wouldn't you know it but bodies would start piling up, and, in some cases, disappearing! Apparently it all has something to do with a stolen Chinese diamond...and reluctantly Trent begins investigating the case along with Ms. Dean...the woman who wrote his trite screenplays.

In support of Lowe are a variety of familiar actors (such as Zasu Pitts, Edmund Gwenn and Edgar Kennedy), but the most interesting was Ted Healy. While I never have been a Healy fan, he is an interesting guy here because it's so obvious that the part was written for Ted Healy and His Stooges. The Three Stooges had been partners with Healy up until about 1933 and here, without the Stooges, he inexplicably smacks a few guys around as if they were Moe, Curly and Larry! Again and again, he's slapping poor schmucks who just seem willing to take it! It really was weird.

Even though this plot is too familiar, having Trent be an actor who has no interest in investigating crimes is unusual. He only begrudgingly investigates...and he really would rather be left alone.

So is it any good? Yes...mostly because I love Lowe and loved his style in this movie. He's an actor mostly forgotten today, though he certainly deserves to be remembered. Here he manages to take a B-mystery and inject a lot of life into it. Well worth seeing and fun.

Mad Holiday (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

MGM crime-mystery about actor Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) who grows tired of playing a mystery solver so he decides to quit the film business and go on a trip. On board a ship he runs into Peter Dean (Elissa Landi) who just happens to be the writer of his story. It doesn't take long for the two to find a dead body and now they're got a real mystery to solve. It's clear that this "B" picture was trying to recapture the magic of THE THIN MAN and while it doesn't reach the levels of that classic, the fun cast makes the film worth viewing. There's no question that Lowe was an expert at playing this type of character. The character is rather full of himself, charming and has a way with words so Lowe is perfect at this. He's especially good early on once he finally cracks and realizes that he doesn't want to act in these type of pictures. Landi makes for a good partner in crime as the two manage to have some nice chemistry. The supporting cast has some very familiar faces with Edgar Kennedy stealing the picture as a detective who just happens to be on board the ship. Zasu Pitts plays a rather dimwitted fan of the actor and Ted Healy can be seen playing a stooge promotional man for the studio. The actual mystery itself is a pretty good one as you'll certainly be left in the dark as to who the killer is and what the exact motive was. Director George B. Seitz does a nice job at keeping the film moving at a nice pace and the screenplay also has some good touches and especially when it gives the viewer a few winks about what happens behind the scenes of one of these films. MAD HOLIDAY is far from perfect but it's a nice little time killer.

Here Edmund Lowe plays actor Philip Trent who is tired of playing the same detective in a series of B films. The problem is these B films make money! So the studio and the author of the detective books do not want Trent to leave. Trent decides to decompress on a cruise between LA and San Francisco, but his vacation turns out to be anything but refreshing. The writer turns up on the cruise to try and convince Trent to stay, and then there is an actual murder mystery on the ship that turns out to have lots of twists and turns in it.

Ultimately this film is somewhat like "The Thin Man" in that you have a reluctant detective (Lowe) and a woman spurring him on and getting involved in the mystery herself (Elissa Landi). This is actually a very good role for Landi, actually much more up her alley than some of the other films I've seen her in.

The film gets very busy with lots of minor character actors showing up, including the zany Zasu Pitts and the always on edge Edgar Kennedy. I might have given this film an 8/10, but Ted Healy absolutely ruins every scene he is in, he is just so obnoxious. He cut the Three Stooges loose in 1934, they went to Columbia, the rest is history. Healy stayed at MGM ,and the rest is just not funny. In this film he has some kind of pseudo stooge that looks like a genetic splicing of Moe and Larry. It is all very weird.

The end is just a big joke, but as (deliberately) corny and hammy as the individual parts were, it really fit well into a satisfying whole of a spoof. I'd recommend it.

For those of you familiar with The Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, you will see many similarities but I believe this is not nearly as good as Powell and Loy together. Edmund Lowe is an actor who plays a detective but is tired of doing the same thing so he wants to take a vacation to get away from what he considers poor detective stories. On the ship he meets up with his co star for the movie, Peter Dean played by Ellisa Landi. They accidentally get involved in a real murder and can't seem to get out of several "scrapes" together. They do all right as a couple but again, I believe this movie tried to copy The Thin Man style and didn't do too well. There's a lot of slapstick in this movie so if you enjoy that from the '30's you will enjoy this movie. All in all it isn't too bad so I gave it a 5 but no higher. If you enjoyed this movie you will love The Thin Man series so I highly recommend any of those.

Phil Trent (Ed Lowe) has been playing a super sleuth in films for years now, and wants to just get away for a while. he gets on a cruise ship to escape, but of course the crowds recognize him. his publisher pulls a stunt that makes him look foolish. in all the confusion, he meets the actual writer of the detective stories who just HAPPENS to be on the same cruise ship. Zasu Pitts is in here for comedic fun, and plays a drunk who hates drunkards. and the real bodies start piling up. and a diamond is missing. the usual shenanigans. mixups. twists that aren't so surprising. now we're off the ship and in a chinatown theater. and Trent is still hot on the trail of the diamond and the murderer. it's pretty good. low key fun. some slapstick comedy tossed in. Directed by George Seitz. died young at 56, but not much information available on him.