Hollywood Hotel

Louella Parsons is among the celebrities of varying statuses that makes an appearance here. She was a popular columnist for Hearst at the time, notorious for gossipy notices like, "Who was that handsome Lothario seen at the Brown Derby last night escorting La-La Divoon?" She's a matronly woman. It's a curious experience watching her speak. Her fixed expression is a slightly open smile offering a glimpse of her upper teeth. The voice seems to emanate from that mouth without any sign of labial involvement. The painted lips remain the same, the slice of teeth immobile, and no tongue in evidence. She could be a ventriloquist's dummy.

She's given a couple of cute lines though, as is just about everyone else in this romantic musical comedy. It's 1937 and the narcissistic star opens the newspaper and remarks, "Terrible about China (Pause) I haven't opened a picture there in a year." The tempo is pretty fast, and there's a brief but carefully choreographed bit of slapstick at a night club table involving Dick Powell and a waiter, good enough to have been done by Buster Keaton. You'll find a lot of folks who were on their way to the big time during the war that was around the corner, including James Ridgeley, whom you've probably never heard of, and Ronald Reagan who became, I believe, a politician. You get to see Perc Westmore as himself plying his trade.

The plot is a parody of Hollywood and a story of mixed identities. As a parody, it lags behind "Singin' in the Rain." The story of identity confusion doesn't go back any farther in time than Shakespeare's first play, "A Comedy of Errors," or Plautus' "Menaechmi", which Shakespeare ripped off. The Hollywood movie star is played by Lola Lane and the shy waitress who is swept up in the impersonation is Rosemary Lane -- real sisters.

Direction by Busby Berkeley but no marching feet stomping around on the stage and no overhead shots of flower petals opening, each to reveal itself as a pair of chubby thighs. Nope. There are several songs though. They're pleasant enough but lack the perverse kick of "Petting in the Park" with its demented midget dashing around with a can opener, and none of the tunes are likely to be found in the Great American Songbook.

Still, it's diverting and a pleasant enough watch for an otherwise uneventful evening.

A Warner musicomedy directed by Busby Berkeley. Unlike the usual Warner film choreographed by Busby, there's no stage dancing or military maneuvers. Instead, it's lots of singing, the majority concentrated at the end, as is typical of Busby's choreography when there is considerable stage dancing and military maneuvering. Unfortunately, only a little of the terminal music was of interest to me. Most of the best musical numbers occurred before this: "Hooray for Hollywood" at the beginning and again at the end, "Silhouette in the Moonlight", also sung twice and, my favorite: "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water". We have a variety of featured singers, such as Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Johnnie Davis, Francis Langford, and Terry Cooper. New songs were composed by the team of Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer. Music by Benny Goodman or Raymond Paige Orchestras or the multiracial Benny Goodman quartet(Benny, Teddy Wilson, Gene Kruppa, and Lionel Hampton).

The screen play is decent, with a variety of character actors, as well as Dick Powell , contributing to the humor. The plot is mainly concerned with the impersonation of spoiled Hollywood diva Mona(Lola Lane) by a look-alike waitress in the hotel: Virginia(Rosemary Lane). Seems Mona had a temper tantrum about a casting decision, and refused to go to the premier showing of her latest picture. To avoid embarrassment, her producer ordered that a look-alike be found to take her place, squired by new recruit Ronnie(Dick Powell). This proved fortuitous, as Virginia and Ronnie, both singers, soon fell in love. There is no love-hate oscillations in this relationship, as in many musicals. However, Ronnie is confused for a while when he greets Virginia, a waitress, presumably as as Mona, then the real Mona, leading a retinue of dogs and dog walkers, shows up in the hotel. Ronnie gets slapped twice for acting fresh with the real Mona, before he finally learns the truth, and decides he likes Virginia, the waitress, much better. Ronnie is soon involved with another impersonation, when he is asked to dub the singing of Mona's costar for her new movie. This he does, but when the studio wants him to dub the costar's voice at a radio show, he balks. His friends arrange to take the costar elsewhere during the broadcast, so that Ronnie can show his face as the real singer.

Hugh Herbert who played Mona's goofy father, and Mabel Todd, as Mona's goofy sister, tried to be funny in their usual ways, but usually fell flat for me.

Currently available as part of the Busby Berkeley DVD Collection

This is an entertaining enough Warner Bros. musical. It's got some behind-the-scenes Hollywood satire. Lola Lane gives a great comedic performance as a melodramatic Hollywood diva. Her sister Rosemary Lane plays her waitress look-alike, hired to "play" the actress at a public appearance after one of her fits. The hero of the story is Dick Powell as a wide-eyed Hollywood newcomer who falls for the waitress, thinking she is the movie star. Ted Healy plays Powell's "manager", Hugh Herbert plays Lola Lane's daffy father, and Alan Mowbray plays a star with an inflated ego.

Directed by Busby Berkeley, this musical has a few dance sequences, but nothing as out-of-this-world as Berkeley's choreography earlier in the 1930s. The real highlights of this film are the amazing big band performances by the great Benny Goodman and Raymond Paige orchestras. There are some long scenes of great swing music played by excellent musicians, and they are a treat for both the eyes and ears. The legendary drummer Gene Krupa just goes crazy in one set. The songs written for the movie are alright, with none more memorable than the opening tune "Hooray For Hollywood".

Directed by Busby Berkeley, the movie is about a saxophonist in Benny Goodman's band who wins a talent contest and gets a 10-week contract with a film studio. Lots of misunderstandings lead to the opportunity for Dick Powell and Rosemary Lane to put on a great show. The film is best remembered for the featured song "Hooray for Hollywood" by Johnny Mercer and Richard A. Whiting, sung by Johnnie Davis and Frances Langford, with Goodman and His Orchestra. Ironically, the satirical song became a standard part of Tinsel Town glamour and is still hauled out regularly for award shows and celebrations, even though Mercer's lyrics contain numerous references to the phoniness of the movie industry and film stardom. This is one of the best Warner Bros. musicals of the 1930s. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

"Hollywood Hotel" is a fast-moving, exuberant, wonderfully entertaining musical comedy from Warners which is sadly overlooked. It should be remembered if only for providing the official theme song of Tinseltown -- "Hooray for Hollywood." The score by Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer has a number of other gems, however, including the charming "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water," and "Silhouetted in the Moonlight." The best musical number is "Let That Be a Lesson to You," in which Dick Powell and company detail the misadventures of people who found themselves "behind the eight-ball," a fate which literally befalls slow-burning Edgar Kennedy at the number's end. The picture celebrates Hollywood glamour and punctures it all at once, as it gets a lot of comic mileage out of pompous and ego-maniacal actors and duplicitous studio executives. The cast includes a gaggle of great character comedians--Allyn Joslyn as a crafty press agent, Ted Healy as Dick Powell's would-be manager, Fritz Feld as an excitable restaurant patron, Glenda Farrell as Mona Marshall's sarcastic Gal Friday, Edgar Kennedy as a put-upon drive-in manager, Mabel Todd as Mona's goofy sister, and Hugh Herbert as her even goofier dad. The "racist" element mentioned in another review here is a ten-second bit where Herbert appears in black-face during a pseudo-"Gone With the Wind" sequence. It's in questionable taste, but it shouldn't prevent you from seeing the other delights in this film, notably the Benny Goodman Quartet (including Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton!) in what I believe is the only footage available on this incredible jazz combo. The "Dark Eyes" sequence goes on a bit too long and comes in too late, but otherwise "Hollywood Hotel" is a gem, well worth your time and certainly a film which should be considered for DVD release.