Hollywood Hotel

Hollywood HOTEL (Warner Brothers, 1937), directed by Busby Berkeley, capitalizes on the current trend of Hollywood stories made popular by David O. Selznick's dramatization of A STAR IS BORN. Even though films about Hollywood and the behind the scenes in movie making were nothing new by the time Hollywood HOTEL went into release, Warner Brothers spoofs Hollywood the best way it knows how, spotlighted by Dick Powell's singing, and the musical festivities by Benny Goodman and his Swing Band.

The plot revolves around Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell), a saxophone player in Benny Goodman's band, winning a talent contest and a ten-week trip to Hollywood, leaving behind band vocalist and teary-eyed girlfriend, Alice Crane (Frances Langford) at the St. Louis Airport. After arriving in Hollywood, Ronnie is escorted by Bertie Walton (Allyn Joslyn), a studio press agent for All-Star Pictures, and Joe (Eddie Acuff), a photographer, to the Hollywood Hotel. The story then shifts over to Mona Marshall (Lola Lane), a temperamental movie star sharing the room with her wacky kid sister (Mabel Todd), her even more bewildered father, Chester (Hugh Herbert), and personal secretary, Jonesy (Glenda Farrell). Because another glamor girl was offered a part she wanted, Mona leaves Hollywood. With Mona's new film, GLAMOUR GIRL, opening that evening, Walton hires waitress, Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane), to impersonate her, having Ronnie accompany her to the premiere. When Mona finds she's been misrepresented in public, she arranges for both Virginia and Ronnie to be fired. With Fuzzy (Ted Healy), as his new press agent, Ronnie obtains work at Callahan's (Edgar Kennedy) drive-in eatery before being discovered by director Walter Kelton (William B. Davidson) of All-Star Pictures. Much to Ronnie's surprise, rather than an acting job, he's to have his singing voice dubbed in for Alexander DuPre (Alan Mowbray), Mona's hammy co-star for an upcoming production, LOVE AND GLORY.

Fine tunes in the Hollywood Hotel musical program include: "Hooray for Hollywood" (performed by Benny Goodman's Band, sung by Johnnie Davis, Frances Langford, cast); "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water" (sung by Dick Powell and Rosemary Lane); "Silhouetted in the Moonlight" (sung by Rosemary Lane at the Hollywood Bowl); "Let That Be a Lesson to You" (introduced by Johnnie Davis and played by Benny Goodman's Band, sung by Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Ted Healy, Mabel Todd, and drive-in patrons at Callahan's Eats, with occasional interruptions by the nervous Edgar Kennedy); Benny Goodman Band instrumental medley: "Sing, Sing, Sing" and "I've Got a Heartful of Music," "I Hitched My Wagon to a Star" (sung by Alan Mowbray, voice dubbing by Powell); "Silhouetted in the Moonlight" (sung by Jerry Cooper and Frances Langford); "Dark Eyes" (O Tchonia) A Russian folk song performed instrumentally by Raymond Paige and his Orchestra, participated by chorus humming the score; "I Hitched My Wagon to a Star" (sung by Powell); "Sing You Son-of-a-Gun" (sung by Powell and Rosemary Lane) and "Hooray for Hollywood" (sung by Johnnie Davis and cast).

Of the handful of songs heard, especially during the Orchard Room sequence, its only low-point is Jerry Cooper's rendition to "Silhouetted in the Moonlight," opposite Frances Langford. A Langford solo or duet with Powell would have been sufficient. In the motion picture soundtrack to Hollywood HOTEL, compliments of Hollywood Soundstage (1981), the record not only includes the entire musical segments, but outtakes featuring the complete version to "Silhouetted in the Moonlight" which, after Rosemary Lane's solo, existing in the final print, is joined in by the singing Powell with a duet conclusion. Another cut is Benny Goodman's Band playing to "I Got a Heart Full of Music" and "House Hop," portions that were used in the musical short, FOR AULD LANG SYNE (1938), a tribute to Will Rogers.

Hollywood HOTEL, under Busby Berkeley's supervision as director, is a musical of lavish scale, with none of his trademarks of surrealistic choreography for which he is famous. There's plenty of singing but no dancing, coming off like a 1940s musical, especially during the Benny Goodman's Band interludes consisting of future legends as Lionel Hampton, Harry James (on the clarinet), and Gene Krupa (drummer) performing. Ronald Reagan, another soon-to-be lead actor and future U.S. President is seen briefly as a radio announcer during the premiere of LOVE AND GLORY.

Hollywood HOTEL is a far cry from being the best of the Warner Brothers musical cycle, but in many ways it's a nostalgic look to its bygone golden age, giving a glimpse of makeup artist, Perc Westmore, appearing as himself, glamorizing the ordinary waitress Rosemary Lane into movie star quality. With the exception near the conclusion of the story, Rosemary hardly shares any scenes with her older but look-alike sister, Lola.

Interestingly, the one thing missing in Hollywood HOTEL which was common place in films about Hollywood on Hollywood is the use of major stars doing surprise guest bits. Imagine Dick Powell's Ronnie Bowers entering the Hollywood Hotel and coming across briefly such big named actors as Bette Davis, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, or even the use of some inside humor in having him meeting up with Joan Blondell (Powell's off- screen wife). Instead, it uses radio announcers, Ken Niles and Duane Thompson, and newspaper columnist, Louella Parsons, appearing as themselves. Parsons, who was then a noted personality, is a far cry from being a natural performer.

As a spoof, Hollywood HOTEL purposely finds the temperamental Lola Lane overacting all over the place; Hugh Herbert "woo-wooing" in and out of scenes; and in a movie within a movie, the premiere of LOVE AND GLORY, a Civil War story, is noticeably a disguised version to Margaret Mitchell's then best selling novel "Gone With the Wind," with the central character called Captain Cutler (in place of Rhett Butler). Quite lengthy at 109 minutes, it's worthy screen entertainment. Look for it next time it plays on Turner Classic Movies. (***)

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

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

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.

When we talk Hollywood Hotel we could be talking about one of three things, the actual hotel, the radio program, and this film which was partially inspired by the first two. Dick Powell was the host of the Hollywood Hotel program on CBS radio network in which Louella Parsons dished out the weekly scoop on the stars.

Powell and Parsons debuted the Hollywood Hotel program in 1934 so by 1937 it had its fair share of the radio audience. Powell hosted, sang, and kibitzed with Louella and her movie star guests. With the power she had with her column, she was able to get the various stars to go on and plug their latest films for nothing.

Then the American Federation of Radio Artists stepped in and demanded she pay wages accordingly and they won the case. That ended the Hollywood Hotel program in 1938. Of course both Powell and Louella went on to other radio venues. The whole story is covered in the Tony Thomas book, The Films Of Dick Powell.

But before the plug was pulled this film came out from Powell's home studio of Warner Brothers inspired by the radio program. Powell plays a singer/saxophonist with the Benny Goodman band who gets signed to a Hollywood contract. But when he gets out to Hollywood he gets himself tangled up with an egotistical film star Lola Lane, her lookalike double real life sister Rosemary Lane, and a ham actor in Alan Mowbray.

When Mowbray is called upon to sing in a Civil War epic he's making with Lola Lane, it's Powell's voice they use. Then Mowbray develops a Lina Lamont problem when he's asked to go on the Hollywood Hotel radio program, broadcast from the Hollywood Hotel. That's got the studio in a tizzy. Let's say the problem isn't solved the way it is Singing In The Rain, but Powell's manager Ted Healy proves to be resourceful.

Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer provide a really nice score for the film. The big hit song comes right at the beginning as the Benny Goodman band with scat singing Johnnie Davis sing Hollywood's anthem, Hooray for Hollywood. My favorite however is Powell and Rosemary Lane singing, I'm Like A Fish Out Of Water. Just listening to Johnny Mercer's lyrics about Ginger Rogers running the Brooklyn Dodgers or Sally Rand without her fan, it's a compendium of American popular culture in the Thirties.

Busby Berkeley does the choreography here and while the film doesn't have the soaring imaginary stuff that his earlier work with Warner Brothers has, the numbers are well staged. Berkeley's big moment is in a drive-in eatery where Powell and Healy have been forced to take jobs. The number starts with Benny Goodman broadcasting from the Hollywood Hotel doing Let That Be A Lesson To You and then at the drive-in Powell, Lane and the entire place start joining in song to the exasperation of owner Edgar Kennedy. And you know what you can expect from Edgar Kennedy exasperation.

Benny Goodman gets to show why he was named the King Of Swing when the band with drummer Gene Krupa and xylophonist Lionel Hampton as part of his ensemble. That together with Frances Langford singing as well. And possibly the last surviving cast member of the group was a fellow who had a small bit as a radio announcer. He died in 2004, but not before he became the 40th President of the United States. Ronald Reagan always credited Dick Powell and Pat O'Brien as being the two guys on Warner Brothers who were the most helpful to an eager young player looking to make his mark.

Hollywood Hotel is one delightful and entertaining motion picture, dated, but charmingly so.