Hellzapoppin

A Hollywood chorus carols in saccharine style: 'I once had a vision of Heaven, and you were there', only to fall straight through the floor... into the infernal regions where, the opening title tells us, any resemblance to a motion picture is purely coincidental.' Well, there is quite a lot of resemblance, but the wildness of the ensuing number, full of devils gleefully "canning" their victims, announces that this is not going to be one more musical.

Ole Olsen's and Chic Johnson's only film triumph has the virtues of its limitations. It came to the screen as a freak Broadway hit, a melange of old sch-ticks, novelty acts and occasionally inspired improvisations which caught the theatre public's fancy in the late 1930s. How to squeeze all this into a film, given that straight recordings of revues had gone by with the talkies' earliest days and cinema-goers usually failed to warm to staginess, unless it was transformed into Busby Berkeley spectacle that would not chime with a crazy comedy? Probably more by another fluke than by calculation, Universal stumbled on the answer: make the impossibility of fixing theatrical spontaneity on celluloid the main running gag in the picture. The result is unique: structurally, if not frame by frame all through, this is the most playful travesty of movie conventions ever to become a big hit for a big studio.

Much of the vaudeville material has dated, though pleasantly enough- the Congeroo jitterbugging is a wow- and some of the gimmicks become familiar by imitation; but boredom is avoided, and several laughs- such as the taxi joke at the beginning. the "Rosebud" line and Cook's bullet-proof vest at the end- are imperishable. How did it happen? Most of the principals, including director Potter, and the stars, were theatre and vaudeville rather than Hollywood types. The script sports its scorn of movie narrative rules, not just in John B Fulton's special effects (freeze, reverse motion, a reprise of his Invisible Man trickery) but in its mockery of plot conventions.

A millionaire pretending to be poor so a rich girl will love him for himself? "That's crazy!" "That's movies!" Mischa Auer as a genuine Russian prince in exile pretending to be phony? It's so the socialites will be amused at knowing his non-secret and will pick up the tab for him, whereas a real nobleman is banal and has to be a waiter. A lavish musical show, with water ballet, mounted in a country house? No problem if Chic and Ole can wreck it, in a good cause.

No doubt other drawbacks governed the screwball treatment. Olsen and Johnson were not built for slapstick, hence other forms of visual excitement. More seriously, and despite faint echoes of Abbott and Costello, they were a fairly bland and over-ingratiating duo. Like Rowan and Martin, they anchored and mediated the eccentricities of Auer, Martha Raye, Hugh Herbert etc and explained, or protested about, the film's oddities. Breaking the frame, giving the game away to the spectators, arguing with a behind-the-scenes collaborator in front of the paying public: heretical in Hollywood, not so unheard-of on the New York boards where comedians played to their claques.

Temporarily O&J gave the off-the-wall comedy an extended life, just as the Marx Brothers were flagging. Like the brothers at MGM, Ole and Chic played matchmaker to more sexually appealing support, took a break for musical or romantic interludes and had road-tested their own contributions: not by sneak-previewing them but by dint of having done the show 1,400 times already.

The world war would speed up the tempo of such entertainment, as would the influence of radio, with its avoidance of 'dead air'. Jokes about the draft and shortages have crept into the Hell scene, and throughout the pace is snappy. However their later films, after the first reel of "Crazy House", showed that O&J could not extend their partnership as fruitfully as Laurel and Hardy, the Marxes or the Ritz Brothers. Or Hope and Crosby, whose "Road" series, with their talking animals and to-camera asides were mining the same seam.

Never mind. The director may have shot the screenwriter in disgust at the finish, but nearly 70 years on, many will find "Hellzapoppin" a lot more fun than "Being John Malkovich", and as cinematically quirky.

Okay, first let's dispatch this old nag - HELLZAPOPPIN' is NOT the stage play transferred to film. The 1938 show was a revue. A series of sketches, blackouts and musical numbers. Richard Lane, as the director, was right - "This is Hollywood, we change everything!" And, in my humble opinion, I think they did a darn fine job. The "love story" was merely a vehicle for a couple of very nice songs (the entire score is first-rate) and a goofy performance by the long-forgotten Lewis Howard. Jane Frazee and Robert Paige were both top drawer light players at Universal with excellent singing voices. So believe me, in making the necessary "changes", Universal gave it their best shot. As for the fun stuff, it's simply non-stop, from Shemp Howard and Jody Gilbert in the projection booth, to former Stooge Fred Sanborn playing tic-tac-toe on a horse's backside, to the singing and dancing devils (with chicks on a spit!) to Mischa Auer doing his very best "schnorrer" routine, to the other-worldly Hugh Herbert ("hello ma, I'll be home for dinner - have meat!"), to the myriad gags that break the fourth wall, to the eye-popping and breathless turn by Martha Raye, to the greatest Lindy Hop number committed to film, and on and on. If you roll your eyeballs at corny gags, this picture ain't for you! But if you revel at the shear audacity of pulling off such corn with absolutely no shame whatsoever, then you want to experience HELLZAPOPPIN'. If at all possible, see it with an audience. No comedy can be fully appreciated by solo viewing. But as laughter is infectious, the kinetic energy generated by this picture really cries out for a communal experience. One aspect of this picture is seldom mentioned and that is the musical direction. Universal was really tops in the early 40's of putting pop sounds in their B musicals. Well, this is definitely an 'A' picture, and Charlie Previn's orchestra is in fine form, especially in the "Congaroo" number. By the way - it has long been my contention that HELLZAPOPPIN' was not, at least completely, directed by the credited H. C. Potter. The style of the film is unlike anything else Potter did and is completely akin to the work of Eddie Cline, who was Universal's ace comedy director at the time and who directed the next three Olsen & Johnson features. Just a theory of mine and one for which I have absolutely no documentation or other type of support. HELLZAPOPPIN' has been buried in the US since 1966 when the rights reverted to the Nederlander Organization. But fortunately a UK DVD from Universal's 35mmm fine grain has been released and is a superb video version of the film. It is also shown occasionally on TV in Canada. Now - will someone PLEASE stop that woman from yelling "Oscar"!!

For those who feel the Marxes were the last word in over the top hollywood product, I heartily recommend this adaptation of the Broadway show that made Ole and Johnson such a huge sensation, albiet briefly. This one has non-stop gags (not all of which work), and is unlike anything I have ever seen the studio system produce. H.C. Potter is credited with the direction, but its hard to imagine him doing more than assembling the cast each morning and saying "Okay folks - go nuts!"

A habitue of the 60s might describe this as a Crosby and Hope road picture on acid, but that's missing the point. Audiences embraced this thing in part because it represented an exhausting escape from what was becoming a pretty stressful world.

See it whenever you can!

This chaotic, self-reflexive romp about the translation of a stage play into a film production and finally into a film screening is packed with fun: Olson and Johnson crack one-liners, Martha Raye belts out some terrific songs, and Mischa Auer offers his most elegant clowning. The dance sequence, by the incredible Harlem Congeroo dancers, is unbeatable: energetic, explosive, and exhausting. The routine romance between Robert Paige (as a would be writer/director) and Jane Frazee (a wealthy amateur actor) provides some welcome quiet in the midst of the almost ceaseless camera tricks and sight gags.

Hellzapoppin' is brilliant - fast, funny, visual, one-liners, dance numbers, romance - just pure and simple escapist entertainment - It is a feast of corny, surprising, surreal, slapstick, pratfall humor that will work until the end of time.

Moreover it uses tricks and ideas, like talking to the audience, that were way ahead of its time.

The show about a show plot works wonderfully, but it is the little surprises, the oddities, and the fun that make this one of the best laugh-out comedies of all time and should be seen by every comedy writer and actor - pure joy from beginning to end - and above all pure entertainment.

Huge fun and very much recommended.