Hollywood on Parade No. A-6

Hollywood on Parade No. A-6 (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mildly amusing entry in the popular series has Richard Arlen playing himself who turns into a magician and performs a few tricks, which of course brings us some famous stars. Both Clark Gable and Tallulah Bankhead are shown via archival footage but Buster Keaton and Lew Cody appear in one small skit together. Obviously if you're looking for some sort of story then you're not going to find it in this series because the main goal here was to simply show off some famous faces. For the most part this is entertaining but the archival footage keeps it from being better.

Just watched an extant of this promotional short featuring Buster Keaton and Lew Cody on the "Industrial Strength Keaton" DVD collection. It features them on a bus with Keaton dressed in an admiral outfit and Cody in a boat captain's uniform. Then they get off and an assistant gets in the fun as Buster asks about some fish and water! That ends their segment and the short as shown on the DVD I just mentioned. No great shakes but it's fascinating to see The Great Stone Face in something other than his classic silent films and that while his career seemed to be in a decline in popularity at this time that he still managed to find some work. So on that note, Hollywood on Parade No. A-6 is worth a look.