Hellzapoppin’ (1941) Review

Hellzapoppin’ does in many ways earn its stripes as a classic old comedy. The humor is frequently very sharp, capturing an unhinged wit that in some ways breaks from how you’d expect a film of this era to be. It even outmatches the Marx Brothers, who save for an odd moment here or there for Groucho, didn’t break the fourth wall. Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson don’t even accept that a fourth wall is there, continually destroying it.

The setup of the film is frankly genius, binning the concept of sanity and promising a surrealist anti-film. It’s suggested by our leads that they know this story and that it doesn’t even have a story. Thus, when it proceeds to have a relatively conventional narrative, it feels like the audience has been lied to. This is especially irritating considering that the movie seems to understand that some of its tropes are tired, like a romance. Admittedly, that romance is extremely minimized, but that just proves how unwanted it is. It doesn’t serve a purpose, so it’s just tacked on. Could they not have done a parody or twist on the format? Maybe Shemp Howard’s character of Louie wants to be the romantic lead, and tries to involve himself?

The original concept for the movie by director H. C. Potter fit better with the surrealist theme, so it’s a shame it was changed, especially considering the original ending was much better, though the new one still isn’t bad. As has happened in multiple comedies, a group of black performers get one scene and really steal the show, dancing and cutting the best number here, very jazzy. It feels tonally consistent with the nutty comedy, as opposed to most of the music which is far too straight in execution. That being said, the music is still good in its own right. Unfortunately, there is some sexual assault humor that is about as uncomfortable as it always is.

A more extreme deconstructionist approach could and should’ve been taken. The finale in particular is too like how something like a Three Stooges or Marx Brothers film would end. Imagine things begin getting out of hand for our leads, so they tell Louie to modify the movie in such a way to their advantage, like by removing something someone else has or shaking the film so someone falls down? The opening does pretty much deliver on what you’d want from this concept, even if it essentially is a lot of dropped potential.

SPOILERS

A lot of Chekhov’s guns go unfired, namely Martha Raye as Betty Johnson. Her desires in the movie are basically forgotten about. It wasn’t too surprising to learn that Shemp Howard was added in very suddenly, considering how superfluous he feels. It would’ve made sense to end the movie with him tying off his story, like if he decided to burn the film negative, but instead he just soon stops appearing. At one point, a mess is made where a lot of film is knocked around. I was hoping this would lead to something like the scenes being played out of sequence, as if they got scrambled or damaged. The framing device also doesn’t get much closure, barely featuring the leads. It appears that the originally planned ending would’ve addressed this problem. The happy ending is particularly dull considering the movie had earlier made fun of this story type. You were basically daring us to not care about these characters!

OVERVIEW

While there are issues, Hellzapoppin’ makes itself worth a watch due to its consistently strong wit and its few moments of being truly subversive, mainly in the ending, but as a whole it doesn’t stand as well as it promised.

Movie Maniacs (1936) Review // The Three Stooges #17

A frame from the film

Movie Maniacs appropriately continues to prioritize the manic and absurd in a more direct and sharp fashion than the weaker installments of the series. As such, it delivers on being very classy and charming in its wit. One notable advantage of all the best shorts is when the gang really seems in tune with their and the others’ characters, flowing off each other effortlessly. When Curly is interrogated by the others, he gets off the hook by pretending to be asleep. After they acknowledge this, he replies to affirm that he is sleeping. Moe and Curly arguing about breakfast is a lot of fun. A non-Stooge joke is, “Go and prepare an office and see that they have everything they may possibly want.” “Yes, sir, I’ll order three blonde secretaries.” Curly’s oversized pencils. It’s always great to see jokes setup that take a few minutes to pay off.

While the earlier Columbia shorts benefitted from having a message to say, even if they weren’t as consistently funny, these past few installments are essentially the inverse. They have about nothing to say, but are extremely funny. What would be best is if they could do both, but simply getting more laughs is the preferable trade off, unless this is a very coded satire of the movie business, which I suppose isn’t impossible. The leads are understandably shown to have trouble being with women, seeming too awkward. If you consider these films to be in continuity with each other whenever possible, this shows a throughline with Woman Haters. The tall blonde’s gag and Curly’s response not only tell us about how this character thinks, but it’s perhaps the best joke in the film. Moe references a past adventure at the circus. It’s a shame they didn’t reference an actual previous episode.

SPOILERS

When Curly kisses Larry, Larry slaps him. You could imagine this having been written for Moe instead. Possibly Moe and Curly being brothers prevented that. It does serve well at emphasizing Larry. We get a more original but equally as great Larry moment when he is tasked with simply ironing Moe’s trousers. It’s curious to wonder how Moe thought getting into pictures would go considering he is surprised when he’s obviously kicked out. The way the gang gets in the film studio is great. A new level of thoughtlessness is shown in how tone deaf the Stooges are to their incompetence in trying to deal with actors. There’s a fun moment when Curly tries and fails to steal a dollar, not even being at all subtle.

A point of note for Hal Roach’s Laurel and Hardy and also Thelma and Patsy or ZaSu films is that it’s hard to understand why the couples would stay together when Thelma and Hardy are shown to constantly dislike the other. This can stretch the believability of it all by making you wonder, “Why don’t they just leave?” This criticism could theoretically be levied against the Three Stooges, but there’s a difference, one that’s more natural than with the Hal Roach media where you can only get where you’re going with good ol’ fashioned modern and young film critic-induced subtext. What keeps the Stooges functional, even when they hate each other is that they sacrifice believability consistently and strongly. There’s a recurring theme of things happening that logically make no sense, but seem to function how they do for the purpose of getting laughs. Thus, that can be why Moe would associate with Curly and Larry, and even trust them with things like his clothes. The Roach vehicles can often play a little too close to realism.

OVERVIEW

Movie Maniacs is one of the more anarchic and out-of-this-world adventures, which makes it one of the best. On top of how consistently humorous and creative the short can be, it also manages to bag two great lines for the viewer’s memory: Moe’s “I think our genius ain’t appreciated here,” and the even better one from Curly, “If at first you don’t succeed, keep on sucking ‘til you do succeed!”