Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1 (1941)
*** (out of 4)
Actress Hedda Hopper appeared in well over one-hundred movies from the silent era up to the early 40s when she pretty much retired and instead focused on radio and eventually television. HEDDA HOPPER'S Hollywood was a six part series that featured the former actress turning into a gossip columnist where she would report on various Hollywood parties and the stars that attended them. The benefit of these short films today are being able to see many famous faces including some who weren't captured on film too much during this period. It's also worth mentioning that rumor has it that Hopper was one of the biggest influences on the character Burt Lancaster played in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.
This first entry in the series has Hedda Hopper pretty much sitting at a desk talking about all the great people she's seen around town over the past couple weeks. Here we get to see stars such as Harry Babbitt, Freddie Bartholomew, Frances Dee, Warner Baxter, May Robson and Fred MacMurray. Most of these stars are just seen in brief clips at a party. William S. Hart, who hadn't been seen too much since retiring in 1925, gets a pretty good segment here but unfortunately we never get to hear him speak as Hopper just narrates everything that's going on but we do get to see his mansion, his large collection of guns and we even get to see him fire some. The film ends with Kay Kyser and his band doing a musical number. Some might wish that we got to hear from the stars more but overall I enjoy this short simply because of getting to see these celebs but also because this here is one of the earlier gossip reports out there and it's funny to compare this to what we get today.
