Hollywood Steps Out

This must have been quite amusing in its day, and the mass of stars caricatured in it must have had a right old giggle when they saw themselves, but today it looks like one of those self-satisfied films that are pleased with how clever they are irrespective of the fact that they contain very little entertainment value. There's no plot to speak of, which would have been forgivable if there had been plenty of humour but there isn't really much of that either. The film will be of interest to those people like me who have an interest in all aspects of cinema but will be of only passing interest to most other people - and probably completely meaningless to anybody under 25 or so.

Set in the Legenday Hollywood hills restaurant Ciro's, this Tex Avery directed Looney Tunes short has way too many caricatures of popular actors and actresses of yesteryear to list them all here. It's notable to know that the stripper/ dancer scene is a prelude of shorts to Avery's later 'Red Hot Riding Hood' cartoons. It's a very interesting short and transports you back to the '30's even if you were born, like me, much MUCH later. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Greg Ford.

My Grade: A-

Were else could you see Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Oliver Hardy, James Cagney, Bing Crosby, Edward G. Robinson, The Three Stooges, Ann Sheridan, Johnny Weismuller in his Tarzan getup, Stripper Sally Rand with no getup, Harpo Marx, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Mickeyu Rooney and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover all in the same movie? Only in a classic Looney Tunes cartoon like this! There were more, too. I couldn't spot them all.

It's a big night in Hollywood with tons of searchlights lighting up the skies, moving to the South American music. The camera zooms in from the air to Ciro's and quickly makes fun of the high prices at the exclusive restaurant. Inside is where we see all the movie celebrities, beginning with Cary Grant who refers to several of his movies in one sentence. It goes on from there, and is a lot of fun to watch.....at least if you are a fan of the Golden Age Of Movies.

It's just a showcase for some "star gazing" and some of the music of the period. Seeing the stars dance to the conga was the funniest bit, I thought, although the ending made me laugh out loud, too. (The biggest ham of the night? Clark Gable.)

The Hollywood set steps out at Ciro's to be precise, where the night-clubbing action is exclusively set. The script is not particularly amusing or inventive, but fascinating all the same. The voice impersonations are mostly very skillful. One of the longest spots has Jimmy Stewart declining an invitation to rumba. At least two gags deal with Crosby's horse-racing ventures, whilst the climax features a bubble dance by "Sally Strand". Naturally the stars in evidence at Ciro's on this particular night (Dinner $50 and up. Easy terms available) are weighted in favor of Warner Bros, though a number of "foreign" stars receive a fair innings including the Hardys (both real and fictional), the Three Stooges, and Harpo Marx. Some of the faces are glimpsed so fleetingly they will be difficult for a 2007 audience to recognize. And maybe two or three are now forgotten.

Musically, the film is a feast for song-lovers with snatches from Nat Ayer's "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", Tony Jackson and Egbert Van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby", Allie Wrubel's "The Lady in Red", Isham Jones' "It Had To Be You", James Brockman, James Kendis and Nat Vincent's "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", M.K. Jerome's "Congo", Harry Warren's "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", Murray Mencher's "Merrily We Roll Along" and others, all delightfully rendered by the studio orchestra under the baton of Leo F. Forbstein.

To sum up: In view of the star line-up, somewhat disappointing, but still a must for all movie buffs.

This short is jammed with caricatures of notables-mostly actors and actresses, but J. Edgar Hoover is here too, as are Leopold Stowkowski and Sally Rand. Not only stars (Gable, Garbo and Grant) but character actors (the almost mandatory Ned Sparks appearance is here) as well. It was an excellent concept, tailor-made for the animators. Their audience would recognize the caricatures and get the jokes easily. This is one of the better ones. Most, if not all the animation studios did at least one or two such shorts. Well worth looking for. Most recommended.