Mad Holiday

Mad Holiday (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

MGM crime-mystery about actor Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) who grows tired of playing a mystery solver so he decides to quit the film business and go on a trip. On board a ship he runs into Peter Dean (Elissa Landi) who just happens to be the writer of his story. It doesn't take long for the two to find a dead body and now they're got a real mystery to solve. It's clear that this "B" picture was trying to recapture the magic of THE THIN MAN and while it doesn't reach the levels of that classic, the fun cast makes the film worth viewing. There's no question that Lowe was an expert at playing this type of character. The character is rather full of himself, charming and has a way with words so Lowe is perfect at this. He's especially good early on once he finally cracks and realizes that he doesn't want to act in these type of pictures. Landi makes for a good partner in crime as the two manage to have some nice chemistry. The supporting cast has some very familiar faces with Edgar Kennedy stealing the picture as a detective who just happens to be on board the ship. Zasu Pitts plays a rather dimwitted fan of the actor and Ted Healy can be seen playing a stooge promotional man for the studio. The actual mystery itself is a pretty good one as you'll certainly be left in the dark as to who the killer is and what the exact motive was. Director George B. Seitz does a nice job at keeping the film moving at a nice pace and the screenplay also has some good touches and especially when it gives the viewer a few winks about what happens behind the scenes of one of these films. MAD HOLIDAY is far from perfect but it's a nice little time killer.

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made tons of mystery films in which amateurs solve crimes that the police are just too stupid to solve. It seems that anyone who wanted to be a detective could solve crimes in these pictures....school teachers, reporters, and, in "Mad Holiday", actors.

When the story begins, Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) is finishing up his sixth mystery movie...and he's sick of them. He feels that the stories are trite and he refuses to do any more. Before he'll even consider returning to the studio to work in any film, he wants a vacation. However, when he takes a cruise, wouldn't you know it but bodies would start piling up, and, in some cases, disappearing! Apparently it all has something to do with a stolen Chinese diamond...and reluctantly Trent begins investigating the case along with Ms. Dean...the woman who wrote his trite screenplays.

In support of Lowe are a variety of familiar actors (such as Zasu Pitts, Edmund Gwenn and Edgar Kennedy), but the most interesting was Ted Healy. While I never have been a Healy fan, he is an interesting guy here because it's so obvious that the part was written for Ted Healy and His Stooges. The Three Stooges had been partners with Healy up until about 1933 and here, without the Stooges, he inexplicably smacks a few guys around as if they were Moe, Curly and Larry! Again and again, he's slapping poor schmucks who just seem willing to take it! It really was weird.

Even though this plot is too familiar, having Trent be an actor who has no interest in investigating crimes is unusual. He only begrudgingly investigates...and he really would rather be left alone.

So is it any good? Yes...mostly because I love Lowe and loved his style in this movie. He's an actor mostly forgotten today, though he certainly deserves to be remembered. Here he manages to take a B-mystery and inject a lot of life into it. Well worth seeing and fun.

Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) plays the popular film character, private detective Shelby James, as written by Peter Dean (Elissa Landi). He hates the character and the work. He quits the long-running series and goes on a cruise ship vacation. A mysterious blonde barges into his room and seemingly murders somebody. He stumbles upon the body just he claims to hate about the films.

I like the starting premise but I lose interest in the murder mystery. There are ways to heighten the intensity. The leads don't have enough chemistry until getting handcuffed together. Maybe they just needed some time alone. They need to get arrested sooner and the story should finish on board the ship. It's a lot of joking around. The murder mystery gets convoluted and confused. This has a bit of fun. I can do without the fake Chinese but that's the times. I would think that the idea was to make this a long-running amateur sleuth couple franchise. At last, this isn't one which lasted.

"Mad Holiday" is a typical low budget 30s thriller, centering on Edmund Lowe as a vacationing movie idol, a shipboard killer and a diamond heist. But the real mystery is why Loew's co-star, Elissa Landi, never became a star in her own right. Rising above the grade B trappings as an incognito author, she's a revelation...sexy, stylish and bouyantly amusing with the sparkle of a Rosalind Russell or Katherine Hepburn. She also gave a stand-out performance in the second "Thin Man" caper, "After the Thin Man" (albeit in a less captivating role.) But by 1943, her screen career was over. She's not the only gifted performer who somehow got lost in the maze of the studio system. But watching her sail through this otherwise tepid crime story, one an only wonder how Hollywood let her get away.

This film is a spoof of ALL the mystery films of the 30's & 40's. An actor quits his job playing a "super sleuth", goes on a Vacation, and discovers a REAL murder!

Lowe & Landi are terrific together; there's quite a "chemistry" between them. It's a shame that they didn't make this combo into a series!

More laffs are provided by Edgar Kennedy (with his "slow burn"), Zazu Pitts, and Ted Healy. It's quite obvious that everyone enjoyed making this film! It's a real HOOT! (Especially funny how it spoofs its own "mystery" genre).

The only (slight) drawback to this film is that it's incredibly easy to figure out who the "masked murderer" is....but, you've GOTTA see this film!