Hollywood on Parade No. A-12

Watching entries from Louis Lewyn's Hollywood on Parade series is like being permitted to go behind the scenes with some of the biggest stars of the '30s in informal settings. Sometimes they're hanging out at the studio taking a break between scenes, and sometimes they're at home, just relaxing and being themselves -- or so we're told. Sometimes the stars are making semi-casual public appearances, at a racetrack or a nightclub, and sometimes they participate in impromptu comic sketches. It was all calculated for publicity purposes, of course, just like the appearances of today's stars on talk shows, and yet despite the self-conscious posing for the cameras there's an offhand quality in most of this footage that's innocent and endearing. Lewyn's films stand as charming little souvenirs of Hollywood's golden age.

This episode is hosted by Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards, who opens the show reading the lyrics of the theme song from an enormous book of sheet music. Edwards pops up again throughout this newsreel-like short, but doesn't interact with the other stars. The first brief segment showcases Jean Harlow playing golf while an unnamed narrator rattles off obvious wisecracks (e.g. Jean "shows good form," etc.). Next we're off to the races at the Agua Caliente track in Mexico, where movie folk such as Harry Langdon, Polly Moran, and siblings Joan and Constance Bennett watch the horses run. Also in attendance are William Powell and Carole Lombard, who were married at the time. There's a cute effect when Powell raises his binoculars to watch the race and we're treated to a double-image of the track across his lenses-a visual bit which must have stretched producer Lewyn's budget to the max.

The most interesting sequence is a tribute to the beautiful Mexican star Lupe Velez. A costumed mariachi band serenades a poster of her with a love song, and after a moment the image on the poster comes to life. It turns out to be a clip from Lupe's 1929 feature THE WOLF SONG, and for a minute or so we watch her dance with co-star Gary Cooper. They make a very attractive couple. For the climax Cliff Edwards returns in a Mexican costume and joins the mariachi band for some scat singing and a march finale.

That's it for Episode A-12 of this diverting series, an ideal lead-in to any flick from this period, along with a cartoon and a newsreel.

I recently discovered the Matinée at the Bijou blog which is about the vintage movie theatre programs from the '30s and '40s as presented on a two-hour program uninterrupted by modern commercials as revived on PBS. Among the rare shorts presented there was this Hollywood newsreel from Paramount introduced by singer Cliff Edwards on ukulele warbling the theme song. He's best known now as the voice of Jiminy Cricket on Walt Disney's Pinocchio but was just a song-and-dance man during this time. Among the items: Jean Harlow learns golf, and several stars go to the horse races: William Powell and his then-wife Carole Lombard, the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Polly Moran, Joan and Constance Bennett, and Mexican star Raquel Torres. Cliff appears in between these segments and gets interrupted by a Mexican band singing the praises of another star of their country-Lupe Velez-as we see a film clip of her dancing with someone. Then they and Edwards join in for the theme finale as the short ends. This was another fascinating obscure item from back in the day that sustained my interest throughout. Well worth seeing for anyone interested in this sort of thing.

Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Cliff Edwards plays host in this episode, which once again takes a lot of archival footage to round out the running time. We do start off with Clarence Muse doing a song and then we get a brief scene of Warren William congratulating him on it. From here we go to the stock footage, which is basically a bunch of footage of celebrities out at public events or just playing around. We get a shot of Carole Lombard and William Powell as well as shots of Wheeler and Woolsey, Constance Bennett, Gary Cooper, Joan Bennett and others. Lupe Valez also appears in clips from some of her films while a band plays a song to her. Once again if you're a fan of the series then you'll certainly want to check this episode out as there are a great number of celebrities on display. It's certainly fun seeing the legends off doing their own thing but the stuff with Muse and William were certainly the highlights.