Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Hollywood Party" is a 21-minute live action short film from 1937, so it has its 80th anniversary this year. Of course, it is tough to find fault in such an old movie that does not only have sound (films usually did in the 1930s), but is also in color, namely Technicolor. But lets be honest here: This movie by Rowland and Krafft offers little in terms of the contents. It is basically a collection of stars from back then with the occasional interruption of music and comedy. But neither the music is too great nor the comedy too funny. And it's even difficult to appreciate the stars, even if they may include some of your favorites, because they disappear as quickly as they appear. It's certainly a case of quantity over quality and they tried to include as much/many as possible without giving them time to shine really. This is also the main reason why I would not recommend the watch here. Overall, a relatively underwhelming little show. Thumbs down.
verbusen
It seems to be unanimous that this is a really bad short. And you know for something to be really bad that it has to have no bad cinema factor silliness present. Alas, that is what we have here. The only thing remotely interesting is a black singing troupe that makes noises like out of Fat Albert. As far as the hula girls being naked as another reviewer posted, huh? They are clothed from the neck down, I was actually sticking around to watch that, what a let down. I had visions of Honolulu Baby from Sons Of The Desert (Charlie Chase was in that night club watching too!). But no, those women were definitely fully clothed. My only other comment is this, when ever you see a short subject jam packed with stars, doesn't it always suck if it's from the 1930's? I mean it's like they all say, hell I can't be blamed for this sucking because I'm only in it for 20 seconds, I guess. If you are looking for a half way decent Technicolor short, try the 1930's The Devil's Cabaret, it's 2 strip Technicolor but close enough to satisfy your curiosity of an early color film and it's short, has nearly naked women dancing, and the Devil. Both of these films play on Turner Classic Movies in the USA. Hollywood Party I give a 3 and thats probably too generous.
charlytully
The producers of THE GOOD EARTH d.v.d. apparently figured they needed something ELSE from 1937 to lighten the mood after the tear-jerking ending of the movie version of Pearl Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. While the color of this short contrasts nicely with the feature's black & white mode, the content is even more grating than the similar, albeit non-color, short from the MGM of 1937, SUN.DAY NIGHT AT THE TROCADERO. Where HO11YWOOD PARTY lacks major cast members of THE WIZARD OF OZ (TROCADERO had the Wiz himself, Frank Morgan), THE GOOD EARTH patriarch is played by Charley Grapewin, who'd become Dorothy Gale's "Uncle Henry" two years later. Furthermore, several snippets of incidental music from EARTH's score would be recycled into the OZ soundtrack. The other extra on the EARTH d.v.d., "Supreme Court of Films Picks the Champions Newsreel," is a poorly-edited mess (with NO title card help) from the Oscar Awards the year EARTH was eligible (a clip of Luise Rainer's brief acceptance speech for her award-winning portrayal of "O-Lan" is included).
