Touches You

Don't Believe the Hype

A lot of fun.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It's a little naive to have to mention that the black face scene with Hugh Herbert was racist. Trying to shame history is futile and silly at best. We can learn from our past but not change it. It's like still blaming the South for slavery which hasn't existed since the 1800s. The movies at the time reflected the social mores of our society and nothing more. They were never meant to be guidelines for the future. I, personally, am a big Jolson fan and anyone knows who has read his biographies that he was far from a racist and aided many black performers in furthering their careers. Black face was a performing art for its time and was even performed by many famous black performers including the great Bert Williams. The Hollywood Hotel is a very charming movie and well worth watching. It is loaded with great stars and especially those adorable Lane sisters. I hope that someday that critics of vintage movies will leave out their comments about the shame of a black face appearance as if it has anything to do with our current issues.

With Black History Month starting tomorrow, I feel a need to point out that this vintage movie of the '30s has a couple of interesting contrasts concerning race relations at the time. When Hugh Hubert does a blackface scene in a filming segment taking place in the 19th century South, this was something that was considered humorously accepted by much of the American public though it would cause an uproar today. But the rare sight of African-American musicians Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton performing alongside Caucasions Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman on film (this was supposedly the first instance of this happening) is something that would be taken for granted today. For me personally, I tolerated the former and very much loved the latter especially the xylophone sequence. The story, about the Dick Powell character trying to get a break in movies, is quite satirical and very funny with many exaggerations of the way things were then. My main interest in seeing this was because of Ted Healy who once was the boss of who are now known as The Three Stooges. He can be overbearing but I laughed just the same. Also of interest, the future President of the United States-Ronald Reagan-as an announcer which was his initial foray in show business. Plenty of wonderful songs abound like the classic "Hooray for Hollywood" though I was surprised to hear the name "Donald Duck" retained in the lyrics as this was a Warner Bros. picture and Donald's a Disney character! So on that note, I highly recommend Hollywood Hotel.

This is an entertaining enough Warner Bros. musical. It's got some behind-the-scenes Hollywood satire. Lola Lane gives a great comedic performance as a melodramatic Hollywood diva. Her sister Rosemary Lane plays her waitress look-alike, hired to "play" the actress at a public appearance after one of her fits. The hero of the story is Dick Powell as a wide-eyed Hollywood newcomer who falls for the waitress, thinking she is the movie star. Ted Healy plays Powell's "manager", Hugh Herbert plays Lola Lane's daffy father, and Alan Mowbray plays a star with an inflated ego.Directed by Busby Berkeley, this musical has a few dance sequences, but nothing as out-of-this-world as Berkeley's choreography earlier in the 1930s. The real highlights of this film are the amazing big band performances by the great Benny Goodman and Raymond Paige orchestras. There are some long scenes of great swing music played by excellent musicians, and they are a treat for both the eyes and ears. The legendary drummer Gene Krupa just goes crazy in one set. The songs written for the movie are alright, with none more memorable than the opening tune "Hooray For Hollywood".

Fake show biz, courtesy director Busby Berkeley. Saxophone player from the East is called out to Hollywood for work in the movies (though we have no idea why or how this brainstorm transpired); he's immediately set up as a pigeon, taking a lookalike-starlet to a lavish premiere--but when the real actress gets wind of the deception, she orders the greenhorn be fired (and the studio dutifully complies, though the date was their idea!). Ridiculous musical-comedy padded with Big Band numbers and pop-ups from buxom columnist Louella Parsons (touted as "The Queen of Hollywood"). Dick Powell has an ingratiating manner and a handsome profile, but we never learn anything about his character except that he's easily fooled. The Johnny Mercer-Richard Whiting songs run the gamut from fine ("Hooray For Hollywood", "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water") to awful ("Sing, You Son of a Gun"), while the point of the whole thing seems to be: no matter how big of a star you might be, you can always be replaced. ** from ****