Robert J. Maxwell Louella Parsons is among the celebrities of varying statuses that makes an appearance here. She was a popular columnist for Hearst at the time, notorious for gossipy notices like, "Who was that handsome Lothario seen at the Brown Derby last night escorting La-La Divoon?" She's a matronly woman. It's a curious experience watching her speak. Her fixed expression is a slightly open smile offering a glimpse of her upper teeth. The voice seems to emanate from that mouth without any sign of labial involvement. The painted lips remain the same, the slice of teeth immobile, and no tongue in evidence. She could be a ventriloquist's dummy.She's given a couple of cute lines though, as is just about everyone else in this romantic musical comedy. It's 1937 and the narcissistic star opens the newspaper and remarks, "Terrible about China (Pause) I haven't opened a picture there in a year." The tempo is pretty fast, and there's a brief but carefully choreographed bit of slapstick at a night club table involving Dick Powell and a waiter, good enough to have been done by Buster Keaton. You'll find a lot of folks who were on their way to the big time during the war that was around the corner, including James Ridgeley, whom you've probably never heard of, and Ronald Reagan who became, I believe, a politician. You get to see Perc Westmore as himself plying his trade.The plot is a parody of Hollywood and a story of mixed identities. As a parody, it lags behind "Singin' in the Rain." The story of identity confusion doesn't go back any farther in time than Shakespeare's first play, "A Comedy of Errors," or Plautus' "Menaechmi", which Shakespeare ripped off. The Hollywood movie star is played by Lola Lane and the shy waitress who is swept up in the impersonation is Rosemary Lane -- real sisters.Direction by Busby Berkeley but no marching feet stomping around on the stage and no overhead shots of flower petals opening, each to reveal itself as a pair of chubby thighs. Nope. There are several songs though. They're pleasant enough but lack the perverse kick of "Petting in the Park" with its demented midget dashing around with a can opener, and none of the tunes are likely to be found in the Great American Songbook.Still, it's diverting and a pleasant enough watch for an otherwise uneventful evening.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . and a Dang Concert broke out. Though H0LLYWOOD HOTEL offers a few cheap thrills (such as when Rosemary Lane sings "I feel wet and it's no wonder I do" to Dick Powell, who warbles back "That's how I get when I'm out with you," Warner Bros. uses most of the songs here to warn America of the Racist and Fascist Fifth Columnists then closing in upon Tinseltown to spearhead their assault against the U.S. Constitution. The most famous song here, "Hooray for Hollywood," lampoons one-time Warner stock company goofball Marion Mitchell Morrison (aka, "John Lassie Wayne") for having less brains than his horse (in recognition that the self-styled "Il Duce" soon would be leading a vicious Real Life Pogrom that would make Hitler proud, resulting in untold murders of Jews such as John Garfield and Ethel Rosenberg, along with Union Champions including Errol Flynn). Speaking of Adolph, another HOTEL song disparages one-time pioneering aviator Chuck L. from Detroit with the verse "he's like Lindbergh on the ground," in reference to the "Dingo-ate-my-Baby" guy's shocking defection to Hitler's inner circle (which was nearly as scandalous as U.S. Czar Red Commie KGB Strongman Vlad "Mad Dog" Putin appointing his best American buddy Rex "Exxon Valdez" Tillerson as Amerika's Secretary of State this month). The same lyric finds Ms. Lane despairing "I'm like Ginger Rogers running the Brooklyn Dodgers," reflecting the always Cassandra-like Warner's chagrin that the Dodgers were going to drag their spikes 10 more years before integrating Major League Baseball. (Warner does what they can to provoke a Civil Rights movement with H0LLYWOOD HOTEL, by lampooning rival MGM's upcoming Jim Crow Propaganda Piece GONE WITH THE WIND , and by putting the first integrated music group in Cinema History on screen--beating the tardy Dodgers by a decade!)

tavm 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.

mark.waltz What clever lyrics to open this wonderful Busby Berkley musical about a rising singer signed to a studio contract and the screen double he falls in love with thinking she is the real deal. Dick Powell is first seen leaving for the airport where his band serenades him with the title song accompanied by trucks with clever banners of how the great female stars will react to his "charisma". "Garbo, I Tank You'll Love Him!" one banner says. Sung by the wonderful Frances Langford and Benny Goodman's band, "Horray For Hollywood!" has become one of the screen's great anthems. Of course, there are fictional movie stars with somebody named Mona Marshall getting mentioned amongst the real life stars, most of them Warner Brothers contract players. A fictional studio, All-Star, is the setting for the goings on here.Once out in Hollywood, Powell meets Rosemary Lane, the extra standing in for the temperamental Lola Lane at a movie premiere, claiming illness with "Oh, My Thyroids!". Rosemary and Dick hit it off at the premiere, performing the delightful "I'm a Fish Out of Water". Lots of wonderful performers appear including Alan Mowbray as a hammy "Lothario", Mabel Todd as movie star Lane's dizzy sister (who allegedly suffers from anemia, but I think today's doctors would refer to it as something else), Hugh Herbert as the star's flighty father, Glenda Farrell as the wisecracking assistant, slow-burning Edgar Kennedy as a temperamental diner manager and Louella Parsons as herself. Even Ronald Reagan gets briefly into the act as the announcer at a premiere. The film slightly bogs down at the end with an extended sequence at the Hollywood Hotel' Orchid Room (Powell and Lola Lane re-enacting scenes from the film within-the-film), but for the most part, it is complete fun. A musical number at the diner ("Behind the Eight Ball") is the choreographic delight, although there are none of the signature Berkley overhead shots within the film. A black-face sequence with Herbert appears to be in bad taste, but in placing him amongst a group of black extras, this only shows how ridiculous the practice was in the first place. The extras all seem to know it, too, judging by the looks on their face, and a couple of them are having a difficult time keeping a straight face due to Herbert's silly antics. This hardly matters because the film is so filled with fun that you too will want to try your luck, you may be Donald Duck. Horray For Hollywood!