Road Show (1941)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Hal Roach

Writers:

Arnold Belgard (writer)
Eric Hatch (novel)

Release Date:

27 July 1942 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Rich playboy Drogo Gaines is in imminent danger of marrying a gold digger, and escapes by feigning insanity...

Plot Keywords:

Carnival | Beautiful Woman | Canceled Wedding | Eccentric | Based On Novel

Cast

Adolphe Menjou	...	Col. Carleton Carroway
Carole Landis	...	Penguin Moore
John Hubbard	...	Drogo Gaines
Charles Butterworth	...	Harry Whitman
Patsy Kelly	...	Jinx
George E. Stone	...	Indian
Margaret Roach	...	Priscilla
Polly Ann Young	...	Helen Newton
Edward Norris	...	Ed Newton
Marjorie Woodworth	...	Alice
Florence Bates	...	Mrs. Newton
Willie Best	...	Willie
The Charioteers	...	Themselves - Musical ensemble

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #5577) | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Hal Roach Studios

Trivia:

Cameo: [Shemp Howard]Moe Parker. The character was named after Howard's brother and fellow Stooge, Moe Howard.

Soundtrack:

YUM YUM

Circus bezerkus

This is an absolutely hilarious 1941 carnival farce that is relentlessly nutty. With a roster of character actors you will recognize from every 30s/40s screwball chase/society comedy, B grade 2 reeler and a million other scenes from every other silly Hollywood comedy of the pre TV period, ROAD SHOW, like Hellzapoppin, or The All American Co Ed each made the same year, shows clearly how there must have been a turn for the completely crazy after WW2 started and these 3 films led the new post Marx Bros wave of deliberately ridiculous and risqué comedies. I was tired and not very interested in watching all of this film when I lazily slotted it into the DVD. Within ten minutes I was laughing out loud and sat up... the film actually energized me into attention and shook me awake. Read the cast list, admire the excellent production values, relish the Mad Mad Mad World level antics and just plain enjoy 70 minutes of perfectly deliberately contrived chase/Carnival/society farces the Hal Roach Studio ever put on film. In a big theater this would have been hilarious and noisy to enjoy. The firetruck chase with Patsy Kelly aloft a loose ladder as they drive thu an orchard on their way past a fire to be at an art deco circus location... well what more can I say. Shemp Howard, crooning teenage Negroes, lions on the loose, Carole Landis singing, an amorous Indian, a taffy pulling machine, fantastic Packard cars, mansions, the nut house drunk at a dinner-party with 4 chicken legs on his plate, and snazzy fashions each only party reveal the treats in store. Find ROAD SHOW and have a really delicious long laugh. Adolph Menjou's droll shyster is as funny as anything WC Fields delivered. What a hilarious film! A close cinema relative would be Million Dollar legs or a lot of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedies of the early 30s. ROADSHOW is a very funny film.