Hollywood Wonderland (1947)

Director:

Jack Scholl

Release Date:

9 August 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Musical

Plot:

Tour guides take visitors on a promotional guide of Warner Brothers' studios.

Plot Keywords:

Tour Guide | Musical Acts | Film Actress | Actor | Behind The Scenes

Cast

(in alphabetical order)

Robert Arthur	...	Tour Guide (uncredited)
Lauren Bacall	...	Herself (in photo) (uncredited)
John Carroll	...	Actor in Canoe - 'Swingtime in the Movies' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Cliff Edwards	...	Saloon Singer, from Ride, Cowboy, Ride (1939) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Fritz Feld	...	Director, from Swingtime in the Movies (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dick Foran	...	Singing Cowboy, from Sunday Roundup (archive footage) (uncredited)
Wanda Hendrix	...	Tour Guide (uncredited)
Kathryn Kane	...	Actress in Canoe, from Swingtime in the Movies (1938) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Man in Commissary, clip from Swingtime in the Movies (uncredited) (archive footage)
Dennis Morgan	...	Himself (in Photo) (uncredited)
Wini Shaw	...	Gypsy - From Gypsy Sweetheart (1935) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ann Sheridan	...	Herself (in Photo) (uncredited)
Glenn Strange	...	Singing Cowboy - 'Ride, Cowboy, Ride' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Leo White	...	Man Taking Tour (uncredited)

Runtime:

16 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Features musical numbers edited from earlier Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts: "The Blue Danube" from Gypsy Sweetheart "Drifting on the Rio Grande" from Swingtime in the Movies "Swinging Through the Kitchen Door" from Swingtime in the Movies "Annie Laurie" from The Changing of the Guard "Dancing is the Darndest One" from Ride, Cowboy, Ride "Beyond the Open Road" from Sunday Roundup

Movie Connections:

References Saratoga Trunk (1945)

Hollywood Babalu-land

The best thing about this sixteen-minute short is the eye-popping Technicolor. The music is ho-hum and at times downright boring, snipped from Warner Brothers musical shorts of the previous decade. Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards, aka Jiminy Cricket)is pleasing, singing and playing a guitar rather than a ukulele. Cowboy Dick Foran shows why singing shoot-em-up pictures came to be called horse operas. Unlike Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Tex Ritter, Foran's voice was more suitable for opera than for western ballads. His style was derivative of Nelson Eddy rather than Bing Crosby.

For smirks, there's Clark Gable lookalike John Carroll warbling a song while in a canoe. Carroll turned out to be a much better actor than his reputation would indicate. For movie buffs there's a glimpse of starlet Lauren Bacall as her picture floats across the screen while the narrator emphasizes the importance of photography in the making of a Hollywood film.

Mainly for die-hard fans of 1930's-era popular music, "Hollywood Wonderland" is more like Hollywood Babalu-land.

Footnote: The tour guide is the same Wanda Hendrix who played Pilar in the film noir thriller, "Ride the Pink Horse," the same year.