Hollywood Party (1934)

Jimmy Durante is jungle star Schnarzan the Conqueror, but the public is tiring of his fake lions. So when Baron Munchausen comes to town with real man-eating lions, Durante throws a big ... See full summary »

Directors:

Richard Boleslawski (uncredited), Allan Dwan (uncredited)

Writers:

Howard Dietz (screen play), Arthur Kober (screen play)

Stars:

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jimmy Durante

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Stan Laurel	...	Stan
Oliver Hardy	...	Ollie
Jimmy Durante	...	Durante / Schnarzan
Jack Pearl	...	Baron Munchausen
Polly Moran	...	Henrietta Clemp
Charles Butterworth	...	Harvey Clemp
Eddie Quillan	...	Bob Benson
June Clyde	...	Linda Clemp
Lupe Velez	...	The Jaguar Woman / Jane in Schnarzan Sequence
George Givot	...	Liondora aka Grand Royal Duke
Richard Carle	...	Knapp

Storyline

Jimmy Durante is jungle star Schnarzan the Conqueror, but the public is tiring of his fake lions. So when Baron Munchausen comes to town with real man-eating lions, Durante throws a big party with so that he might use the lions in his next movie. His film rival sneaks into the party to buy the lions before Durante.

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Plot Keywords:

homosexual subtext | bare chested male | 1930s | female sexual predator | taming of the shrew | 

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Taglines:

It Has Everything! Stars! Girls! Music! Cast of 2000!

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Musical

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hollywood Revue of 1933

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min (Turner library print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor) (Animated sequence only) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For years the "Hot Choc'late Soldiers" animated sequence, created by Walt Disney Studios, could not be shown as part of "Hollywood Party" because in 1934 Disney had licensed only movie-theatre rights and had reserved the TV rights to the sequence for his own company. Finally, in 1992, Ted Turner's company, which then owned the rights to the MGM archive, settled with the Disney company and released a video version of the film containing "Hot Choc'late Soldiers." Unfortunately, the transition scene, with Mickey Mouse at the piano in B&W, the "Hot Choc-late Soldiers" sheet music in Technicolor, was not properly reconstructed, so we only see the Technicolor portion of the scene, but not the B&W portion.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Knapp: Ah! How's business?
Theatre Manager: Swell, it's Garbo.
Knapp: It'll be even better next week when you play my new Schnarzan picture. What a star, what a star!
Knapp: [looks at watch] Oh, has the trailer gone on yet?
Theatre Manager: You'll just about catch it.
Knapp: Good.

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Alternate Versions

Older television prints of "Hollywood Party" run 63 minutes, and exclude the appearance by Mickey Mouse, as well as the Disney Technicolor cartoon "Hot Chocolate Soldiers".

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Connections

Spoofs Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

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Soundtracks

I've Had My Moments
(1934) (uncredited)
Music by Walter Donaldson
Lyrics by Gus Kahn
Sung by Polly Moran and Jimmy Durante

User Reviews

A Surreal View Of A Swinging Movieland Suare

Hollywood Party is a strange film to be coming out of that Tiffany of studios MGM. Louis B. Mayer's operation specialized in high gloss drama and sophisticated comedy. This product would have been more like something from RKO or Hal Roach. Paramount with its Big Broadcast series and International House was also far more likely to have made a film like Hollywood Party.

But make it they did and Hollywood Party has that same surreal quality of International House. With about eight directors and about six writers involved it would have been guaranteed to be surreal like. There's no real plot to it, Hollywood's number one heart throb, the body beautiful from those Schnarzan films throws a blowout and invites whom he can. The body beautiful, the one and only Schnarzan is of course Jimmy Durante.

You know a film like this is going to be lots of fun. When you get the great Durante, the Three Stooges, and Laurel&Hardy in one film, the great stone face of New Hampshire will chuckle.

My favorites in this are Stan and Ollie who are dealers in wholesale jungle animals and crash the party to collect their bill from Jack Pearl as Baron Munchausen. The two of them get involved with an angry Lupe Velez who's been cut off by the bartender and they get into a slapstick duel. Can you imagine the Mexican Spitfire with Stan Laurel, turn that one over in your minds.

Charles Butterworth and Polly Moran play a nouveau rich oil millionaire and George Givot plays a fake baron/gigolo trying to promote himself with Moran. Lupe is also Jane to Durante's Schnarzan which audiences today might not get the whole gist of that joke since she was married to Johnny Weissmuller then.

All in all it's great fun and at the very end you'll see why the film has the surreal quality it does. No plot, just a lot of good gags and many laughs. This is one you can't go wrong with.