Studio: MGM. Runtime: 68 minutes. Production Number: 695. Release Date: May 24, 1934. Directors: Roy Rowlande, Charles F. Reisner, George Stevens, Allan Dwan, Russell Mack, Sam Wood, Edmund Goulding, Richard Boleslavsky. Screenplay: Howard Dietz, Arthur Kober, Herbert Fields, Bert Green, Edgar Allan Woolf, Charles F. Reisner, Richy Craig Jr., Henry Myers, Robert E. Hopkins, Harvey Gates. Cast: Jimmy Durante (Himself), Lupe Velez (Herself), George Givot (Liondora), Polly Moran (Henrietta Clemp), Charles Butterworth (Harvey Clemp), June Clyde (Linda Clemp), Eddie Quillan (Bob Benson), Richard Carle (Mr. Knapp), Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy (Themselves), Ted Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerry "Curly" Howard (Themselves), Jack Pearl (Baron Munchausen), Jed Prouty (Theatre manager), Edwin Maxwell (Buddy Goldfarb), Ray Cooke (Theatre patron), Tom Kennedy (Beavers), Arthur Treacher (Valet butler), Frances Williams (Singer), Baldwin Cooke (Arrivals valet), Ben Carter (Elevator operator), Florence Wix, Tenen Holtz (Elevator passengers), Eddie Tamblyn (Bob's friend), Leonid Kinskey (Jake the cabbie), Walt Disney (voice of Mickey Mouse), Gene Morgan (MC), Robert Young (Himself), Shirley Ross, Harry Barris, The King's Men (Feelin' High singers), Edward Thomas, Sidney Bracey, Sherry Hall (Butlers), George Beranger (Barber), Ray Corrigan (Gorilla), Henry Roquemore (Chef), Tom Herbert (Bartender), Ernie Alexander (Waiter), Clarence H. Wilson, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Nora Cecil, Frank Austin, Scotty Mattraw, Richard Cramer (Pedant scientists), Phyllis Crane (Eve), Tom London (Paul Revere), Art Jarrett (The Hot Choc-Late Soldiers singer), Ben Bard (Charley), Don Brodie, Bess Flowers, Jay Eaton, Larry Steers, Julia Griffith, Jack Byron, Russell Hardie, Bill Elliott (Party guests), Jack Hill, Bert Young, Hugh Saxon (Doormen), Jeanne Olsen Durante (Herself), Florine McKinney, Ruth Channing, Martha Sleeper, Celeste Edwards, Iris Lancaster, Kay Gordon, Irene Hervey, Pauline Brooks, Claire Meyers, Muriel Evans, Marcia Ralston (Chorines), Greta Garbo (archive footage). Cinematographer: James Wong Howe. Editor: George Boemler. Art Director: Fredric Hope. Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis. Recording Director: Douglas Shearer. Music: Walter Donaldson, Richard Rodgers, Nacio Herb Brown, William Axt, Jimmy Durante. Lyrics: Lorenz Hart, Arthur Freed, Howard Dietz, Gus Kahn. Music Editor: W. Donn Hayes. Orchestrator: Roy Isnor. Choreography: Seymour Felix, Carlos Romero, David Gould, George Hale. Costumes: Adrian. Cartoon Background Art: Emil Flohri, Carlos Manriquez. Animators: Leonard Sebring (Soldiers and band departing and returning; battle scenes), Cy Young (Chocolate army marching; girls waving; sun), Louie Schmidt (embrace of chocolate girl and soldier; chocolate and gingerbread generals; calvary and ambulances; gingerbread spy discovers chocolate army) Crew under Ben Sharpsteen (George Drake (Ammunition wagons; Soldiers climbing candy canes and being hit be eclairs), Dick Williams (burglars; Soldiers in lollipop field)), Roy Williams (Artillery; candy cane ram attack), Jack Kinney (Cannons on parade; Gingerbreads soldiers); Frank Oreb (Tanks), Milt Schaffer (Spy returns to fort and sounds alarm); Bob Kuwahara (Candy cane hooked over battlement), Ugo D'Orsi (Gingerbread soldiers fire eclair cannons), Joe D'Igalo (Chocolate soldiers wheel dove into fort and capture gingerbread soldiers), Fred Moore (Most if not all Mickey Mouse scenes) Shooting Days: August 14, 1933, to March 16, 1934. Cartoon Story Development: May-June 1933. Animation Dates: June 19 - August 19, 1933. Working Titles: Hollywood Revue of 1933; Star Spangled Banquet.
Hollywood Party is an all-star comedy that's story is just a thin excuse for the comedic actors to do their stuff. This movie is best remembered today for being the only non-compilation movie to feature both The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy (though they do not appear together. as well as for a Technicolor Disney cartoon.
The story, such as it is, features Jungle movie star Schnarzan (Jimmy Durante) throwing a big Hollywood party. Unfortunately, Schnarzan has received new lions (for his jungle movies) from his friend Baron Munchausen (Jack Pearl), who paid for them with a bad check. The owners of the lions (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) come to the party to take their lions back.
Ted and the Stooges only appear briefly in this film and frankly their bits are not all that memorable. However, this is still a really fun movie. Jimmy Durante is fun as the lead. However, the show is completely stolen by Laurel and Hardy. The comedy duo is at the top of their game here and gets some truly big laughs. The Disney animated sequence is also a delight, having the feel of one of the studio's great Silly Symphonies cartoons. Unfortunately, as with
Meet the Baron (1933), the Baron Munchhausen simply isn't that funny, and Jack Pearl seems stiff in front of a camera. Also, though the laughs are good, there are times when there can be too long of a space between them.
Leading up to the Hot Chocolate Soldiers Disney cartoon was a sequence with an animated Mickey Mouse interacting with a live action Jimmy Durante. These were completed well after the cartoon. Since Hot Chocolate Soldiers had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, the Disney studio had no interference from MGM. However, since the scenes with Mickey and Jimmy had to be incorporated into the "larger story," it was written by MGM's writers. The writers had trouble fully getting a handle on Mickey's character and there were several rewrites of this scene. MGM's writers at first made Mickey much too talkative and wise cracking (in the actual Mickey cartoons of the time dialogue was kept to a minimum). There was also the idea that Mickey would do various imitations of various Hollywood stars. In the finished films he only does one imitation (that of Jimmy Durante).
Laurel and Hardy entered the film's production on September 21, 1933. They were directed by their former cameraman George Stevens and mostly improvised their scenes. In this 68-minute movie, Laurel and Hardy don't appear until the 51-minute mark. However, they are very much the focus of the rest of the film when they show up. Their best bit here is their egg battle with Lupe Velez. This was so great that the whole sequence would be remade in the Laurel and Hardy feature film, The Bullfighters (1945) with Carol Andrews now as Stan and Ollie's victim.
As for the Stooges, this marked their last screen appearance with Ted Healy. The next film of theirs to be issued to movie theaters is their first Three Stooges short for Columbia. It is unknown what days their scenes were filmed here.
Scenes featuring the Stooges, Durante and Laurel and Hardy appear in the compilation movie, MGM's The Big Parade of Comedy (1964).
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies by Randy Skretvedt.
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg
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