GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
Lucybespro
It is a performances centric movie
suesan629
But it is in beautiful Technicolor. That's the only bright aspect here.
classicsoncall
You'll be giving this short the bird too, and yes, Charlie Chan Chase actually did say that to the film's hostess, Elissa Landi. This is really an embarrassing little flick with all sorts of racial stereotyping; given the era most of it's understandable but it's still painful to watch. Clark Gable, Joan Bennett and Joe E. Lewis all make brief cameos, they probably should have begged off. The setting is an East-Asian themed garden tea party, and the Oriental flavor is most evident in the brightly colored costumes of the dancers. There's a segment in which a host of Oriental ladies wearing very little make their appearance. I have a comment to make about that but it might get the old heave-ho here and I don't want to offend. Among the mostly talent-less performers, Anita May Wong is fairly entertaining with her song number, one of the brighter spots in this mercifully short offering.
bkoganbing
Can someone explain why MGM would give this promotional short for The Good Earth color treatment and yet the cinema classic they do in black and white? I suppose there's some rationale for it, but I can't think of any.Elissa Landi and Charley Chase, he in Oriental garb as Charley Chan Chase host a party which has a few musical acts and some big star walk ons like Clark Gable, Joan Bennett, Joe E. Brown and Freddie Bartholomew. The musical highlight is Joe Morrison who was the love interest in the W.C. Fields classic The Old Fashioned Way singing South Sea Island Magic.Throughout it all Leon Errol does his drunk act as he keeps trying to mix the perfect cocktail. He did much the same thing in We're Not Dressing.Entertaining, but nothing special. Don't confuse this with the feature film Hollywood Party.
Michael_Elliott
Hollywood Party (1937) * (out of 4) One hopes a real Hollywood party wasn't as boring as this mess of a short from MGM. The main reason to tune in is the three-strip Technicolor, which was just starting out. In the film Charley Chase and Elissa Landi are introducing various music acts and a few Hollywood A-listers with it all set to a Chinese theme. The Chinese theme also means Chase slanting his eyes, wearing some funny facial hair and throwing around rather stereotypical slang. The movie, no matter how you look at it, is a real embarrassment and one can't help but feel bad for Chase, a veteran of over 250 films, for having to appear in it as MGM certainly didn't do him any favors. The biggest problem is that the film never knows what it wants to be. It starts off appearing to just want to make fun of Chinese customs. It then turns into a music and features some very bad songs. It then tries to be a fashion show, which is fails at miserably even though we see some nearly naked women, which makes one wonder how this got passed by the Hayes Office. Everything this film tries it fails at and the cameos by Joe E. Brown, Anna May Wong, Freddie Bartholomew, Joan Bennett and Clark Gable can't help.
