Directed by H.C. Potter
1941, 84 minutes, 16mm, b&w. With Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Mischa Auer, Shemp Howard, and Elisha Cook Jr.
Any resemblance in the following to an actual movie review is purely coincidental.
The same sort of line as the above is what we see on screen at the beginning of Hellzapoppin' except it says "motion picture" rather than "movie review".
But don't believe it. Well, you can believe it with regard to this typed text (I'm not a REAL MOVIE REVIEWER. I just play at being one on the internet.), but don't believe it with regard to the movie. IT IS A LIE!
In actual fact this is more like a motion picture than most movies one is likely to see which are more like photographed plays, well, now maybe puppet shows, or animated cartoons. Hellzapoppin' is more like an actual motion picture than most others. It takes great joy in playing with the technology of filmmaking. It's takes us into the land of cine-surrealism, at least for some of the time.
Who it to blame? Who is to honor? Who do we shoot, shun, or shout the praises of, for, at? Well, who wrote the thing, came up with the idea and did they ever do anything like that before or after? Olson and Johnson and very good, charming, funny, and we know that this is from a long running Broadway show of the same name. So we can definitely honor them, or rather laugh at them which is the best way to honor these guys. There were a lot of people laughing at them in the packed downstairs theatre at Anthology Film Archives last night. We should all be so lucky to be laughed at 66 years from now, or 666 years which takes us backed to the opening of the movie where Olson and Johnson arrive in hell in a NYC taxi cab and one of them says that it was the first cabby who took them exactly where they told him to go. But then hell turns into to movie studio which is probably not a coincidence. Anyway we soon see these two being forced to have, like, a plot to their movie and a love story because all movies need a plot and a love story, but that's alright in this case since it's barely a plot or a love story but an excuse for more silly and clever one-liners and sight gags.
The stuff that goes on is not unrelated to the more chaotic Marx Brothers movies which brings me to Nat Perrin who wrote the play and the movie and was a very good friend of Groucho Marx. He also wrote some of the Marx Brothers stuff. So there, we can blame Olson and Johnson and Nat Perrin for the delightful madness that is Hellzapoppin'.
Not to forget Martha Raye, or maybe I should say "The great Martha Raye." Alright I will. The great Martha Raye. She is in the movie too. And, I swear that this is true. True that she is in the movie and that she was great. I saw her perform LIVE in the late 1970s in a traveling show of mostly singers called "4 Girls 4", She was hardly a "girl" then but neither were the others, but I have never seen a funnier person perform live. I have never seen such a pro and she did very funny physical sight comedy things I was quite amazed and have been a huge fan since. Watch her steal scenes from Charlie Chaplin in his great dark comedy talkie Monsieur Verdoux.
So Hellzapoppin' is available in bootleg form somewhere. It's a great movie. Let's hope it is preserved and not left to rot too soon.
Showing posts with label Anthology Film Archives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anthology Film Archives. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Saturday, April 7, 2007
LOS MUERTOS
A movie directed by Isandro Alonso
2004, 82 minutes, 35mm. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Viewed at Anthology Film Archives New York.
A few thoughts from the experience of the movie:
Take a trip from prison. Leave the bars behind, leave the work in the prison factory behind. Head home.
The prison was rural, but a dense human habitat of activity compared to the destination. Sick of having to talk, to respond, get up when told, eat what is provided , work on command. It could have been worse, it was rather civil really, but too much so. But that was punishment enough. Not a man for civil, never was, not made to be so, just went through the motions. There was no choice in the matter. Back through time, back to what was before. These is less need for conversation now. There are few people met along the way, just a couple of simple transactions. A ride in a car, a ride on a woman, some bread, some candy for someone left behind long ago. How old is she now? Don't know what size she would wear?
No need to talk now.
There is a boat from the boat man. He says something about the brothers. What does he no. No need for discussion, gone.
Float, rowing, floating, back in the natural elements where all is provided for one who knows were to look and how a man lives. If a man knows how to borrow from the bees. They can make more. There are plenty of insects out here, all is provided for a human in his element. Room, time to breath. No rush, no clock, just to sun tracking across the sky. No time finally. It is easy to forget time. It's like the place before never existed. It had no effect. It was nothing, all crumbling anyway.
This is everything.
A boy. Tie it here. Walk over the hill.
A small child, the barest of shelters. No need for more out here, no possibility for more. We are not that kind. The fishing is good. As good as it always was. No music, but birds and the buzzing. Reaching to swat them away from the bare back.
Back.
2004, 82 minutes, 35mm. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Viewed at Anthology Film Archives New York.
A few thoughts from the experience of the movie:
Take a trip from prison. Leave the bars behind, leave the work in the prison factory behind. Head home.
The prison was rural, but a dense human habitat of activity compared to the destination. Sick of having to talk, to respond, get up when told, eat what is provided , work on command. It could have been worse, it was rather civil really, but too much so. But that was punishment enough. Not a man for civil, never was, not made to be so, just went through the motions. There was no choice in the matter. Back through time, back to what was before. These is less need for conversation now. There are few people met along the way, just a couple of simple transactions. A ride in a car, a ride on a woman, some bread, some candy for someone left behind long ago. How old is she now? Don't know what size she would wear?
No need to talk now.
There is a boat from the boat man. He says something about the brothers. What does he no. No need for discussion, gone.
Float, rowing, floating, back in the natural elements where all is provided for one who knows were to look and how a man lives. If a man knows how to borrow from the bees. They can make more. There are plenty of insects out here, all is provided for a human in his element. Room, time to breath. No rush, no clock, just to sun tracking across the sky. No time finally. It is easy to forget time. It's like the place before never existed. It had no effect. It was nothing, all crumbling anyway.
This is everything.
A boy. Tie it here. Walk over the hill.
A small child, the barest of shelters. No need for more out here, no possibility for more. We are not that kind. The fishing is good. As good as it always was. No music, but birds and the buzzing. Reaching to swat them away from the bare back.
Back.
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