A Night at the Museum: 1930s Hollywood Style

Hollywood on Parade (A-8) (1933)
Starring: Eddie Borden, Bonnie Poe, Gayne Whitman, Bela Lugosi, Charlie Murray, George Sidney, Dorothy Burgess, Charles Murray, Marie Prevost, and Rex Bell

Director: Louis Lewyn

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Wax figures of actors in their famous roles from the late 1920s and early 1930s come to life, and comedian Eddie Borden (Borden) tries to rescue Betty Boop (Poe) after she is attacked by Dracula (Lugosi).

"Hollywood on Parade" was an anthology series produced by Paramount to be shown in theaters before the main features. Some episodes were newsreel-style mockumentaries, others were mini-variety shows, and some, like the one we're featuring today is a series of related comedy skits tied together by a fanciful central story concept. Features that were present in each and every installment, however, were actors appearing as themselves or fictionalized versions of them based on their public image or whatever character they've portrayed that was most famous. The series also relied heavily on contemporary cultural and film references that would be well-known to audiences but may be very obscure to many modern viewers.

This is the first time we're featuring a "Hollywood on Parade" episode on this blog, and we think it's perfect not only for this forum, but for this time of year. Several of the actors featured are in films that have been reviewed and/or can be viewed in posts here at the blog. Even if some of the specifics of some references in this film may not be clear in their origins to many modern viewers, the genres and foibles they are having fun with are general enough in classic films and fiction that the jokes still work. Plus, given how often Betty Boop and Dracula are featured in posts around here, this is a perfect bit of fun as the Halloween festivities here at Shades of Gray approach their high point.

Click below and sit back. We think you'll like this film... and we think you LOVE it if you're into Pre-Code films, Betty Boop cartoons, and Universal's Dracula flicks!

'Bad Boy' will give you a good time

Bad Boy (1925)
Starring: Charley Chase, Martha Sleeper, Hardee Kirkland, Charles Force, Noah Young, and Eddie Borden
Director: Leo McCarey
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Jimmie (Chase), the college educated son of a self-made man (Kirkland), tries to fit in among the working class in order to learn the family business and keep the affections of the woman he loves (Sleeper). His efforts become complicated when he is mistaken for an infamous gangster.

"Bad Boy" is, like most Charley Chase films, a carefully constructed bit of comedy where the main character is carefully established and the situations he finds himself in almost always end up happening due to either a flaw he possesses or a goal he desperately wants to achieve. Further, each gag and joke feeds and builds into one another with a precision and purpose that would make an engineer proud.

In this particular film, it's our hero's desire to please everyone that gets him into trouble or embarrassing situations. First, he tries to fit in with the iron workers at his father's mill, then he tries to please his mother by taking part in a dance performance at a garden party that ends up embarrassing him in front of his girlfriend; and then, while trying to behave like a manly man to win her back, he ends up earning the ire of all the patrons at a nightclub and triggers the brawl that serves as the film's climax.

The film is further ordered by its three very distinct locations--the steel mill, the garden party, and the dance club. In this, the film even manages to fall neatly into the traditional three-act structure, despite being just around 18 minutes in length. It may even go a little further than that, actually. In some ways, the action in each location unfolds almost like a story unto itself, with each featuring a beginning, a middle, and an end. Although each segment could stand perfectly fine on its own, they all feed into each other and combine to not only establish Charley Chase's character as a likable and decent guy who just doesn't fit in easily anywhere. Further, over the course of the film, the supporting characters of the parents, and even the girlfriend, develop in ways that make them more compelling than such figures usually are in these short comedies... and because of the clean breaks between the locations, it's a pleasant surprise to see character development continue across them.

The version of "Bad Boy" that I watched (and which is embedded for easy viewing below) also benefitted from an actual musical score, written by Maurice Saylor and performed by his Snark Ensemble. It's a perfect example of how big a difference it makes when the music is synchronized to what's happening on screen instead of just some random piano music or jazz tune being slapped onto the film.

It's a wild bike ride to save Benecia!

Stolen by Gypsies, or Beer and Bicycles (1933)
Starring: John Sheehan, Sam Hardy, Barbara Sheldon, Charles Ray, William Farnum, June Brewster, and Eddie Borden
Director: Albert Ray
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When his romantic advances toward the beautiful Benecia Beamish (Sheldon) are rejected, the fiendish Sinclair Sable (Hardy) hires Gypsy Joe (Sheehan) to kidnap her. Now only  her true love, Elmer Updike (Ray), aided by the members of the Beer and Bicycle Club, can save her!

"Stolen by Gypsies, or Beer and Bicycles" pokes fun at the melodramas that were once mainstays of the stage and silent movies, complete with asides to the audience, mustache-twirling villains, and intertitles (the latter of which are completely unnecssary, given that this isn't a silent film, but they add to the ambiance and comedy).

Although there's a gag-a-minute during the first half of the film, it's the long bicylces vs. horse-drawn gypsy wagon that makes this film worthwhile. From the special effects (Elmer bouncing into the air after riding over explosives thrown at him by Sinclair) to the stunts (the bicyclists colliding with a fallen tree, riding/tumbling down a cliffside, and more) to some bizarre asides (one of which includes a very strange portrayal of Atlantic City as an African village where the citizens try to knock the bicyclists down using clubs... this may be a joke that's muted due to the passage of time?) it's a hilarious and impressive affair that puts some modern chases to shame.

This is one of a thirteen shorts produced by the Masquers Club--a social club for comedians--in the early 1930s with the intent of raising funds for various charities and a new building for the club to have its meetings. It is also one of five included on a DVD release from Alpha Video, but it may also be available for viewing online. I think fans of Monte Python's Flying Circus may find it particularly enjoyable, because it draws from some of the same wells as a number of their skits., despite the 30+ year gap between them.

'Thru Thicket and Thin' is a nutty send-up of jungle pictures

Thru Thin and Thicket, or Who's Zoo in the Jungle (1933)
Starring: Eddie Borden, Dorothy Granger, and James Finlayson
Director: Mark Sandrich
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A booze-happy reporter (Borden) and an unscrupulous African explorer (Finlayson) compete for the attention of Tarkana, Queen of the Jungle (Granger).

"Thru Thin and Thicket, or Who's Zoo in the Jungle" is a fabulous send-up of the jungle explorer genre of adventure films. From the first mocking of the liberal use of stock nature footage in such pictures, through the final scene of "jungle domestic bliss", this film offers some 20 minutes of absurdist humor with barely a break between gags to let the viewers catch their breath from laughing.

Eddie Borden and James Finlayson (the latter of whom I recognized from his many parts as the frustrated man caught up in Laurel & Hardy antics) are great fun as the smarmy would-be beneficiaries of Tarkana's Innocent Affections... and Dorothy Granger is hilarious as the not-so-innocent wild woman. Everything you expect in a jungle picture is either turned on its head or savagely mocked (or both) in this brief film, including the portrayal of the natives. (And I can't even comment on one of the film's funniest and most startling gags, because even mentioning it will ruin its impact.)

"Thru Thin and Thicket" is one of 13 short films that were produced by members and starred members of the Masquers Club, a private social club for comedians as fund-raising vehicles for charity and to fund a new meeting place in the early 1930s. Several of them are available on DVD, or can be viewed for free online.



And while I'm at it, here are some publicity stills of Dorothy Granger as Tarkana. (The weird contraption she's sitting next to in one is a "radio" that is playing music in a scene.)