Search - Hellzapoppin' on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1941 Format: DVD SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Studio: Avenue One Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romantic Comedy, Musical Comedy, Absurd Comedy, Backstage Musical

Hellzapoppin' is the film version of the "anything goes" Broadway hit starring Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The original production was part musical comedy, part "blackout" revue, with wild sight gags, zany props, audience participation sequences, dirty jokes, and never-ending gunshots. There was no plot, and in fact no two performances were exactly alike. When Hellzapoppin' was optioned by Universal, the original intention was to film the play as it stood (minus the more ribald one-liners), but the studio got cold feet and grafted on a conventional plot and romantic interest. The film's story concerns a musical show being staged at a fancy estate, and the romantic triangle of the show's producer (Robert Paige), the wealthy girl who lives at the estate (Jane Frazee), and the girl's erstwhile fiance (Lewis Howard). The show's stars are Olsen, Johnson, and Martha Raye. Martha is mistaken for the wealthy girl by a penniless Russian aristocrat (Mischa Auer), and the entire proceedings are "investigated" by a goofy private detective (Hugh Herbert). Olsen and Johnson are thus reduced to supporting players in their own film, but when they do manage to command the screen, the results are hilarious. The best moments range from a throwaway gag about Citizen Kane (Johnson finds a sled marked "Rosebud" and mutters "I thought they burned that!") to the more elaborate special-effects routines involving the mixed-up projectionist (Shemp Howard) who's ostensibly running Hellzapoppin for the benefit of the film audience. While the movie version fails to completely capture the spirit of the original play (except in a bizarre opening sequence), and the finale is a major disappointment, Hellzapoppin remains one of the few sustained filmic examples of the "nut humor" exemplified by Olsen and Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ole Olsen - Ole Olsen
Chic Johnson - Chic
Martha Raye - Betty Johnson
Hugh Herbert - Detective Quimby
Mischa Auer - Pepi
Jane Frazee - Kitty Rand

H.C. Potter's Hellzapoppin' (1941) has been out of circulation since the end of the '60s, evidently owed to legal complications growing out of Jerry Lewis's abortive attempted stage revival of the original theater piece during the '70s, but it apparently has fewer problems getting reissued overseas. This region-four DVD, courtesy of Avenue One from Australia, is one of those discs that may persuaded one to buy an all-region DVD player; however, outside of region four, it's only playable on properly setup computers. The release is a major disappointment in terms of quality. The source is very obviously a 16mm print and a rather worn and scratched one at that, so much that the most famous single line in the movie (Chic Johnson's "I thought they burned that," referring to a certain Orson Welles movie of then-recent vintage) is almost inaudible due to ripped film, missing frames, and a loud pop on the soundtrack. What's more, we get intermittent black screen and the reel runoff points on the screen, which demonstrate extreme lack of care. On the other hand, the film is otherwise reasonably intact, and the scratches and other wear (where they don't obliterate anything) becomes part of the fun, as so much of the movie's humor is self-reflexive, continually referring to the fact that it is a movie. For younger viewers, think of the movie equivalent of the series Moonlighting, aka "the show that knows it's on television." The sequence with the singing group The Six Hits and the Harlem Congeroo Dancers is almost worth the price of admission; and sight gags all-around work extremely well, though one would wish that a preservation-quality 35mm source were available. The sound is fairly intact and quite good (even the parody of the Fledermaus sequence works), especially with a volume boost, though some shots are a bit dark. There are some serious rips in the source that have been repaired, especially near the ends of reels, but this is a halfway decent specimen of the movie, in the absence of any other. The film, presented in full-screen (1.33-to-1), has been given 16 well-placed chapters and opens on a pretty ambitious menu that includes a short bio on the two stars and an extended cast and credit list as bonus features. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide