Hollywood Revue of 1929

It’s hard to criticize a movie like Hollywood Revue of 1929, because it has no story to tell, it is a series of musical numbers and comedy skits strung together over the course of two hours.  It’s the equivalent of watching a high school talent show; the only exception being that the performers are some of biggest stars of the day as opposed to awkward teenagers hoping to make a name for themselves. Indeed, the Hollywood Revue of 1929 was a novelty film to cash in on the latest craze in motion pictures – sound; it was, rather inexplicably, nominated for Best Picture at the 1928/29 Academy Awards (it lost to The Broadway Melody).

For the audience of the time, it must have been pretty jaw dropping to see some of their favorite silence actors speaking and singing on the big screen. In a few cases (specifically and tragically John Gilbert), the voices of the actors did not live up to their silent screen image and their film careers would come to an abrupt end.  The problem is that the novelty has worn out for modern audiences, most of whom are oblivious to half the actors in the cast, and, as a result, Hollywood Revue is an extremely arduous task to sit through; this has more to do with the unimaginative staging (and primitive sound recording) than the actual talent on display.  It is photographed like a stage play, done in complete long shots and extended takes with on occasional close up of the performer to create a dramatic effect.  The camera, for most part, remains stationary throughout the film; there are a few instances where a crane shot is used. Sometimes this stylistic choice can be beneficial, the most memorable example being Laurel and Hardy’s comedy skit, but it gets tiresome really fast. It’s also amazing just how slopping the editing is at the times; the film looks like it was edited with a chainsaw.  The jarring moments are when the position of the chorus girls will slightly change between camera sets up.

There are a few fairly offbeat moments in the movie; the two that really come to mind are William Haines ripping apart Jack Benny’s tuxedo shirt and Bessie Love making her introduction in Jack Benny’s inside coat pocket.  The comedy bit with Haines is extremely odd as if comes completely out of nowhere; The two of them banter back and forth, then Haines starts ripping apart Benny’s shirt.  Bessie Love’s introduction is a stand out moment, because it’s one of the few moments that involve a special effect.  Love is miniaturized in Benny’s pocket and does a little wave to the audience. Benny picks her up, places her on the stage floor, and then she grows to her normal height.  It’s really weird directorial decisions, but at least it’s interesting, if not entirely successful.

The movie, for all its flaws, still manages to have a few memorable moments that make it worthwhile. My favorite bits are the following:

1)      Bessie Love singing, “I Never Knew I Could Do a Thing Like That.”  After seeing Bessie Love in this movie and The Broadway Melody, I’m amazed that she didn't have a bigger career in sound films as she is an absolute joy to watch.  She has a rather lively personality and, more importantly, looks like she’s genuinely having a good time. She certainly comes off a lot better than some of her more famous co-stars; compare her energetic musical number to Joan Crawford’s rather stilted song and dance routine at the beginning of the movie. Her exuberance must have rubbed off on the producers, because she appears again later on the movie, in a musical number (“Marie, Polly, and Bess”) with Marie Dressler and Polly Moran.  While most silent stars were fairly reluctant to embrace sound pictures, Miss Love doesn't seem to have such a hang up; she seems eager to conquer the new medium. In this musical number she sings about the difficulties of transitioning from silents movies to sound movies; it's a very interesting scene to watch, because it's about a very specific moment in cinema history. It essentially encapsulates the anxiety that most Hollywood stars were feeling in 1929. Would they still have a film career by 1930? 

On an interesting side note: Love would make a cameo appearance in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

2)      Laurel and Hardy’s Magic Act.  Hollywood Revue of 1929 is not a classic film, but it is invaluable in that it features an early sound appearance by the great comedy team, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It’s not necessarily one of their best routines, but it is still rather amusing; Oliver fumbles his way through magic tricks and gets frustrated by Stan’s inattentiveness. It’s interesting to note that Oliver does all the talking, while Stan remains mute throughout the skit. While Stan was usually the quieter of the two, he was still given plenty of dialogue in their later films. This comedy routine feels like a test run for the two comedians; a chance to try out  few ideas and then later perfect them in later films. Was it their original intention that Stan would remain mute in their later sound pictures? Or was this a one time thing? 

 

3)      Gus Edwards singing “Lon Chaney’s Gonna Get You if You Don’t Watch Out.” This is a rather fun number. In it, Gus Edwards warns a couple of comely lasses that if they’re not careful Lon Chaney will snatch them in their sleep, then insanity ensues as a group of male dancers wearing monster masks force the women to dance with them, before they drag them to the bowels of hell. Sure, it’s not political correct, but it’s done with its tongue firmly implanted in its cheek and is fairly well staged.  It is interesting how audiences couldn't divorce Chaney from the horror films he made to the point that he was equated to being the boogeyman; this song isn't about how one of his screen creations is going to get you - NO - Lon Chaney, himself, is going to get you if you don’t watch out.  

4)      The Adagio Dance with the Natova Company.  This dance routine is one of the few times were the stationary camera is actually beneficial to the act being performed onstage. It’s probably the one scene that will have you at edge of your seat. The dance involves a petite woman being swung around like a doll by three male dancers; at point her head is just a fraction of an inch away from crashing into the floor. If this sequence were done in more conventional style, with lots of edits and close ups, the audience would assume there was a lot of fakery involved. Here, there is absolutely no doubt of the authenticity of the routine, because the filmmakers allow it to play out in front of us.

5)      Cliff Edwards and the Brox Sisters performing “Singin’ in the Rain.” This isn’t one of the earliest, if not the earliest, renditions of this song preserved on film, thus making is a historically significant moment. It’s also interesting to note that there’s a midsection (performed by the Brox Sisters) that later versions would omit. It’s also staged in a rather imaginative fashion; the most effect moment being the use of back light to create silhouettes of dancers in raincoats.  The number ends with the dancers ascending an arched stairway to form a silhouetted rainbow. The song is later reprise (in two strip technicolor) by the entire cast at the film's finale.

6)      Jack Benny as the Master of Ceremonies.  Hollywood Revue of 1929 actually has two master of ceremonies, Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny, but Benny comes off a lot better thanks to his brand of self deprecating humor. He is always amusing to watch, even when the jokes are not all that funny.  Nagel, on the other hand, is extremely stiff and looks like he would rather be somewhere else. The filmmakers must have noticed the contrast, because Nagel disappears in the film’s second half, while Benny is given free reign to do whatever he wants.

Leonard Maltin perfectly sums up this movie in his Movie Guide book, “Definitely a curio for film buffs, rough sledding for others.” If you are a fan of classic movies, especially from the silent era, then this movie is definitely worth a look.  It can be tedious at times, but there are enough moments to make it worth your while.

Credits

Cast:  Conrad Nagel (Master of Ceremonies), Jack Benny (Master of Ceremonies), Cliff Edwards, Bessie Love, Joan Crawford, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Gus Edwards, Buster Keaton, Lionel Barrymore, Anita Page, Charles King, Marion Davies, William Haines, Karl Dane, The Brox Sisters.

Director: Charles Reisner.
Screenplay: Al Boasberg, Robert E. Hopkins, Joseph Farnham.
Running Time:  120 min.

The Lost World (1925)

The Lost World was the pre-cursor to King Kong and the grandfather of the modern day blockbuster; many of today’s special effects extravaganzas follow its template, a slim framework to hang its special effects on.  The special effects in The Lost World are dated, but they are charming in their crudity, and are certainly the best parts in the film. The non effects scenes are rather unremarkable, but passable. The Lost World suffers from two major flaws:

1)      The Love Triangle. The character of Paula White (the appealing Bessie Love) was not in Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel and was created specifically to provide the character of Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes) with a love interest.  This in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it takes an awkward turn for the worst with the introduction of famed hunter Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), who also vies for Paula’s affection.  The problem is that this love triangle is a complete mismatch in Edward’s favor, Paula doesn’t return Roxton’s affections, she just shrugs them off. Often, the relationship between Paula and Sir John comes off as being more father/daughter than potential lovers, because it’s so tame. If one were to edit out the title cards in The Lost World, Sir John would come across as a concerned father wanting the best for daughter. It doesn’t help that Lewis Stone was old enough to be Bessie Love’s father. The Love Triangle, for all its build up, is much ado about nothing; Sir John takes Paula’s rejection of him in relatively good humor and remains friends with Edward.  There is never any moment where it threatens to tear apart the expedition, instead everyone remains agreeable throughout. It might have helped had there been a least once scene in which Sir John contemplates letting Edward get mauled by a dinosaur, or setting his gun sights on Edward, instead of the Ape Man that is tormenting him throughout the movie.  Instead, it’s a rather dull subplot that could have easily been discarded.

 

2)      Harry O. Hoyt’s pedestrian direction.  A common occurrence throughout the film is how Hoyt will constantly undercut the tension in a by cutting back and forth between two different locations. Early in the film, the expedition party has downed a tree to get across a chasm. When the tree falls, the films cuts to a Brontosaur (or to be correct, an Apatosaurus) grazing in the jungle. It is startled by the sound of the tree falling. Cut back to the expedition walking across the tree on a time. Cut back to the Brontosaur. Cut back to the party. Whatever tension Hoyt was trying to get out of the party crossing the chasm is completely deflated by the comical Brontosaur munching away on the greens. It is an extremely odd directorial decision that only baffles the viewers; a few cut a ways last for merely a split second.
The reveal of the dinosaurs is rather unremarkable as well. Professor Challenger and company finally come upon the plateau, the sight of Challenger’s previous expedition and the disappearance of Maple White (Paula’s father), when the film abruptly cuts to a long shot of a Pterodactyl gliding into frame.  There is no build up to its appearance, it just randomly appears. It takes Challenger and friends a couple of seconds to notice its existence and when they finally see it, they are absolutely amazed.  In King Kong, the film heightens its suspense by slowly revealing Kong to the audience; first all we hear is a roar, then a couple of footsteps, then the sound of trees being knocked over, and finally, after nearly a minute of screen time has passed, Kong emerges into frame, and we in the audience can’t believe what we are seeing. The Pterodactyl scene doesn’t have quite the effect, because there is nothing to clue us in to its appearance. I’m sure in 1925, audiences must have been blown away by what they were seeing, but to the modern viewer it’s just as an awkward moment, “Oh, look! A Pterodactyl! MEH!” When we first saw Kong, we immediately feared for Ann Darrow’s (Fay Wray safety), but the Pterodactyl is never a threat to our protagonists; it munches on an animal in its talons and then promptly flies away, never to be seen again.

For many years the only available copy of The Lost World was a heavily mutilated print that ran a little over an hour, consequently giving the film a very disjointed feel about it. In 1998, a 93 minute print was located and it helped fill in a few narrative gaps, though even this print is missing important scenes (the original print ran 108 minutes).  One of the crucial scenes the 1998 print added back in was Edward’s relationship with his fickle girlfriend, Gladys. Edward desperately wants to marry her, but she rebukes his proposal saying she will “only marry a man of great deeds and strange experiences – a man who can look death in the face without flinching!” This is Edward’s main motivation for going on the expedition in the first place (as it is in the novel), yet this scene was surprisingly deleted from most prints, making you wonder why Edward would willingly risk life and limb for an expedition he doesn’t really believe in; he, at first, thinks Challenger’s claims of dinosaurs in the Amazon are complete nonsense.  It also essentially deletes Edward’s character arc, he goes from thinking the world of Gladys to finding true love in the arms of Paula. At the end of the film Edward bumps into Paula again, only to find that she has married a nebbish clerk named Percy Potts, and he couldn’t be more delighted. He has a few laughs with Gladys and her husband, wishes them luck, and then goes running into the arms of the awaiting Paula. It’s great to see these two scenes restored, because it gives the character of Edward some depth, instead of just being a handsome face that stumbles through the scenery. I personally would love to see Percy Potts get his own spin off; his story of how he landed a complete babe like Gladys would be an inspiration to geeks everywhere, especially me.  He has never left London his entire life and is afraid of his own shadow, yet he somehow manages to win the hand of the lovely Gladys ----truly inspirational!

 

However, the best thing about The Lost World, other than its special effects, is Wallace Beery’s portrayal of Professor Challenger, which is spot on from the book. Challenger has the mind of Einstein, but the body of a Neanderthal, and often gives into his more primitive instincts; it is revealed that he has attacked three reporters that tried to interview him. When Edward reveals that he is a reporter, Challenger lunges at him, but Edward is able to hide amongst the crowd. Later on, Edward sneaks into Challenger’s house and tries to plead his case, but Challenger won’t hear any of it, and the two of them tumble and tussle out the front door. It’s only after that Edward reveals he is a friend of Sir John Roxton that Challenger backs down and is willing to listen.  Challenger has all the intelligence in the world, but distances people with his boorish behavior. It takes the intervention of Edward to get the expedition funded; he is able to sell it to his newspaper as a rescue mission to save Maple White (which makes for a great human interest story).  It is a great performance from Beery, sadly, he gets lost in the shuffle once the special effects and the love triangle take front and center.  Professor Challenger has little to do in the second half, except antagonize fellow scientist, Professor Summerlee (Arthur Hoyt).

There is also a misguided attempt by the filmmakers to turn Sir John Roxton into a tragic figure; for all of his world renown, he is a lonely man. This might have worked if Sir John was a compelling figure, but he’s a complete bore.  It also doesn’t help that Edward is the audience surrogate; we see the world through his eyes, so naturally he’s the character we empathize with most.  He desperately seeks the love of Gladys, something that most of us can relate to and foolish jumps into dangerous because he wrongly thinks it will impress her. He’s a fallible character, hence relatable. Sir John is a rather distant character and his interest in Paula is a foolish pipe dream.  When the movie ends with him standing alone on the streets of London, we are totally indifferent to his plight. Lewis Stone is a fine enough actor, but he’s given very little to work with here. He played a very similar role in the camp classic The Mask of Fu Manchu and is much more effective, largely because he is a perfect foil for Karloff’s depraved madman. Plus, he’s so single minded in his goal to stop Fu Manchu that he doesn’t have time to pursue much younger women. PHEW!

 

Bessie Love has a great appeal as Paula White, largely due to her very expressive face. Indeed, Love’s likability is able to gloss over the fact that Paula is kind of a flake.  She could easily avoid the awkward moments with Sir John, if she just stated that she wasn’t interested in him, instead she laughs off his advances. She could easily throw out the word that most men dread to hear, “FRIENDS,” but she doesn’t even do that.  She avoids confrontation; because she doesn’t want to hurt Sir John’s feelings. However, inevitably the truth comes out and Sir John is heartbroken. It is even more infuriating that it is Edward that tells Sir John that Paula and him are going to get married. It is the ultimate cock punch!  Sir John is able to muster a smile, despite having his heart stomped on. When it looks like the expedition will make it back to civilization, after all, Paula calls off the engagement with Edward, because of his obligation to Gladys (which is kind of moot point, given that Gladys doesn’t love Edward and never agreed to marry him).  Once it is revealed that Gladys is married to the awesome Percy Potts, Paula, once again, kicks Sir John to the curb and embraces Edward. UGH!   Love would later go onto to star in The Broadway Melody, which was the first sound feature to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Alas, it has not aged particularly well, but she manages to liven up the proceedings with her likable personality.  This time around, her character is on the fuzzy end of a love triangle; her bland boring boyfriend falls in love with her younger sister.

When The Lost World is mentioned, no one ever thinks of the cast and the director, but rather the stop motion special effects by Willis O’ Brien. As mentioned in the introduction, the special effects are extremely dated and fairly jerky at times, but there are some genuinely effective moments.  The most famous scene is the Brontosaur rampaging through London at the film’s climax, but to me, the most nightmarish sequence is the Allosaur attack on the expedition party. It’s a rare moment where the filmmakers are able to build up some tension; the Allosaur is first seen in the shadows, obscured by a couple of trees. The only thing visible is its eyes, which come across as two glowing orbs floating in the night sky. It finally emerges from the trees and attacks the party. They are able to repel it by throwing a torch in its mouth. It’s a brief scene, but highly effective.  It’s one of the few scenes in the movie where the actors actually interact with a dinosaur; usually the effects scenes are fairly unrelated to the actual storyline. It is common to have a scene with the cast doing a bit of business, then the film will cut to two dinosaurs duking it out, then cut back to the cast, who are completely oblivious to the prehistoric wrestling match that just occurred.  The Lost World is relevant, because in many ways, it proved to be a test run for the much superior King Kong, which still inspires filmmakers to this very day.  Also, it gave us the memorable character of Percy Potts…a truly original creation. Hopefully, a young filmmaker will realize the potential of this awesome character and give him his own movie. It is long overdue!

Credits:

Cast:  Wallace Beery (Professor Challenger), Bessie Love (Paula White), Lloyd Hughes (Edward Malone), Lewis Stone (Sir John Roxton), Alma Bennett (Gladys Hungerford), Arthur Hoyt (Professor Summerlee), Bull Montana (Ape Man), Margaret McWade (Mrs. Challenger), Finch Smiles (Austin), Jules Cowles (Zambo).

Screenplay: Marion Fairfax.
Based on the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Director: Harry O. Hoyt
Running Time: 93 min.