Hollywood Hotel (Warner Bros.) (1937)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

LY FAVORABLE REACTIONS ... There's box office draw in this one for all theatres” VARIETY HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (MUSICAL) Hollywood, Dee. 21. It was bound to happen sooner or later; the films have taken one of the better known radio programs and have reversed the picture preview idea by filming the ‘Hollywood Hotel’ air hour. It’s a smash musical entertainment, with a lively and amusing story and some popular song numbers. There’s box office draw in this one for all theatres, from first runs to the smallest houses. Warners has assembled an excellent cast, not the least interesting of whom is Louella O. Parsons, newspaper columnist, who makes an effective debut as an actress Her performance is not likely to disturb Katharine Cornell or Helen Hayes and the positions they occupy in the theatre, but Miss Parsons is herself on the screen, and that’s news. She gets away with it. Production is elaborate, and Busby Berkeley’s direction keeps the players going at top speed. In leading roles are Dick Powell, Rosemary and Lola Lane, Hugh Herbert, Ted Healey, Glenda Farrell, Alan Mowbray, Duane Thompson, Grant Mitchell and Edgar Kennedy. Special orchestra numbers are supplied by Benny Goodman and Raymond Paige. Hollywood film studios and broadcasting are the basis of a farcical story which pokes fun at both the picture-making business and_ the radio industry. Story is by Jerry Wald and Maurice Leo, who have developed a satire which is original and humorous. Eight musical numbers are by Whiting and Mercer, best of which are ‘I’m Like a Fish Out of Water’ and ‘Silhoueted in the Moonlight.’ These and perhaps several others are likely to get numerous airings. All the better known Hollywood places of interest are shown in the picture, including the exterior of the Hollywood Hotel on Hollywood Blvd., now a not-too-prominent hostelry. Once the cameras enter the door considerable license has been taken with the interiors, which are a combination of the Waldorf lobby and the Mme. DuBarry boudoir. Even the film studios have been burlesqued. One of them boasts a huge sign which says ‘Miracle Pictures: If It’s a Good Picture, It’s a Miracle.’ That’s been a trade gag in the east for some time, but first time given such wide usage. Lane sisters, Rosemary and Lola turn in good performances, and Ted Healy and Hugh Herbert have some very funny material. Dick Powell’s song numbers are first rate. ‘Hollywood Hotel’ will be a business stimuJator and is well timed to follow right in after the holiday buildup. Flin, ... Eye-filling musical comedy should do a healthy business at the B. 0.” Monday, Dec. 27, 1937 “Hollywood Hotel” with Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane Lola Lane Warners 104 Mins. (HOLLYWOOD PREVIEW) EYE-FILLING MUSICAL COMEDY SHOULD DO A HEALTHY BUSINESS AT THE B.0. Here is an eye-filling musical comedy that should do a healthy business at the box-office. It has pleasing players, catchy songs, Benny Gocdman’s band, Raymond Paige’s orchestra, comedy and satire. Busby Berkeley faced a big task in directing all the elements of the production, but came through with flying colors. Sam Bischoff rates much credit as associate producer. Dick Powell does excellent work while Lola Lane has a field day as a Holiywood movie star, high in sex appeal but low in mentality. Her sister, Rosemary Lane, leaps into prominence with her singing and charm. Alan Mowbray is outstanding as a conceited leading man and caricaturing the role, he wins many laughs. Hugh Herbert, Ted Healy, Glenda Farreil, Mabel Todd, a newcomer, Edgar Kennedy, Fritz Feld, Curt Bois score with their comedy. Allyn Joselyn and Grant Mitche}! are among the important principals. Frances Langford, Jerry Cooper and Johnnie Davis are among the singers. Louella Parsons plays herself as originator of the “Hollywood Hotel” air program. “tm Like a Fish Out of Water” is a catchy number by Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer that Powell and Rosemary Lane sing while prancing in a pool. “Silhouetted in the Moonlight” is an effective number staged in ‘The Hollywood Bowl.” The screenplay by Jerry Wald, Maurice Leo and Richard Macaulay is based on an original story by Wald and Leo. When temperamental Lola Lane refuses to attend the grand premiere of her picture, Rosemary Lane, a stunt girl, who resembles her greatly, is pressed into service and poses as Lola at the opening. She is escorted by Powell, who has just arrived in Hollywocd under contract to Lola’s company. Powell loses his job, but allows his voice to be dubbed in for Mowbray’s in a picture. He also gets on the “Hollywood Hotel” program, and after some complications, wins Rosemary. CAST: Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Hugh Herbert, Ted Healy, Glenda Farrell, Johnnie Davis, Louella Parsons, Alan Mowbray, Mabel Tedd, Frances Langford, Jerry Cooper, Ken Niles, Duane Thompson, Allyn Joslyn, Grant Mitchell, Edgar Kennedy, Fritz Feld, Curt Bois, Perc Westmore, Eddie Acuff, Clinton Resemond, William Davidson, Wally Maher, Georgia Cooper, Libby Taylor, Joe Romantini, Paul Irving, Raymond Paige and his orchestra, Beny Goodman and his orchestra. CREDITS: Executive Producer, Hal B. Wallis; Associate Producer, Sam Bischoff; Director, Busby Berkeley; Authors, Jerry Waid, Maurice Leo; Screenplay, Jerry Wald, Maurice Leo, Richard Macaulay; Dialogue Director, Gene Lewis; Cameraman, Charles Rosher, George Barnes on the finale; Art Director, Robert Haas; Editor, George Amy; Music and Lyrics, Richard Whiting, Johnny Mercer; Orchestral Arrangements, Ray Heindorf; Musical Director, Leo F. Forbstein. DIRECTION, Tops. PHOTOGRAPHY, Splendid. [a 7 — Motion Picture Herald ... Will live up to its billing and beyond when unfurled before the public.” MOTION PICTURE HERALD December 25, 1937 Hollywood Hotel (Warner Brothers) Cinemusical Comedy Showmen fascinated by the luscious box office copy spread before them by Warner Brothers in the advertising pages of this popular publication will be glad to learn that in the opinion of a not especially friendly Hollywood preview audience attending the Films Natal exhibition on Monday night, they are fully justified. In reiterating every line of it and underscoring most, there were those among the invited gentlemen of the press who, believing themselves journalistic rivals of Miss Louella Parsons, had high hopes for the worst when they sat down to view the picture predicated upon her radio program and introducing her to the screen as actress, but their laughter and applause mingled congenially with that of payees and professionals present so frequently, spontaneously and voluminously as to leave no room for doubt that the picture will live up to its billing and beyond when unfurled before an impartial public. : In their production of the picture that ties cinema and radio together so tightly as to seem more than ever one, Warners have gone back to the first principles of cinemusical comedy manufacture by application of which they long ago. hung up a record for success in this type of enterprise and a sequence of smash hits still unmatched by any other studio. In this instance, as in those, proceedings get under way with a blast of music and motion and continue unslowed yet uncluttered through alternate flashes of song, dance, comedy and appropriate narrative with camera never contented with one angle long enough for eye to get tired of it. Engaged in all this are a long list of box office personalities with emphasis distributed discreetly and no one stealing the show. Dick Powell is no doubt the outstanding marquee name and this is the old Dick Powell singing his way up from obscurity to fame in the old engagingly modest manner. Rosemary and Lola Lane set a new high for sister acts as a temperamental star and her waitress double. Louella Parsons plays Louella Parsons as Louella Parsons is and the box office potency of that announcement to millions of Hearst readers and Campbell Soup consumers who want to see as well as read and hear her is patently tremendous. Hugh Herbert, Ted Healy, Alan Mowbray and Edgar Kennedy attend to major comedy duties with Glenda Farrell and Mabel Todd representing the distaff side with equally hilarious result. Frances Langford and Jerry Cooper of the radio program are heard in accustomed voice and not only Raymond Paige’s orchestra from the same but also Benny Goodman’s dish un the eight songs by Whiting and Mercer, plus incidental score and a Russian folk song, in a manner seldom equalled and never excelled on screen or air. In addition to all this highly exploitable material, the showman also has here a story to sell his clients. It is an original by Jerry Wald and ~ Maurice Leo who also prepared the screen play, with Richard Macauley collaborating, and original is an unusually -ccurate word for it. The tale is of a temperamental starring team and a pair of youngsters whose destinies get all tangled up in theirs and unsnarl at picture’s end in formal Hollywood fashion. The scene is of course Hollywood and practically all of it, including a spectacularly imaginative interior of the real Hollywood Hotel that no doubt will bring that venerable hostelry more expectant reservations than all the Ritzes in the world could ever satisfy. The time is now, the tempo terrific and there isn’t a line, scene or piece of business to bring a blush to the daintiest cheek. Previewed December 20th at the Warner Hollywood theatre with tumultuously favorable reactions.—_W. R. W. idio Commentators say, on next page...