Rent Hellzapoppin' (1941)
3.6 of 5 from 81 ratings
1h 20min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson star in this ground-breaking comedy classic. Way ahead of its time, it's been described as 'Pythonesque' and has influenced generations of comedians. Somewhere amid the non-stop gags and hysterical mayhem there's a plot involving the staging of a musical, a romance, a bumbling private eye and a man who keeps wandering on with a pot plant for 'Mrs Jones'! But any plot is incidental to the speed, imagination and sheer craziness that has been said to outstrip the Marx Brothers (Time Out Film Guide). And there's even room for the greatest Lindy Hop dance routine ever filmed.
- Actors:
- Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Martha Raye, Hugh Herbert, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, Mischa Auer, Richard Lane, Lewis Howard, Clarence Kolb, Nella Walker, Shemp Howard, Elisha Cook Jr., Frank Darien, Catherine Johnson
- Directors:
- H.C. Potter
- Producers:
- Jules Levey
- Writers:
- Nat Perrin, Warren Wilson, Alex Gottlieb
- Others:
- Gene de Paul, Don Raye
- Aka:
- Hellzapoppin - In der Hölle ist der Teufel los
- Studio:
- Second Sight Films Ltd.
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Music & Musicals
- Collections:
- A History of Cinemas in Films, A History of Films about Film: Part 1, Cinema's Most Memorable Comedy Double Acts, Films & TV by topic, A Brief History of Film...
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Reviews (1) of Hellzapoppin'
Off the Reels - Hellzapoppin' review by griggs
Right, so. Where do I even start.
Hellzapoppin’ doesn’t begin so much as ambush you: Olsen and Johnson, vaudeville’s most unhinged double act, arrive through a cinema projector and start unspooling the whole medium. They don’t break the fourth wall. They dynamite it. Then make a joke about the dynamite.
I laughed at things I couldn’t explain. Lost the plot on purpose — which is fine, because so did the film. There’s a jitterbug sequence in the middle that has no right to be this good.
Not every gag lands. Doesn’t matter. It’s 1941 and it’s already pulling off meta-comedy that cinema wouldn’t catch up to for decades.
Chaotic. Ridiculous. Delightful.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.