Hellzapoppin (film)

Hellzapoppin' is a 1941 Universal Pictures adaptation of the musical of the same name directed by H.C. Potter. The cast includes Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson (who produced and starred in it on Broadway), Martha Raye, Mischa Auer, Shemp Howard, Whitey's Lindy Hoppers and The Six Hits.

Contents

• Swing dancing from the movie hellzapoppin 1941
• Hellzapoppin 1941 full movie
• Cast
• References

Shemp Howard begins the film as the projectionist of a cinema, displaying on its screen what appears to be the start of a song-and-dance number whose classily dressed performers walk down a staircase - which collapses as in a fun-house ride, sliding them all straight to hell. Demons punish them in various ways. Ole and Chic arrive in the midst of the mayhem by taxi, and after a bit of funny business step back to reveal that it's a movie sound stage. They work for Miracle Pictures, a company using the slogan "If it's a good picture, it's a Miracle!" A mousy screenwriter (Elisha Cook, Jr.) outlines his script for the screen adaptation of Hellzapoppin', and the rest of the movie depicts Cook's crazy script. Among the topical humor is Johnson picking up a sled named "Rosebud" and saying "I thought they'd burnt that" (Olsen and Johnson were friends of Orson Welles, whose film Citizen Kane closes with Kane's childhood sled being burnt).

The film has a frenetic pace, and often breaks the 'Fourth wall', including inner 'fourth walls' introduced by its nonlinear, metafictional narrative.

The 1942 Academy Award nomination for Best Song for "Pig Foot Pete," (which lost to "White Christmas"), was attributed to Hellzapoppin', but the song never appeared in the film -- it was actually performed in another Universal production from the same year, the Abbott and Costello film Keep 'Em Flying.

Cast

Ole Olsen as Ole Olsen

Chic Johnson as Chic Johnson

Martha Raye as Betty Johnson

Hugh Herbert as Quimby

Jane Frazee as Kitty Rand

Robert Paige as Jeff Hunter

Mischa Auer as Pepi

Richard Lane as Director

Lewis Howard as Woody Taylor

Clarence Kolb as Andrew Rand

Nella Walker as Mrs. Rand

Shemp Howard as Louie

Elisha Cook Jr. as Harry Selby

Frank Darien as Man calling for Mrs. Jones

Catherine Johnson as Lena, lady looking for Oscar

Gus Schilling as Orchestra Conductor

Slim Gaillard as himself, part of Slim and Slam

Slam Stewart as himself, part of Slim and Slam

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (including Norma Miller as a cook) as the Harlem Congeroos

Dale Van Sickel as Frankenstein's monster (uncredited)