“Hellzapoppin’” (1941)

The only Hollywood sound film to rival the Marx brothers for inspired lunacy, “Hellzapoppin’” is a version of Broadway’s longest running hit of the 1930s.  Given that the show was a collection of variety acts, running gags and risque humour lacking a conventional narrative the problems of adaptation were numerous.  A solution was found in a framing device which shifts quickly from purgatory to a screen writer’s office, with stars Ole Oleson and Chic Johnson given a fast lesson on the difference between stage and screen.

The subsequent story-within-a-story has as many romantic cliches and as much period music as any of the MGM Marx brothers movies.  However, stylistically a cinematic equivalent to theatre’s physical hi-jinks is also achieved.  Double exposure jokes, direct addresses to the audience and the supposed projectionist (played by the Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard), and the world’s first “Citizen Kane” homage give “Hellzapoppin’” a post modern edge four decades before the term was coined.  While Oleson and Johnson are themselves little more than a poor man’s Martin and Lewis there is comedic talent to spare in a supporting cast which includes wide-mouthed Martha Raye and bumbling Hugh Herbert.