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      Hellzapoppin'

      Released Dec 26, 1941 1h 24m Musical Comedy List
      Reviews 85% Audience Score 500+ Ratings Based on the Broadway hit of the same name, this comedy finds Ole (Ole Olsen) and Chic (Chic Johnson) trying to organize a musical show at a lavish estate. They run into problems when the show's producer, Jeff (Robert Paige), falls in love with estate resident Kitty (Jane Frazee) and has to compete with her fiancé (Lewis Howard). Meanwhile, Chic's sister Betty (Martha Raye) chases after a supposed Russian count. Gags and dance numbers abound in this madcap lark. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (4) Critics Reviews
      James Agee TIME Magazine On celluloid, Hellzapoppin loses the frenetic quality it achieved on the stage. Feb 27, 2018 Full Review J.E. Pobes Cine-Mundial We recommend this movie as an effective antidote in these times of worry that overwhelm us. [Full Review in Spanish] Sep 19, 2019 Full Review Tomas Trussow The Lonely Film Critic Almost eighty years on, and it's still a hoot to behold. Rated: 4.5/5 Jul 2, 2019 Full Review Phil Hall Film Threat The most wonderfully surreal comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age. Rated: 5/5 Aug 6, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Kay D This is so funny I don't know where to begin. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/19/24 Full Review Taylor L Fun fact: Hellzapoppin' received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song for 'Pig Foot Pete'. The only problem was, that song didn't appear in Hellzapoppin', but an Abbot and Costello film from the same year. The Academy got the studio right, but not the film. Full of fourth-wall breaks and nonstop comedy, Hellzapoppin' is one of the most distinctive and surreal of Golden Age Hollywood comedies. The plot is thin but it's really just a loose structure for the comedy - often self-aware, featuring classic vaudevillian tropes, a series of musical numbers and stage bits lifted straight from the theatrical original but featuring several surprisingly experimental bits of film editing to give some rationale to the adaptation. The dedication to nonstop absurdism seems completely out of place for a relatively risk-averse Hollywood, a shockingly early progenitor of the Mel Brooks comedic style (particularly the infusion of full, satirical musical bits) and the Leslie Nielsen/ZAZ comedies of the '80s. Even its sensibilities seem surprisingly subversive for the time, featuring not only more active and expressive female characters but a prolonged and tastefully handled jazz dance number performed by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, a predominantly African American group. Relatively little known today, but still featuring plenty of enjoyment for modern audiences, funny and wholesome without being simplistic. (3.5/5) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/15/22 Full Review Audience Member great fun with the fourth wall broken beyond repair. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/05/22 Full Review lariste l Full disclosure: for a 1941 "epic musical/comedy" the film is literally overflowing with quality stunt work, dance, visual gags, bits of music and forms of technical film-making (camera tricks, rotoscoping etc) and the characters "break the fourth wall" by referring to the film projectionist. All very "meta" - now for the downside, the awful, wooden and rather sanitized all-American comedy isn't actually too funny, and instead of a farce, the film is frustratingly plotless. In the same way major studios have, in our modern era, attempted to release an essentially experimental film work as an innovative "new" movie (Natural Born Killers, for instance), this film is indeed a compendium of about 300 bizarre, and purely filmic "tricks and techniques", the characters are basically living cartoons though, and the plot is non-existent. The film appears to be ABOUT a romantic misunderstanding amid a musical being staged somewhere, (arguably a satire of 30s era musicals.) but viewers could be forgiven for thinking the movie is just a display of stuntwork, music and ego without any at all. Jokes range from surprising and quick to very literal and kinda dumb, but lots of. Lots of everything, except story. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member You can see how elements were an early inspiration for Monty Python irreverence but it has aged really badly. Meant to be funny but the humour is very poor, not even a snigger induced all film. I don't get why they made an attractive woman out to be so hideous as one of their jokes. Made no sense. It gets bonus marks for the most impressive dance vignette I've ever seen in a film. The Lindy hop dancing for three minutes is off the charts brilliant and can be found online to save yourself watching what is otherwise a film worth avoiding. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member So zany that not even the fourth wall can contain the chaos, it's the Marx Bros. meet Mel Brooks in this blackout bedlam, a ribald rapid fire riot that barely makes for a single movie yet somehow made up of a movie within a movie within a movie within—well, you get the picture, right down off the wall and still in its frame. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

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      Hellzapoppin'

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Based on the Broadway hit of the same name, this comedy finds Ole (Ole Olsen) and Chic (Chic Johnson) trying to organize a musical show at a lavish estate. They run into problems when the show's producer, Jeff (Robert Paige), falls in love with estate resident Kitty (Jane Frazee) and has to compete with her fiancé (Lewis Howard). Meanwhile, Chic's sister Betty (Martha Raye) chases after a supposed Russian count. Gags and dance numbers abound in this madcap lark.
      Director
      H. C. Potter
      Screenwriter
      Nat Perrin, Warren Wilson, Nat Perrin
      Genre
      Musical, Comedy
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 26, 1941, Original
      Runtime
      1h 24m