All Over Town (1937) watch online HD

This was made when they were still trying to turn Olsen and Johnson into the next Wheeler and Woolsey instead of the next Abbott and Costello, and long before their Broadway hit, "Hellzapoppin'".

This is really a weak mixed bag. It starts out in a boarding house where O&J have stashed a trained seal as part of their vaudeville act, and are trying to hide it from the landlady (who towers over them! What were Ole and Chick, midgets?) They go to a theater to audition their act and discover the theater is supposed to be haunted. So you think this is going to be their "Hold That Ghost". But no, they quickly forget the ghost angle and get involved with trying to save the theater by putting on a show and solving a murder on a live radio broadcast.

Ole and Chick are the stars and get featured bits with the seal, doing a ventriloquist act, and have a mildly amusing Abbott-like scene where the slick talking partner tries to get his tubby sidekick to confess to the murder. They also do a nice play by play broadcast of the final chase scene as the cops try and capture the killer, constantly punctuated by the product placement: "brought to you through the courtesy of MacDougal's Mackeral".

James Finlayson took a holiday from the Laurel and Hardy films to play the angry Mr. MacDougal. He's okay, but its not his best work. The crazy theater stage manager probably has the best bits in the film, which is far from Olsen and Johnson's best, but still watchable.

A simple telling of the plot would go something like this- Olsen and Johnson talk their way into putting on a show in a jinxed theater. The theater isn't really jinxed but is wanted by some one who'll do anything to get it. A murder occurs during a rehearsal after which Olsen and Johnson state that they will reveal who done it on a radio program, Unfortunately the murderer has other plans. Since any detailed explanation of the goings on would take as long as this hour long film, you'd better just find a copy and watch it to see for yourself.

Lets face it, Olsen and Johnson never really made a movie with anything that resembled a plot. Oh sure the movies have a through lines but its a rare film that ever went there on a straight course. Olsen and Johnson loved to take the scenic route to "The End". Plots were never more than something to hang a never ending series of gags on. Here the plot takes frequent detours and stops for what is often inspired lunacy. In most of the duo's films you really don't care about the fits and starts since you're laughing too hard. Here the fits and starts cause an unevenness to the affair with some bits going on too long and some bits not long enough (for example the bit with the radio program is rather too short, as if they came up with the idea, then ran out of time only to realize that they really had to do something with it). Its an odd mix that makes it not quite as good as the other films I've seen by the pair. Sure its funny but it doesn't hang together a well as it should (and the disappointment is only in comparison to other Olsen and Johnson films).

Is this film worth seeing. Yes its funny and it will make you laugh. But while I am a fan of the stars, and I know you will laugh, you probably won't come away as fans since this is a lesser film. (though you might want to try to get a second classic comedy to round out your nights viewing)

I'm a person whose taste in film runs to strong plots and structured stories. But in the case of Olsen and Johnson one doesn't really need them, they get in the way.

Even the Marx Brothers had to have a structured story line for their films, but Ole and Chic had to have them forced on their persons. All Over Town is the story of a couple Oklahoma filling station operators and part time vaudevillians with a seal act who are behind at their theatrical boarding house with their rent. Somehow the sale of their filling station which nets them the astronomical sum of $150.00 makes some think they've inherited a bankroll. As we learn that term is relative.

They try to get a show going at Mary Howard's theater, but the place has been closed down for years due to an actor's homicide there. Then another homicide of a potential show backer in the same place almost finishes Olsen and Johnson and the seal for good. But a choleric radio sponsor played by Laurel and Hardy regular James Finlayson gives them their break with a promise of them solving the crime. It's close run thing after that.

I have to say that in his scenes Finlayson proves just as perfect a foil for Ole and Chic as he was for Stan and Ollie. And Stanley Fields who does equally good in comedy and drama has a great scene as the murderer's henchmen who gets outsmarted by the seal.

All Over Town is a fine introduction to the zany comedy of Olsen And Johnson.

In Manhattan, vaudeville comic team Ole Olsen (as Ole Olsen) and Chic Johnson (as Chic Johnson) practice performing with their live seal. Probably their room has a "no pets" policy, because "Sally" the seal annoys landlady Blanche Payson (as Mother Wilson). Also, the rent is due. Olsen and Johnson are mistaken for oil millionaires and decide to help nice Mary Howard (as Joan Eldridge) re-open her musical theater, which was shut down after a mysterious death. That death is never explained or connected with another one, which our heroes attempt to solve. They also become suspects. Olsen and Johnson are much better represented in the 1941 film version of their Broadway hit "Hellzapoppin'!" (1938).

*** All Over Town (9/8/37) James Horne ~ Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Mary Howard, Harry Stockwell

Executive producer: Herbert J. Yates. Copyright 8 September 1937 by Republic Pictures Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 8 September 1937. Australian release through British Empire Films: December 1937. 6 reels. 61 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Two zanies back a Broadway song-and-dance show.

COMMENT: A few critics have complained that some of the gags misfire in this glorious hodge-podge of crazy vaudeville routines. Well, maybe they do, but frankly I was laughing so much, I didn't notice any dull patches at all. In fact, I spent so much time rolling out of my chair, I still didn't pick out Alan Ladd even though I was determined to catch him this time around. And such an easy catch too. Maybe he stood on a ladder in this one!

True, unlike Hellzapoppin, this early try-out does have a well- defined plot—but even that proceeds in a wriggling line that allows our comedians to share the laughs amongst the cast. It's a fact that one or two players do make rather heavy weather of their gags, but it really doesn't matter when you have wonderful clowns like Stanley Fields and Lew Kelly on hand. In fact, it's Kelly who literally runs away with the movie's acting honors, though admittedly he's given some utterly fantastic business and knockout lines ("Well, I put up a good fight…")!

I will agree that the heroine has very little to do, so if you're a Mary Howard fan, better give the film a miss. Come to think of it, Harry Stockwell is given an even more detailed introduction, and he virtually disappears with every greater rapidity. Well, at least he seems to. Maybe he's there all the time, but you just don't notice him in the midst of all the James Finlayson-Franklin Pangborn-Fred Kelsey-Eddie Kane mayhem. A pity! Harry made only five or six movies and he's just great as the Prince in Snow White ("One song! I have but one song…")

To sum up: An absolute must for Olsen and Johnson (and Lew Kelly) addicts!

AVAILABLE on DVD through Alpha. Quality rating: Eight out of ten.

For a movie made on a shoestring during the Great Depression, this movie delivers plenty of laughs -- which is precisely what it was designed to do. It isn't educational, and it doesn't have a "moral", and it isn't high-brow. Neither were the Stooges. The only public goal of making a movie like this (besides getting paid) is to make people laugh a little during one of the darkest times of modern history. And it pulls that off with aplomb.

For anyone out there seeking depth where there isn't supposed to be any, I have this to say: Just because the plot changes direction to fit the jokes instead of the other way around, that doesn't make it a bad movie. Watch the flick and laugh along. It's only 63 minutes long. Can you stand 63 minutes of laughter in your life?

"All Over Town" is the first Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson film I have ever watched, so I think I'm not qualified to rate them as a comedy duo yet. In this particular film, they try hard, but most of the time the material simply isn't there. The fact that there is practically no plot could be forgiven if the movie was funnier. Here's the best dialogue exchange, in my opinion, so you can estimate the quality of the picture as a whole: "I heard a shot" - "That was our revolver, we didn't know it was loaded" - "But I heard two shots" - "We had to fire it twice to make SURE it wasn't loaded!". The person talking to Olsen and Johnson in the above scene is their landlord in the film, played by the towering Blance Payson, who was actually a real-life policewoman before becoming a prolific actress! I think she was also the funniest supporting player in this cast, but after the first 10 minutes she disappears. ** out of 4.

Olsen and Johnson have a trained seal and they want to book it into a show at Mary Howard's theater. The trouble is that Miss Howard is about to lose the theater, so Olsen and Johnson....

Why am I discussing plot in an Olsen and Johnson movie? It's all just an excuse get from one comedy set-piece to the next under the nominal direction of James Horne, with lots of supporting comics like Fred Kelsey and James Finlayson and Franklin Pangborn and Getrude Astor. There's a sequence at the chaotic boarding house run by Blanche Payson. There's a scene at the chaotic theater when they're trying to put on a show. There's the scene when Fred Kelsey comes in to investigate the murder. There's the scene.....

What murder you ask? It doesn't matter, it's all an excuse to get to the next gag set-up. They made this one for Republic, so it's certainly a step down from trouping for Warner Brothers in 1930.

The pair were burlesque comedians with timing and chaotic gags to match. They had entered show business as musicians -- Olsen was credited as the lyricist for "You're in the Army Now." The movies kept trying to make them a working screen pair, and they would appear in several more movies, until Universal filmed their stage hit HELLZAPOPPIN', which was basically a collection of chaotic gags. Then Abbott and Costello came along and knocked them out of the box.

And this movie? There are some funny moments in it, mostly when they're trying to put one over on Jimmy Finlayson, but despite Horne, an ailing Jimmy Parrott building gags and the other alumni from Roach, their style didn't match anything, except a plotless chaos.

Released in 1937, All Over Town starred Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson well as Olsen and Johnson. Running for little over an hour All Over Town is fun enough to pass the time if nothing serious is happening in the viewer's life. Watching this movie alone Olsen and Johnson makes for a good comedy act. Lot of funny moments All Over Town produces. All this gets culminated when the pair had to reveal the name of a murderer on live radio. There was certainly fun hijinks before this revelation was made. While the humour is not one that would necessarily all over town it is good for this viewer's home.

Moderately better than "Country Gentlemen", this second Olsen and Johnson teaming at Republic Studios has the benefit of not having been greatly chopped up by T.V. editors, those prints of which have been released to home viewers. Here, Olsen and Johnson are vaudevillians desperate to get a show on Broadway, and with the help of a trained seal and residents of the theatrical boarding house they are living in, they prepare to put on a show at the haunted Eldredge Theater where ultimately a murder during rehearsal leads to an investigation and a ton of suspects, including the two funny men. This takes the comics back to the type of schtick that they were famous for, hiding the lovable seal from a rather aggressive landlady and having a hysterical chase sequence when the killer is finally revealed. There's a rather amusing scene where the very gay Franklin Pangborn describes the type of outfits he's working on for the chorus girls and Olsen and Johnson react strongly to his obvious effeminate nature. Then, there is their encounter with Laurel and Hardy foil James Finlayson, auditioning for him rather badly and dealing with his reactions to their "talent". In spite of all that, this is pretty second rate stuff, quickly made, but bogged down in schtick that is often more cringe-worthy than laugh-worthy. Mary Howard is lovely as the owner of the theater who insists that it's not haunted, while Fred Kelsey adds another one of his extremely dumb detectives to his many such similar roles. This is strictly for fans of old comedy teams, and even then, it's still a mixed bag.

The only other Olsen and Johnson movie I have seen (HELLZAPOPPIN) was a radically different film from ALL OVER TOWN. HELLZAPOPPIN was a wild free-for-all and I was once again hoping this would be the case. So wild, it made Marx Brothers films such as DUCK SOUP seem very normal! However, up until the final ten minutes, ALL OVER TOWN was an amazingly conventional film--something that made it a bit of a disappointment. I wanted to see the crazy and rapid-fire antics!

The film starts with Olsen and Johnson coaching their pet seal to play the horn as well as trying to hide the beast from their land lady. However, through a strange set of coincidences, everyone thinks that they are millionaires who are financing a Broadway show. However, the boys DON'T know this and are shocked to find out what others are thinking. When the truth is revealed, it's a bit of a flat moment in the film, though it didn't last, as shortly after this there's a murder and the film unexpectedly becomes a whodunnit--with these two idiots in charge of finding out the truth.

Up to this point so far, the film was not particularly interesting or inspired. To make things worse, much of Johnson's screen persona was annoying--laughing and laughing and laughing for absolutely no reason. It was grating and I frankly wanted the film to end. However, near the very end, the film degenerated into a silly free-for-all--and improved as a result! Now this was NOT brilliant film making, but at least it finally made me laugh. But, since it took so long for the film to stop being so gosh-darn conventional, I give it a score of 6--indicating for the average person it's a decent time-passer. By the way, aside from the horrible laugh, this film is highly reminiscent of an Abbott and Costello film in style--even though Bud and Lou had yet to make a film.

By the way, if you do want to see HELLZAPOPPIN, it's practically impossible to find in the US due to some sort of legal technicalities.