Hollywood Party (1937) watch online HD

This short serves as both a fashion show and as a demonstration of the beauty of Technicolor. It's interesting as the former and terrific as the latter. As others have pointed out, the color is superb--clear, crisp and deep as only three-strip Technicolor can be, and while I've never been much of a connoisseur of '30s fashions, I actually liked some of the stuff I saw here. There's one segment with a bevy of showgirls passing in a sort of "Miss America" review dressed in some Las Vegas-type costumes that rank among the skimpiest I've ever seen in a non-stag movie of that period--not that I'm complaining--that serves to show off both the costumes' spectacular colors and the girls' spectacular bodies (which it does to a very satisfying degree; I don't know how MGM got away with showing so many almost-nude women back then). There's a rather boring hula by a woman who fortunately looks good but unfortunately can't dance very well, a forced and unfunny "novelty" Spike Jones-type number by the Al Lyons Band, a rather pedestrian tap dancing act, a few other musical interludes--none of them even remotely memorable--and some VERY brief cameos by such MGM stars as Clark Gable and Joan Bennett. The film's main drawback, however, is the premise--a group of white actors dressing up and acting like "Chinamen" (comedian Charley Chase is particularly embarrassing doing an awful Fu Manchu/Charlie Chan impersonation), including everyone from the band to the waiters. Leon Errol does his patented drunk routine but it doesn't seem to really have anything to do with the movie--it just involves him and a waiter for a minute or two and then they're gone--and a quartet of black singers does a clever "hum" of "Chinatown My Chinatown". Even for the "unenlightened" 1930s, this short really pours on the stereotypes about Asians, especially Chinese. It gets embarrassing every so often--well, okay, it gets embarrassing A LOT--but even so, it's extremely interesting as an historical document. I gave it four stars: two for the beautiful color (and zero for the lame musical numbers, the witless "comedy" and the offensive and insulting racial stereotyping) and two for the all-too-brief appearance of the luminous Anna May Wong, who looks sexier than I've ever seen her (and in color, yet!) modeling a beautiful blue (apparently silk) gown and then an even more beautiful yellow one. She just radiates charm, grace and class, three things this short is completely devoid of. It could have used much more of her and much less of everybody else.

The 3-strip technicolor is the real star of this musical/comedy hodgepodge. The hosts are Elissa Landi and Charlie Chase in an oriental-themed program. We see glimpses of Joan Bennett, Clark Gable, Joe E. Brown and a nice fashion display with Anna May Wong. The real talent is in a quartet of black singers doing a rendition of "Chinatown, My Chinatown". There is a nice scene with a hula-motiff and the song "South Sea Island Magic". Some rather routine dance numbers and so-so Leon Carroll sketch to fill it all out. Watch for it on TCM.

"Hollywood Party" is a 21-minute live action short film from 1937, so it has its 80th anniversary this year. Of course, it is tough to find fault in such an old movie that does not only have sound (films usually did in the 1930s), but is also in color, namely Technicolor. But lets be honest here: This movie by Rowland and Krafft offers little in terms of the contents. It is basically a collection of stars from back then with the occasional interruption of music and comedy. But neither the music is too great nor the comedy too funny. And it's even difficult to appreciate the stars, even if they may include some of your favorites, because they disappear as quickly as they appear. It's certainly a case of quantity over quality and they tried to include as much/many as possible without giving them time to shine really. This is also the main reason why I would not recommend the watch here. Overall, a relatively underwhelming little show. Thumbs down.

You'll be giving this short the bird too, and yes, Charlie Chan Chase actually did say that to the film's hostess, Elissa Landi. This is really an embarrassing little flick with all sorts of racial stereotyping; given the era most of it's understandable but it's still painful to watch. Clark Gable, Joan Bennett and Joe E. Lewis all make brief cameos, they probably should have begged off. The setting is an East-Asian themed garden tea party, and the Oriental flavor is most evident in the brightly colored costumes of the dancers. There's a segment in which a host of Oriental ladies wearing very little make their appearance. I have a comment to make about that but it might get the old heave-ho here and I don't want to offend. Among the mostly talent-less performers, Anita May Wong is fairly entertaining with her song number, one of the brighter spots in this mercifully short offering.

When this short was produced in 1937 three strip technicolor had only been in use four years. The color photography is beautiful and vibrant -astonishing really when you first see it. The subject matter is another matter. This short has an Asian theme with obviously Caucasian actors and actresses masquerading as Asians in full Asian dress. There is much poking fun at Asian speech and manners. Black Americans are also stereotyped in this film. All of the latter greatly detract from the film. As far as subject matter is concerned the only sensible moment in the whole thing is a brief appearance of Anna May Wong. There are also very brief cameo introductions of Clark Gable, Joe E. Brown and Freddie Bartholomew. So, from a technical point - wonderful, from all other points - a disaster by current standards.

It seems to be unanimous that this is a really bad short. And you know for something to be really bad that it has to have no bad cinema factor silliness present. Alas, that is what we have here. The only thing remotely interesting is a black singing troupe that makes noises like out of Fat Albert. As far as the hula girls being naked as another reviewer posted, huh? They are clothed from the neck down, I was actually sticking around to watch that, what a let down. I had visions of Honolulu Baby from Sons Of The Desert (Charlie Chase was in that night club watching too!). But no, those women were definitely fully clothed. My only other comment is this, when ever you see a short subject jam packed with stars, doesn't it always suck if it's from the 1930's? I mean it's like they all say, hell I can't be blamed for this sucking because I'm only in it for 20 seconds, I guess. If you are looking for a half way decent Technicolor short, try the 1930's The Devil's Cabaret, it's 2 strip Technicolor but close enough to satisfy your curiosity of an early color film and it's short, has nearly naked women dancing, and the Devil. Both of these films play on Turner Classic Movies in the USA. Hollywood Party I give a 3 and thats probably too generous.

Hollywood Party (1937)

* (out of 4)

One hopes a real Hollywood party wasn't as boring as this mess of a short from MGM. The main reason to tune in is the three-strip Technicolor, which was just starting out. In the film Charley Chase and Elissa Landi are introducing various music acts and a few Hollywood A-listers with it all set to a Chinese theme. The Chinese theme also means Chase slanting his eyes, wearing some funny facial hair and throwing around rather stereotypical slang. The movie, no matter how you look at it, is a real embarrassment and one can't help but feel bad for Chase, a veteran of over 250 films, for having to appear in it as MGM certainly didn't do him any favors. The biggest problem is that the film never knows what it wants to be. It starts off appearing to just want to make fun of Chinese customs. It then turns into a music and features some very bad songs. It then tries to be a fashion show, which is fails at miserably even though we see some nearly naked women, which makes one wonder how this got passed by the Hayes Office. Everything this film tries it fails at and the cameos by Joe E. Brown, Anna May Wong, Freddie Bartholomew, Joan Bennett and Clark Gable can't help.

Apart from its historic value as an early example of Technicolor, this is a truly dreadful film. In fact, even the Technicolor itself was just awful--with way over-saturated colors that were very, very hard on the eyes--particularly the greens and pinks.

As for the plot, there isn't much of one. Charley Chase and some lady are the emcees at some bizarre beach party where they and some not especially talented performers act Chinese--or at least act like a dreadful stereotype of Chinese circa 1937. Chase, who could be a funny man, was given absolutely NOTHING to do but make slant-eyed faces at the camera and speak in an awful Chinese-like accent.

In addition to the dreadful acts and narration, there are some very pointless cameos by Clark Gable, Joe E. Brown and others. All the appearances really amount to are exceptionally short clips of only a couple seconds that have no relationship to the rest of the film.

Dumb, pointless and wretched--this is a terrible short that only has some tiny historical value and is as entertaining as watching paint dry. Sadly, while this sappy Hollywoodized version of China was presented, the real plight of the Chinese (who had been invaded and decimated by the Japanese during the 1930s) was never mentioned--they all were portrayed more like "happy children".

This is a 20 min short Chinese-themed outdoor garden party hosted by Elissa Landi and Charley Chase playing Charley Chan Chase. The performers are vaudevillian depictions of Chinese culture. It does have Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong doing a short presentation. Otherwise, it's mostly white performers dressed in Chinese costumes and one black comedy musical group.

On the technical side, this has the brilliant Technicolor. The green is brilliantly green. The primary colors really pop. It's a great example of early color on film. The production value is good for an outdoor party. Most comments are concentrating on the racial insensitivity. Let's be clear. This is racially insensitive... for today. They are however not mean-spirited in their depictions. It is a show of its time. Making the point even more clearer is the presence of Anna May Wong. I'm not saying it's right but it wasn't wrong back then. It's just very icky now. Otherwise, this is standard vaudeville of that era and it's hard to judge the skill level. It doesn't make me laugh but I do understand the attempted concepts. The colors are great and I always applaud any movie that would have Anna May Wong.

Hollywood Party is a 1937 short film directed by Roy Rowland and runs around 20 minutes. My history with this film is sort of interesting. In the summer of 2018, Google did a shout-out to James Wong Howe. I had never heard of him before that and then realized he was an acclaimed cinematographer. Being a cinematographer and filmmaker, I felt it necessary to become more acquainted and learn more about him. So, I researched his filmography and decided I wanted to delve in, right from the beginning. He was the cinematographer for only five short films, so I figured I would start with those. The first one, Hollywood Party, was very hard to find online so I started with It Might Be You. It was horrible. I did a separate review for that one. Afterwards, I looked for Hollywood Party again and realized it was featured as an extra on the DVD for The Good Earth which was free to borrow at my local library. So, it has been on my to-do list for months and finally I got to watching it. First, I watched The Good Earth (which also has a separate review) and then I finally watched Hollywood Party. To preface this review, I want to clarify that this is not the Laurel and Hardy film. This film is a short film made three years later and encompasses a Chinese-themed Hollywood party with different performers and some skits and gags. It features many great actors such as Clark Gable, Joan Bennett, Joe Brown, and Anna May Wong. It was most likely included on the DVD for The Good Earth because they were both 1937 American films regarding Chinese culture (both quite disrespectfully). The funny thing is that Anna May Wong is part of Hollywood Party but she was very adamant about wanting to star in The Good Earth, yet she was rejected for being Asian, while they wanted an American actress. She was very upset by this and it is almost insulting she not only was rejected the part in the film, but was included in a short film as an extra on that DVD. There are a few things I would like to say about this film. One, it is quite disrespectful to Chinese culture, just as The Good Earth was by utilizing yellowface instead of Chinese actors. Most of the characters in the short are wearing Chinese clothes, have white or yellowish painted faces, and laugh stereotypically or have fake Chinese-esque mustaches. It is very tasteless and offensive, watching it in 2019. Even though it is fairly racist and cringeworthy, there are some interesting aspects that I do not want to ignore. First of all, James Wong Howe is uncredited as a cinematographer, which is very unfortunate, especially as he fits being a Chinese filmmaker. It would be impossible to tell what Howe shot versus the other filmmaker, but I want to say the cinematography of this film is beautiful regardless. It is a wonderfully shot film with excellent audio and production value. It was difficult to watch with the racism and tackiness of it all, but it looked so nice that I was intrigued, visually, the whole time. Also, it is shot in a beautiful Technicolor, which is worthy to note it is two years before The Wizard of Oz and one year before The Adventures of Robin Hood. Certainly, this film shouldn't go down as important in any sense, nor should it be remembered. However, it is interesting to analyze and see, nearly a century later. Also, it is a work of Howe and seeing it gave me more context to how incredible of a cinematographer he is. Aside from Howe and the yellowface, the last thing I want to mention is how fascinating some of the performances were and how their implications are understood today. One example is the Al Lyons Band, performing some swing music. A very brief moment that impressed me was one of the bandmembers playing the clarinet and saxophone at the same time. That moment caught my attention and made me intrigued. Likewise, there is a tap dance number featuring the Marcus Show Girls which is nice to see and some nice vocal performances including Joe Morrison. The last note on the variety acts was seeing The Jones Boys perform. They were the only black people in this film and the only characters wearing bellboy outfits, as opposed to the Chinese garments or American suits/dresses that the other characters wore. Seeing it was immediately a red flag that not only Chinese culture was being appropriated and misrepresented here but then they started bulging their eyes and speaking nearly incoherently (even though their singing was intelligible). Here, I realized there was some racism and stereotyping of black actors and I lost even more respect for the film (on top of the Chinese jokes and ridiculous parody of culture). However, I discovered The Jones Boys here and listened to one of their albums. They're a great jazz group and I would recommend. The film, however, I would not recommend. If you're interested in James Wong Howe or if you're curious, there are some takeaways. It's not very long and it is interesting enough to sit through. However, it's quite racist, doesn't hold up very well for its time, and it's quite pathetic to see.

This short may seem a bit simple to us, but it must have been quite elaborate back then! Filmed in color and almost entirely outside, it is full of colorful wardrobes. My favorite parts are the too few scenes with Charley Chase, and the brief part with Joe E. Brown.

If you like musicals, you will probably still like this short. I rate it rather low only because after a while it gets a bit tedious. Much of the singing and dancing is not 100% prime cut Hollywood.

But it sure looks good!

But it is in beautiful Technicolor. That's the only bright aspect here.

Can someone explain why MGM would give this promotional short for The Good Earth color treatment and yet the cinema classic they do in black and white? I suppose there's some rationale for it, but I can't think of any.

Elissa Landi and Charley Chase, he in Oriental garb as Charley Chan Chase host a party which has a few musical acts and some big star walk ons like Clark Gable, Joan Bennett, Joe E. Brown and Freddie Bartholomew. The musical highlight is Joe Morrison who was the love interest in the W.C. Fields classic The Old Fashioned Way singing South Sea Island Magic.

Throughout it all Leon Errol does his drunk act as he keeps trying to mix the perfect cocktail. He did much the same thing in We're Not Dressing.

Entertaining, but nothing special. Don't confuse this with the feature film Hollywood Party.

The producers of THE GOOD EARTH d.v.d. apparently figured they needed something ELSE from 1937 to lighten the mood after the tear-jerking ending of the movie version of Pearl Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. While the color of this short contrasts nicely with the feature's black & white mode, the content is even more grating than the similar, albeit non-color, short from the MGM of 1937, SUN.DAY NIGHT AT THE TROCADERO. Where HO11YWOOD PARTY lacks major cast members of THE WIZARD OF OZ (TROCADERO had the Wiz himself, Frank Morgan), THE GOOD EARTH patriarch is played by Charley Grapewin, who'd become Dorothy Gale's "Uncle Henry" two years later. Furthermore, several snippets of incidental music from EARTH's score would be recycled into the OZ soundtrack.

The other extra on the EARTH d.v.d., "Supreme Court of Films Picks the Champions Newsreel," is a poorly-edited mess (with NO title card help) from the Oscar Awards the year EARTH was eligible (a clip of Luise Rainer's brief acceptance speech for her award-winning portrayal of "O-Lan" is included).