Hellzapoppin’ VHS

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Hellzapoppin' is a 1941 American musicalcomedy film, and an adaptation of the stage musical that ran on Broadway from 1938 to 1941. The film was directed by H. C. Potter and distributed by Universal Pictures.[2] Although the entire Broadway cast was initially slated to feature in the film,[3] the only performers from the stage production to appear in the film were lead actors Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson, Katherine Johnson (Mrs. Chic Johnson, as the woman perpetually yelling for "Oscar"), and the specialty act Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

Alongside Olsen and Johnson, both of whom produced and starred in the Broadway musical, the cast of Hellzapoppin' includes Martha Raye, Hugh Herbert, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, Mischa Auer, Shemp Howard, and the musical duo Slim & Slam. The film is deliberately nonsensical, with the comedians stopping the film to address both the movie audience and the projection booth (breaking the fourth wall); trick photography embellishing the visual gags; and the traditional romantic subplot ridiculed as it unfolds.

Some reviewers had been skeptical that Hellzapoppin' would work as a motion picture, and were surprised that the film version was every bit as funny. Film Bulletin commented, "It did not seem possible that the type of hilarity which went into the making of the legitimate show could be transplanted successfully to the screen. Yet here it is for all to see... [The gags are] plenty good and stack up as ace high comedy material."[7] Motion Picture Reviews was both amused and amazed: "It follows no known formula, and its noisy, spectacular, and hilarious progress is like nothing ever seen on the screen before."[8] The reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald wrote, in August 1942: "Sections of its extraordinary pattern materialise with uproarious unexpectedness, while hilarious development of some ridiculously funny incident adds to the farcical, burlesque, and slapstick appeal of a production astounding in its originality and verve. It has to be seen to be believed. If there is nothing memorable to take away after the show it is at any rate enjoyable while it lasts."[9] In Time in 1942, critic James Agee wrote, "On celluloid Hellzapoppin' loses the frenetic quality it achieved on the stage ... some skits succeed, more fail. But Olsen and Johnson's ability to exude a kind of ectoplasm which engulfs the audience and makes it participate in the show is necessarily cut off when the show is confined to the screen ... Stripped of its unsurpassable insanity, the name for it is ham vaudeville."[10]

Hellzapoppin' had its premiere at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on Christmas Day, 1941. The first performance at 10 a.m. was for 2,000 orphans and a further showing was held at 2 p.m. for 2,000 soldiers and sailors, with the official premiere in the evening.[11] The Rivoli run was relatively short, indicating a flop, but columnist Gilbert Fraunhar explained that the Rivoli was near the Winter Garden Theatre: "Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers passing the Rivoli were deceived into thinking that they were passing the Winter Garden... Many of them had seen the play, and therefore passed up a theatre where they thought it was still playing."[12]

The Rivoli engagement notwithstanding, Hellzapoppin' became a smash hit. Universal's top box office attraction at the time was Abbott and Costello; Hellzapoppin' exceeded even those returns. "Universal executives admit that the picture is outgrossing the Abbott and Costello films. And when a Universal exec makes an admission like that, the picture has to be doing terrific business," reported Fraunhar. "More specifically, Hellzapoppin', in the bunch of openings it has had to date, has outgrossed every A & C, we are told, except Keep 'Em Flying, which had the benefit of Thanksgiving week openings. And as time rolls on... "Hellz" promises to outdo its only A & C rival."

Universal Pictures' madcap 1941 musical-comedy classic Hellzapoppin', starring Olsen and Johnson, never received a widespread official VHS release in North America due to lingering music and copyright clearance complications. However, rare PAL-format bootlegs or minor international video releases do occasionally surface on the secondary market.