There are more Directors than laughs in this absurd and abstract fever-dream of a film! It feels like a pastiche of leftovers from better films (though only slightly better). But it’s worth your time for two reasons. Number one: it’s incoherence and what-the-fuck-anything-goes attitude is pure Pre-Code insanity. Number two and most important: James Wong Howe, the legendary cinematographer composes the look and camera movements, so even with disparate Directors his work shines!
If you want to see Jimmy Durante in a loincloth with faux-chest hair glued to his torso, this is your film. If you want to see an always enraged and scantily clad Lupe Velez call her hairy co-star a “piece of chit”, this is your film. If you need to see a trailer for the new jungle epic Schnarzan starring the above-mentioned hirsute hero, it’s here. If you’d like to see a romance between June Clyde and a guy who looks like a ventriloquist dummy, creepy grin and all, then you can’t miss. There are musical numbers mimicking Busy Berkeley choreography (wonderfully shot, mind you) with forgettable music at best, annoying at worst. We get a sexual assault witnessed by the husband before he tries his own gymnastics on his would-be mistress, and the Three Stooges collecting autographs before getting bonked on the noggin. Durante as himself singing about reincarnation and imagining himself as Adam with an Eve of matching protuberance, then as Paul Revere’s horse (at least the front end!). Wife swapping (or at least wooing). Laurel and Hardy make an “eggscellent” appearance with the punchline in Oliver’s waistline! His expression as the yolk oozes from his crotch and down his leg is priceless. Best of all we get an early Mickey Mouse animated sequence in B&W where Mickey interacts with Durante before a three-strip Technicolor cartoon begins! Here we see Chocolate and Gingerbread soldiers battle to the death, suffering traumatic wounds before being melted into oblivion by a cruel and sadistic sun. What the Holy Fuck is happening?
There is no point to this madness because it’s all a dream, apparently. That explains everything. Not satisfactorily, mind you, but it is an explanation. But the grinning mannequin guy will haunt my dreams for days to come.
Final Grade: (C+)