‎Hellzapoppin' (1941) directed by H. C. Potter • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Hellzapoppin'

1941 Directed by H. C. Potter

AT LAST IT'S ON THE SCREEN! Greater than the Stage Show!

Ole and Chick are making a movie, but the director is not satisfied. So he brings them to a young writer, who outlines them an absurd story. They have to support Jeff and Kitty in setting up a musical revue in their garden and want to bring it up on Broadway. If Jeff is successful he can marry Kitty. But there is his rich friend Woody, who also loves Kitty, Chick's sister Betty, who's in love with a false Russian count, and detective Quimby. They all make the thing very complicated for Ole and Chick. After some mistakes they think that Kitty isn't the right girl for Jeff and they start sabotaging the show, but the Broadway producer is impressed and signs the contract. That's the story the writer tells them. For this he's sued by the director.

Ole Olsen Chic Johnson Martha Raye Hugh Herbert Mischa Auer Jane Frazee Robert Paige Shemp Howard

80 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Sally Jane Black 2

It opens with a scene of hell. Men and women are tormented for their sings, devils forge pitchforks, and an industrial vision of eternal damnation plays out... to lively, peppy music. Moments later, it shatters the fourth wall and jumps into a romantic comedy, but none of that matters. This is positively Marxist, and it has nothing to do with economics. This is concentrated absurdity. It has a bit more focus on its plot than, say, Duck Soup, but not by much. The plot is a backbone that they build lunacy onto.

It digresses wildly. It hops from song to song without reason. It sets up gags and knocks them down, and it doesn't let reality get in the way.…
Review by Chuck Williamson ★★★★½ 5

Chaos reigns.
Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★★ 4

Sign me up for the "Hellzapoppin' is the Greatest Thing Ever" club.

Full review here.
Review by Owen ★★★★ 2

For as long as I've been into old films, particularly old comedies, I've been reading about Hellzapoppin and how far ahead of it's time it was. And for some reason I've never got round to it, despite loving the Marx brothers, its most common point of comparison, I just thought it would be that bit too zany or vaudeville for me or interesting only in what it got away with.

And it kind of is, I'm not sure its the funniest thing from the period I've ever seen although it got genuinely funny performances from Mischa Auer and Hugh Herbert and I've seen a lot from them that really wasn't that great. There are some very good gags there, I…
Review by Michael Strenski ★★★★★

Martha Raye is Bugs Bunny.
Review by Joe ★★★★ 1

2014's Shemp-A-Thon continues with Hellzapoppin'.

I've heard tell of this movie for many years, mostly in the context of it being used as a kind of catch-all point of comparison for any particularly anarchic metatextual comedy produced since 1941, including favorites like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Mel Brooks' movies, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, etc., so it figured I'd be very interested to finally watch this thing. Now that I have, I can't say it's funnier than any of those things, but it does have a compulsively watchable spirit that manages to be fascinating even when it's not laugh-out-loud funny - the only dead spots are the obviously (and explicitly acknowledged as) studio-mandated musical numbers and romantic storyline.…

Recent reviews

Review by Felino ★★★

El típic plantejament romàntic entre dos amants de diferents classes socials dóna peu a una delirant comèdia on l'humor absurd és l'autèntic protagonista. Curiosa, si més no, al veure aquest tipus d'humor en una producció 40 anys abans de l'estrena de Aterriza como puedas.
Review by PUNQ ★★★½

Screw substance!!! This is a mock picture! It even comes with a warning: "Any similarity between HELLZAPOPPIN' and a motion picture is purely coincidental." You've been warned.... Now laugh your ass off!
Review by Michael Stuhlman ★★★★½

One of those films that's hard to believe it came out the year it did. So rambunctious, so creative and embracing all the most absurd aspects of the filmmaking process. I imagine revisiting this often as it's fairly short and so easy to take in. Plus I'm betting I missed a lot of little details the first time around. The film is the definition of relentless, but at 80 minutes it never overstays its welcome.
Review by Jeremy Heilman ★★★★

Wild! The anything-can-happen vibe here makes this the closest I've seen to a live action version of the all-time great Looney Tunes Rabbit Rampage and Duck Amuck (it predates both). The movie never lets an opportunity for a gag pass it by, which results in some resoundingly unfunny bits, but with the wicked froth that it works up, any major problems are basically obscured. One of the purest forms of cinematic anarchy that I've seen from the studio system.
Review by ebmsp ★★★★½

A crazy comedy & musical revue than manages to hold together beautifully. Martha Raye absolutely kills it.
Review by Tanner Tafelski ★★★½

The Eric Andre Show of 1941
Review by Julius ★★★★

Some of this business has dated pretty badly (like Martha Raye's silly faces and Hugh Humbert's giggling), but it's hard not to admire its dedication to craziness. Reminiscent of the Marx Brothers, except with purely cinematic gags and better music.
Review by Brendan Bellavia ★★

How the hellzapoppin' did this film get made???
Review by Drew Phillips ★★★★½

And you thought Groucho was an anarchist...