Movie Mania

Part of a short-lived "Izzie and Lizzie" series named after the male and female ingénues in two comically contrasted families living next door to one another, this slapstick adventure finds Lizzie Murphy (Bess True) "going Hollywood." Having won a beauty contest, she's invited to travel west for a film test. Both Izzie Cohen and the Murphy menfolk are soon in hot pursuit, having belatedly realized that (according to a lurid tell-all book) Tinsel Town is the ruin of many a virtuous maiden. When they arrive, Lizzie is already starring in a movie and the wide-eyed family folk are fast wreaking havoc on the lot at "Paramet Studio." The gimmick of clashing Irish and Jewish stereotypes was a popular one for decades, most famously in long-running Broadway plays like ABIE'S IRISH ROSE and films like many-sequel-ed THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS. - Dennis Harvey