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5.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Hollywood Newsreel remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, only if you are the kind of person who enjoys clicking through old newspaper archives at 2 AM. If you are looking for a cohesive story, stay far away. But if you have a soft spot for the sheer artificiality of early studio promotion, you might find it oddly charming.
It’s not really a movie in the sense that Dinner at Eight is a movie. It’s more like someone found a box of loose film strips under a desk at Warner Bros. and decided to stitch them together with a sewing machine.
The segment with the Columbia University football team is hilarious in a completely unintended way. These guys look like they have never been on a movie set before. They are standing there, grinning like idiots, trying to interact with the musical dancers. It’s deeply awkward.
The dancers look like they are working a mandatory shift. You can practically hear them thinking about what they are having for lunch.
Joan Blondell pops up to thank her fans, and it is a total blur. She looks perfectly fine, despite the 'recent illness' the narrator mentions. It’s just five seconds of, "Hi, thanks for the letters," and then she’s gone.
And then there is Elmer. Yes, a trained lamb. I spent more time wondering how one trains a lamb to be on a movie set than I did listening to Sammy Fain play his songs. Why was the lamb there? It just stands there, chewing, entirely unimpressed by the golden age of cinema.
It reminds me a bit of the random energy in Rodeo Dough, just with less plot and more suits.
The whole thing feels like a commercial for the studio itself. It’s not trying to tell a story. It’s just trying to convince you that everyone at Warner Bros. is having a great time.
I don’t buy it. Still, the lighting in those studio shots is nice. Sometimes you don't need a script, just a lamb and some football players to make a weird afternoon.