DIRECTOR: HC Potter
PRODUCERS: Alex Gottlieb, Glenn Tryon ​    
PRODUCTION CO: Universal
​​SCREENPLAY: Nat Perrin, Warren Wilson 
PHOTOGRAPHY: Elwood Bredell
EDITOR: Milton Carruth
MUSIC: Frank Skinner
WITH: Ole Olsen (Himself), Chic Johnson (Himself), Martha Raye (Betty Johnson), Mischa Auer (Pepi), Dick Lane (Director), Shemp Howard (Louie, the Projectionist), Elisha Cook Jr (Harry Selby)  

REVIEWS

“A genuinely bizarre oddity, this madcap comedy is fascinating not only for its many very funny moments, but also for the way it includes, amid the material taken directly from the original stage revue, various purely cinematic gags which are surprisingly modern in tone and significance. The fact that Olsen and Johnson's revue-style material dispenses with plot, creating instead an almost Monty Pythonesque series of loosely, lunatically linked vignettes (many of them parodies of Hollywood clichés, such as Elisha Cook invariably getting filled with lead), allows them to ignore realism and play around with the medium itself: at one point the stars have problems with the careless projectionist screening the film out of rack, upside-down, etc. Although lacking the satirical edge of the Marx Brothers, Hellzapoppin' frequently outstrips the works of Groucho and Co in terms of speed, imagination and sheer craziness.”

– Geoff Andrew, Time Out

“Vaudeville comedians Olsen and Johnson would be forgotten if not for this delirious vehicle, nominally an adaptation of their Broadway stage hit. Ostensibly about an attempt to turn Hellzapoppin’ the show into a backstage musical, this surreal, altogether avant-garde fantasia rings wild changes on the film-within-a-film format, beginning with an exasperated director shouting “Cut!” on an opening sequence set in hell. Later, the stars get stuck between film frames as chaos breaks out in the projection box.”

– Jonathan Romney, The Guardian 

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Palmerston North
Wednesday, 05 March, 6.00pm

Wellington  
Monday, 31 March, 6.15pm

​Wellington  
Monday, 31 March, 8.30pm

Westport
Wednesday, 09 April, 7.00pm

Dunedin
Wednesday, 23 April, 7.30pm

New Plymouth
Wednesday, 07 May, 6.00pm

​Nelson     
Wednesday, 25 June, 6.00pm

Hamilton
Monday, 14 July, 6.30pm

​Canterbury    
Monday, 11 August, 7.00pm

​Whanganui   
Monday, 01 September, 7.00pm
COMEDY CORNER >> ​