Hellzapoppin (1941)

This is a really funny movie. It's a zany, madcap musical-comedy that was unlike other films at the time. The style is similar to Airplane movies of the 1980s. In fact, some of the jokes in this film were used again in that movie 40 years later, such as a scene where a guy says, "I want to take some pictures" and then removes some framed photos from the wall.

In another funny gag, my favorite in the film, two actors are forced to pause in the middle of their scene when a surprise "announcement" summons a delinquent kid from the movie theater audience to get up, leave, and go home. I saw this in a theater screening with a crowd of people including some children, so this scene worked well.

The film is based on an interactive theatrical comedy show of the same name.

So in the movie, characters talk directly to the camera, and they are always acknowledging that they are in a motion picture.

The brainchildren of this show are a team know as Olsen and Johnson, who are best remembered for this play and film version. Also starring Martha Raye, Mischa Auer, and Shemp Howard, who plays the bumbling projectionist of the film, which explains why some scenes are out of focus at times. Very funny - you have to see it to believe it.

I don't think this is officially on DVD yet, but it really should be.