Review of Hollywood Party

Hollywood Party is a 1937 short film directed by Roy Rowland and runs around 20 minutes. My history with this film is sort of interesting. In the summer of 2018, Google did a shout-out to James Wong Howe. I had never heard of him before that and then realized he was an acclaimed cinematographer. Being a cinematographer and filmmaker, I felt it necessary to become more acquainted and learn more about him. So, I researched his filmography and decided I wanted to delve in, right from the beginning. He was the cinematographer for only five short films, so I figured I would start with those. The first one, Hollywood Party, was very hard to find online so I started with It Might Be You. It was horrible. I did a separate review for that one. Afterwards, I looked for Hollywood Party again and realized it was featured as an extra on the DVD for The Good Earth which was free to borrow at my local library. So, it has been on my to-do list for months and finally I got to watching it. First, I watched The Good Earth (which also has a separate review) and then I finally watched Hollywood Party. To preface this review, I want to clarify that this is not the Laurel and Hardy film. This film is a short film made three years later and encompasses a Chinese-themed Hollywood party with different performers and some skits and gags. It features many great actors such as Clark Gable, Joan Bennett, Joe Brown, and Anna May Wong. It was most likely included on the DVD for The Good Earth because they were both 1937 American films regarding Chinese culture (both quite disrespectfully). The funny thing is that Anna May Wong is part of Hollywood Party but she was very adamant about wanting to star in The Good Earth, yet she was rejected for being Asian, while they wanted an American actress. She was very upset by this and it is almost insulting she not only was rejected the part in the film, but was included in a short film as an extra on that DVD. There are a few things I would like to say about this film. One, it is quite disrespectful to Chinese culture, just as The Good Earth was by utilizing yellowface instead of Chinese actors. Most of the characters in the short are wearing Chinese clothes, have white or yellowish painted faces, and laugh stereotypically or have fake Chinese-esque mustaches. It is very tasteless and offensive, watching it in 2019. Even though it is fairly racist and cringeworthy, there are some interesting aspects that I do not want to ignore. First of all, James Wong Howe is uncredited as a cinematographer, which is very unfortunate, especially as he fits being a Chinese filmmaker. It would be impossible to tell what Howe shot versus the other filmmaker, but I want to say the cinematography of this film is beautiful regardless. It is a wonderfully shot film with excellent audio and production value. It was difficult to watch with the racism and tackiness of it all, but it looked so nice that I was intrigued, visually, the whole time. Also, it is shot in a beautiful Technicolor, which is worthy to note it is two years before The Wizard of Oz and one year before The Adventures of Robin Hood. Certainly, this film shouldn't go down as important in any sense, nor should it be remembered. However, it is interesting to analyze and see, nearly a century later. Also, it is a work of Howe and seeing it gave me more context to how incredible of a cinematographer he is. Aside from Howe and the yellowface, the last thing I want to mention is how fascinating some of the performances were and how their implications are understood today. One example is the Al Lyons Band, performing some swing music. A very brief moment that impressed me was one of the bandmembers playing the clarinet and saxophone at the same time. That moment caught my attention and made me intrigued. Likewise, there is a tap dance number featuring the Marcus Show Girls which is nice to see and some nice vocal performances including Joe Morrison. The last note on the variety acts was seeing The Jones Boys perform. They were the only black people in this film and the only characters wearing bellboy outfits, as opposed to the Chinese garments or American suits/dresses that the other characters wore. Seeing it was immediately a red flag that not only Chinese culture was being appropriated and misrepresented here but then they started bulging their eyes and speaking nearly incoherently (even though their singing was intelligible). Here, I realized there was some racism and stereotyping of black actors and I lost even more respect for the film (on top of the Chinese jokes and ridiculous parody of culture). However, I discovered The Jones Boys here and listened to one of their albums. They're a great jazz group and I would recommend. The film, however, I would not recommend. If you're interested in James Wong Howe or if you're curious, there are some takeaways. It's not very long and it is interesting enough to sit through. However, it's quite racist, doesn't hold up very well for its time, and it's quite pathetic to see.