6/10
W.C. Fields, Burns & Allen, and Cab Calloway are highlights of the uneven International House
27 January 2012
While I remember watching this on VHS in the '90s, the only parts that I had total recall were the exchanges between Gracie Allen, her husband George Burns, Franklin Pangborn, and the one and only W.C. Fields. Well, I also remember the musical performances of Baby Rose Marie and especially Cab Calloway with that "Reefer Man" number. The other parts I forgot and when watching it again just now on YouTube, I can see why-there wasn't much that was very funny other than what I cited in the first sentence. I mean, the story concerning Stuart Erwin, a lady named Peggy Hopkins Joyce who was obviously somebody famous then but is just obscure now, and his fiancée often stopped the movie dead in the tracks whenever they were on. At least Ms. Joyce got some good scenes with Fields especially when a cat was used near the end resulting in the kind of risqué joke that would have been verboten a year later when the Hays Code went into full effect. Of course, the same could be said of that Calloway number that I just mentioned so I'm not surprised that that quite wonderfully weird number would be censored when the movie appeared on actual TV as opposed to the "radioscope" depicted here. Not a classic but International House is very much worth a look for many of the now-iconic stars that were just trying to entertain to the best of their ability. Oh, and that teacup number with future Winnie the Pooh voice actor Sterling Holloway as a dancing sailor has to be seen to be believed...
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