Hollywood Hobbies (1939)

Why so much hype?

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Blistering performances.

In an amusing short subject that ends with an all star baseball game, two star struck young women, Sally Payne and Joyce Compton decide to take Billy Benedict's private Hollywood tour in the back seat of his convertible. They get to see Reginald Denny trying to fly his model airplane, follow Clark Gable and watch him give his barn a coat of whitewash. After that it's off to the races where presumably at Hollywood Park they see stable partners Robert Young and Allan Jones give a new colt a name. The real life partner of Allan Jones, Irene Hervey was also present at the birth.After that it's Hollywood's Wrigley Field where a bunch of stars are playing a charity baseball game. For MGM contract players this was box office duty. But such non-MGM players like James Cagney, Tyrone Power, and Dick Powell were there. What was the trade off that Louis B. Mayer had to give for these walk-ons?It's an amusing film, a must for stargazers.

. . . then who the heck is on first??? The anonymous narrator of this 10-minute mini-documentary film only produces one third of one line-up in this alleged match-up between Hollywood leading men and Tinsel Town comedians. Milton Berle at third and John Boles in left field round out the players itemized among the Comedian Nine (I assume it's nine, as the Designated Hitter had not been thought up as far as I know in 1939 (though I understand unofficial substitute runners were allowed to leg out George Ruth's home runs if the Babe hadn't finished the hot dog he was working on). While Mary Pickford throws out the first pitch, the female sex mostly Spectates here, otherwise. The Ritz Brothers laugh team wears outfits more indicative of jail birds than their reputed position of umpires, with Jimmy Stewart and Dick Powell NOT very convincing as trying to go "incognito." But at least the baseball segment which makes up the last half of this short is more riveting than watching the paint dry on Clark Gable's barn, which "highlights" the earlier portion of H0LLYWOOD HOBBIES.

Hollywood Hobbies (1939) *** (out of 4) Pretty good "let's show off our stars" short from MGM is cheaply made but we at least get to see countless A-list stars. The film centers on a couple tourists who take a trip across Hollywood where they get to see a few famous faces like Clark Gable and Reginald Denny. The two then go to a charity baseball game where more stars appear including James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, Virginia Bruce, Joan Davis, Buddy Ebsen, Mary Pickford, Tyrone Power, Dick Powell, the Ritz Brothers, Cesar Romero and many more. The actual "plot" of this short is pretty silly but that's to be expected as the main goal is to just show as many Hollywood stars as possible and this film certainly does that. A lot of the footage is just edited in from previous films but we do get quite a bit of actual footage including a funny bit with the ladies wanting Stewart's autograph and not realizing that he's sitting in front of them.

The quality of this short is pretty poor. The plot involves two ladies from come to town and go on a tour of the stars' homes and personal lives. The homes part I understand, though when these ladies begin sneaking into celebrities' back yards, the film seems to be promoting stalking!! To make the film, some big-name actors (such as George Murphy and Jimmy Stewart) were recruited to do some scenes with the ladies. However, most of the "meetings" with celebrities are obviously nothing but stock film and publicity films poorly spliced into the movie. It just made the whole thing look cheap and like a big lie. However, for fans of Hollywood's Golden Age, it does provide some nice footage of stars in their spare time doing hobbies and pastimes for the camera that they probably never really did for real!! In other words, it's all a very staged series of photo ops all strung together with a plot that isn't very convincing.