International House

1933 ensemble comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A buttload of people gather at a hotel in China to see the unveiling of a new invention--television! A buttload of mildly humorous happenings occur!

I almost gave this a bonus point for Cab Calloway's jazzy ode to marijuana. I enjoyed some of the risque humor in this although I don't believe I laughed a single time. Things were best when W.C. Fields or George and Gracie were on the screen. The former's physical comedy and double entendres are a lot of fun, and I liked watching the latter's rapport. I don't believe I'd ever seen Burns and Gracie before. There's not much to see with the rest of this unless you're a fan of too-typical 1930s movie humor and/or nearly incoherent plots. That plot is really jumpy, almost like we were missing half of the movie or the actors/writers made the whole thing up as they went along. But definitely not in a good way. Although far from great comedy, this is worth watching. I watched it at school on my big screen while I was probably supposed to be doing something else.