Customer Reviews

Hidden Hollywood - Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who enjoys old films should be tickled pink to find these bits trimmed from the final cut of 1930-1940 films are still in existence. 20th Century Fox, as most studios, threw gold into the garbage. But these survived somehow.

Shirley Temple - that little bundle of talent - does a number with the great Jimmy Durante. It was cut because the studio decided Shirley doing a Durante impersonation did not fit her image. There is a lot of good stuff on this disc, cut for time because it is easy to cut a musical number or, as in Shirleys case, it does not fit the stars image. I thoroughly enjoyed this chance to see these scenes.

I have to mention the Bert Lahr number: you have to see it to believe it. There is far too little of Bert Lahr on film and this is a chance to see him as a young Broadway style performer even if you can't figure out just what it is he is doing.

If you like old movies or musicals this disc is for you.

...some real gems...a thirteen minute sequence with W.C.Fields
and Margaret Dumont (she remains totally unflappable in the face
of Mr Field's shenanigans!)....Sonja Heine...who won medals in
THREE winter Olympics, starting when she was probably twelve..
and may well be the single most influential female skater of
the 20th century (the ice fairies in 'Fantasia' skate exactly
like Sonja!)--has some delightful unused sequences here..and
of course, our old friends Betty Grable and Alice Faye..and
Carmen Miranda, complete with an extension cord...this dvd packs
quite a bit of 'lost' entertainment into 90 minutes. If you
are a 'movie nut' you will love this...if you are not...go rent
Terminator II, please.

Darryl Zanuck, head of production at Fox, was famous for his editing skills. This DVD contains outtakes from many famous Fox films, trimmed sometimes for censorship or even political reasons or maybe simply to reduce the running time.

If you know the films, you can mentally piece the outtakes into the originals. Some of the numbers are pretty awful such as Bert Lahr's incomprehensible song. Others are memorable like Jimmy Durante's number with Shirley Temple and Alice Faye's "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows". It is also amusing to see the performers grimace and pout as the camera starts to roll. The DVD is a gold mine to the film buff and since the material has been taken from original negatives and restored, it is in great condition.

The DVD is partly documentary as narrated by Joan Collins. Whatever you might think of Collins as a performer, she has a beautiful English accent with perfect diction. Her delivery is music to the ears and the script is informative but succinct.

..but these treasures are quite delightful. AMC broadcast them
a few years back, and I am glad they are available on dvd. It is
fun (well, it is for dyed in the wool movie freaks such as myself)..to see things that feature favorite performers that
have not ever seen a movie screen. This has Alice Faye, Shirley
Temple, Betty Grable...and OTHERS...doing alternate takes,
sometimes completely cut numbers...a variety of things...all
give one a fresh view of how movies were made and a look at
some material that just never got used. These are very entertaining. One or two, of course, are good examples of why
they were never seen. But, in many cases, restoration has been
done and some interesting performances brought to light. I have
my copy...but dear friends at Fox...there is a seven minute
ballet missing from Betty Grable's "The Farmer Takes a Wife"...
perhaps you could show us that on the NEXT installment???

For years I have been more than familier with the 1943 Fox musical THE GANG'S ALL HERE directed by Busby Berkeley. But it was fascinating to see an outtake of a comedy sequence intended for late in the film, with Phil Baker doing a takeoff of his popular radio quiz show "Take it Or Leave it". Charlotte Greenwood slides down a bannister and lands behind a giant picture frame in an imitation of Whistler's Mother, in a bit of physical comedy almost broader than anything left in the final cut of the film, except-Charlotte Greenwood, doing her usual high kicking bit.

Following the original "Hidden Hollywood", this DVD gathers more outtakes from the films of Fox and the fascination continues with how they fit into the films and why they were removed. Joan Collins is back and narrates with her superb soft English accent and perfect diction.

In most if not all cases, the cuts were not "Director's cuts". Darryl F Zanuck exercised great control over the Fox product and most cuts were made between preview and release, usually for running time reasons, slowing down the action or sometimes due to censor objections.

The outtakes contain comedy sequences as well as musical numbers. The highlights of the former are Danny Kaye singing "Begin the Beguine" offkey from "On the Riviera" and W C Fields long lost sequence from "Tales of Manhattan", a really hilarious skit which should have been released as a short film. Of the latter, Alice Faye's rendition of "I'll see you in my Dreams" captures her vocal and visual appeal perfectly. She stands in front of a piano with a back up quartet and sings - no special effects, no embellishment, just raw talent. She is memorable.

The prints of the outtakes are pristine since they have been cut from original negatives. In fact, if they were inserted into the films, sometimes they would be better than the surrounding film!

Hidden Hollywood gives us ninety-one minutes of mostly rather good material that wound up cut from films only to lie on the cutting room floor. As host Joan Collins correctly points out, we're lucky we have at least this much! Many early films were simply thrown out; and Hollywood studios never cared about preserving their films until they could sell them to television. How sad! However, what we do get on this DVD is a wonderful 91 minutes of footage from the vaults at 20th Century Fox studios.

Joan Collins introduces the show are then we're off! We get very rarely seen footage including Katherine Hepburn's first screen test from 1932, a host of musical numbers shot both in black and white as well as color, and dramatic scenes considered extraneous or just too objectionable for the times. Most regrettably we see excellent cut footage of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson cut from the film Café Metropole in which Bill was to play himself. Ouch! How that must have hurt him.

In fact, no star was truly immune from having their best work cut from a film at 20th Century Fox. Betty Grable footage is here for us to admire; it really should have been included in the final cut. There's footage of Marilyn Monroe doing a musical number with male dancers to support her and I especially liked the Shirley Temple sequences that were cut from her films.

Look also for great footage of Jimmy Durante conducting a vaudevillian team with his nose (!!!), Shirley Temple dancing up a storm with Jimmy Durante, and Ethel Merman performing a number from There's No Business Like Show Business.

We also learn that 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck believed there was always something that could be cut from the film. He believed that audiences would "get it" anyway. Sometimes he was right (they mercifully pulled a Bert Lahr number that just plain stunk) and many times Zanuck was wrong as I point out in this review.

The DVD comes with no extras; all we get is scene selection. However, the quality of the archival footage is remarkably clear and I feel fortunate to have been able to watch this movie on DVD.

My only complaint is that the footage we see is only from 20th Century Fox. I would have loved to see what MGM studios and Warner Brothers cut out from their movies. I am very disappointed; and I will make this a four star review because of this disappointment.

Nevertheless, if you want a great view of what really good material there was that still never made it into the movies that were so popular before the age of television, you can't go wrong with this DVD. Sure, it's only from the vaults of one movie studio but this is a lot better than nothing! I highly recommend this for classic film aficionados, film students and people who enjoy the arts in general.

In the 1940s B&W musical FOX film, "DOLL FACE" Carmen Miranda had
one of her production numbers cut from the film due to the censors at that time. "She's Always True To The Navy" was the song Carmen sang with a lighthouse as a hat and wearing a very sexy outfit, this and another musical number of hers that ended unfortunately on the cutting room floor is presented here uncut and a joy! Not only Miranda but many great stars of Hollywoods Golden age is featured on this outstanding DVD...a real treat!

First of all, I'm a little confused as at least half the crits on this page refer to Hidden Hollywood 2. I'm writing about the original Hidden Hollywood, and that's what makes me the Odd Man Out, as I seem to be the only one who doesn't think it was worth the money. I'd say there was around half an hour of interesting material in this compilation - the clips involving Grable, Faye, and Merman/Dailey/Gaynor/O'Connor, Bojangles/Shirley Temple, and an interesting account of how "Hot Spot" became "I Wake Up Screaming" merely by eliminating Betty Grable's songs and making her a stenographer. From musical to cinema noir with a clip of the scissors. The rest of the stuff should have stayed on the cutting room floor...sequences such as the incomprehensible Bert Lahr number, the so-called comedy duo Weber and Fields, and the painful resurrection of a quiz sequence conducted by Phil Baker who had no looks, no charisma, and certainly no visible talent. This out-take from "The Gang's All Here" makes one wonder why he was in it anyway, and why more of his dreary contribution to that otherwise entertaining extravaganza wasn't cut out too. There's also a yawn-inducing sequence from the otherwise sparkling We're Not Married - no wonder it was cut. Hope Emerson dragging herself around an obvious studio bayou set isn't my idea of entertainment. Yet another example of the dull padding in what promised to be a scintillating collection. Maybe we've been spoiled by MGM. To cap everything, this cheap compilation doesn't even have a menu with a scene selection feature, which is absolutely necessary when there's so much to skip over. Oh yes, and we have a heavily-pancaked Joan Collins prowling the archive aisles with a laughable slink, and displaying all the warmth of a pair of eyebrow tweezers.

It was a lot of fun watching and very informative about early Hollywood. I really enjoy these types of documentaries especially about Hollywood. I recommend this video to anyone who is star struck!