Road Show (1941) User Reviews

A pleasant time killer, with three fine Hoagy Carmichael songs you'll probably never hear without watching this movie

[Terrell-4 · 5/10 · 22 November 2008]

When millionaire society playboy Drogo Gaines (John Hubbard) backs out of his marriage in front of the minister by pretending to be crazy, his society gold digger fiancé has just the answer. She has him committed. He can't talk his way out of this one. He meets fellow patient Colonel Carleton Carroway, of the caraway seeds Carroways (Adolphe Menjou, who is top billed). After several amusing situations involving loony jokes, the two break out. They find themselves in a traveling road show company of good-hearted, small-time entertainers that the local police always want to close. After songs, jokes, romance and an apparent shared taste for salting their apple pie slices, Drogo and road show manager Penguin Moore (Carole Landis) bring the road show to the old manse and find true love. Drogo's money and the Colonel's fast talking save the carnival. Along the way we've had a chance to see the carnival in action, a fine comic riot and some first-class second bananas doing their stuff...people like Patsy Kelly, Charles Butterworth, George E. Stone, Florence Bates...and Menjou. In his day he was a first-class comic actor. Just watch him in Roxie Hart. Unfortunately, there's also some "ya suh, boss," quivering-knees-in-front-of-the-lion, fried-chicken humor involving Willie Best.

Why push on through this pleasant, unexceptional time killer, even if it was co-written, or, more probably, had some of the jokes developed by Harry Langdon? Two words: Hoagy Carmichael. He wrote three songs for this movie. If you're as much a Carmichael fan as I am, you'll know the chances of ever hearing these three if you don't watch the movie are probably zero. "Yum Yum" (20 minutes in) and "Calliope Jane" (34 minutes in) are performed by the four-member African-American close-harmony group, The Charioteers. They're excellent upbeat songs. Carmichael wrote the lyrics for both. "I Should Have Known You Years Ago" (58 minutes in) has a nice melody of yearning, dubbed by Martha Mears for Landis, but is marred by the conventional, syrupy lyrics of Harris Robison.

its okay... lots of old vaudeville gags

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 22 April 2023]

Some old hollywood pros: menjou, landis, charles butterworth. Patsy kelly. The awesome flo bates, best known for rebecca. Even shemp howard. This was released in may of 1941, just prior to the u.s. Getting into world war two. In the plot, rich guy drogo gaines escapes marriage by pretending to be off his rocker. But the plan backfires when he ends up in a sanitarium... where he meets colonel carroway. They help each other out, and suddenly, we're in the middle of a traveling carnival. They are always behind on the rent and trying to stay one step ahead of the sheriff. Lots of old vaudeville bits. A couple songs beautifully done by the charioteers. It's fun. A circus adventure, complete with lions chasing people, and a fire! It's crazy but fun. Plot? What plot. We dropped that off at the bus station. Directed by the one and only hal roach, the king of early comedy. He was a young, smart guy, in the right place, just as hollywood was getting going. Worked his way up the ladder fast. He had worked with laurel and hardy, harold lloyd, and of course, the little rascals gang. Good, zany, fun.

Road Show review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 9 May 2020]

With the help of the eccentric Captain Calloway, a millionaire escapes from the asylum to which he was committed by his jilted bride-to-be and falls in with a travelling circus. A modest but enjoyable Hal Roach comedy in which anonymous leading man John Hubbard largely plays second fiddle to lead support, Adolphe Menjou. Hubbard's reaction when coming face-to-face with a lion is priceless, however...

More fun from Hal Roach and the gang

[jimjo1216 · 31 August 2013]

This is another under-appreciated Hal Roach comedy, mixing screwball scenarios with slapstick antics. I never miss an Adolphe Menjou movie if I can help it, and he's great here as an eccentric industrialist (and/or recreational con man). He and John Hubbard escape from a mental health resort and join up with a traveling carnival run by the very lovely Carole Landis. Hubbard is secretly a millionaire, looking for true love after dodging gold-diggers. Patsy Kelly is Landis's pal, George E. Stone plays an amorous Indian, Charles Butterworth is Menjou's wealthy nephew, and Willie Best plays his usual stereotype role, but is very funny. All this and Hoagy Carmichael's catchy tune "Calliope Jane". A cute movie, lots of fun.

See also: TURNABOUT (1940) and THE HOUSEKEEPER'S DAUGHTER (1939), all directed by Roach and featuring Hubbard and Menjou.

One of the worst films I've seen in a long time

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 15 November 2009]

I really thought that it was impossible for a film starring Adolphe Menjou to be this bad. Menjou was capable of ably playing a variety of characters from villain to tarnished hero, and he was also very able at playing comedy. However, even the talented Menjou cannot save this film. The plot is that young wealthy playboy Drogo Gaines (John Hubbard) gets cold feet on his wedding day, and decides to pretend he is insane. His jilted bride retaliates by having him committed. In the asylum, Gaines meets Carleton Carroway (Adolphe Menjou), and together the two escape and join a traveling carnival. In time, and through a series of comic misadventures, Gaines falls for Penguin Moore (Carole Landis), the beautiful leader of the carnival.

The problem is that besides Menjou, the players are just not that talented, and the jokes are just not that funny. Also, neither the overall plot nor the mismatched romance is very compelling. Cut down to 20 minutes or so, this might have been an OK 1940's comic short, but at 70 minutes it just seems to drag on forever. Hal Roach was capable of much funnier stuff. I would definitely pass on this one.

Rather disappointing comedy despite an incredible cast of comics.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 15 December 2010]

I started watching this with a great deal of interest after seeing several "streamlined" Hal Roach comedies and a few of his "A" budget films that were precursors to much later hysterical farces such as "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun". With the exception of a few (the "Topper" series, "Merrilly We Live", "Turnabout"), they are not great films, but they offer enough screwball antics to give one chest pains after laughing so much. This one had some major laughs throughout, but they were further apart than the films I just mentioned as well as such 45-50 minute "featurettes" such as "Miss Polly", "The Devil With Hitler" and "All-American". To say disappointment followed is an understatement considering a cast of some of my favorite comical character actors.

The storyline is set up for farce. A millionaire (John Hubbard) with a gold digging fiancée whom he is prepared to jilt at the alter is put into a mental institution for a "rest" when he starts "baahing" like a sheep after running out of the church. This sets up promise for a funny film, but it sorely disappoints. At the mental institution, he meets wacky Adolph Menjou almost by accident and they escape, only to get involved in Carole Landis's traveling carnival. Patsy Kelly, a Hal Roach regular since 1933, is present, giving her usual hilarity as a carnival woman from Brooklyn (where else would a Patsy Kelly character be from?) who is posing as a Native American selling a cure-all tonic. An actual Native American falls head over heels for her, presenting her with a portrait of himself (a stick figure) with her (a portly and obviously pregnant Indian woman). That is probably the funniest segment of the film as a recurring gag which has a typical Hal Roach payoff.

Throw in Charles Butterworth as Menjou's eccentric wealthy cousin who loves riding on firetrucks who ends up encountering the carnival while Menjou is on the run. Then there is the wonderful Florence Bates in a bit role as Hubbard's social climbing mother-in-law not-to-be. Sadly, she is wasted in only the opening segment. There are some genuinely funny farcial moments towards the end with a gang of ruffians who try and break up the carnival only to find themselves surrounded by the group of wackos who have some surprises up their sleeve. Willie Best, an able black comic of the 30's and 40's, is funny as one of the carnival workers who encounters a battle with the carnival lion Hubbard has been forced to "train".

I wish I could give this a higher review. It has a lot of potential to be a lot funnier than it is. I saw this years ago and thought it was funnier back then, but after recent screenings of some of Roach's other comedies of the same era have to mark it as a disappointment.

Circus bezerkus

[ptb-8 · 8/10 · 7 November 2006]

This is an absolutely hilarious 1941 carnival farce that is relentlessly nutty. With a roster of character actors you will recognize from every 30s/40s screwball chase/society comedy, B grade 2 reeler and a million other scenes from every other silly Hollywood comedy of the pre TV period, ROAD SHOW, like Hellzapoppin, or The All American Co Ed each made the same year, shows clearly how there must have been a turn for the completely crazy after WW2 started and these 3 films led the new post Marx Bros wave of deliberately ridiculous and risqué comedies. I was tired and not very interested in watching all of this film when I lazily slotted it into the DVD. Within ten minutes I was laughing out loud and sat up... the film actually energized me into attention and shook me awake. Read the cast list, admire the excellent production values, relish the Mad Mad Mad World level antics and just plain enjoy 70 minutes of perfectly deliberately contrived chase/Carnival/society farces the Hal Roach Studio ever put on film. In a big theater this would have been hilarious and noisy to enjoy. The firetruck chase with Patsy Kelly aloft a loose ladder as they drive thu an orchard on their way past a fire to be at an art deco circus location... well what more can I say. Shemp Howard, crooning teenage Negroes, lions on the loose, Carole Landis singing, an amorous Indian, a taffy pulling machine, fantastic Packard cars, mansions, the nut house drunk at a dinner-party with 4 chicken legs on his plate, and snazzy fashions each only party reveal the treats in store. Find ROAD SHOW and have a really delicious long laugh. Adolph Menjou's droll shyster is as funny as anything WC Fields delivered. What a hilarious film! A close cinema relative would be Million Dollar legs or a lot of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedies of the early 30s. ROADSHOW is a very funny film.

Bizarre

[doesticks · 2/10 · 7 January 2023]

One of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen. I checked it out because I read about Willie Best in Quentin Tarantino's new book 'Cinema Speculation' and you really cannot find many movies that he was in. Besides an astoundingly racist bit ('The food is over there, the watermelon is over there...' this whole story is just too weird, even for a screwball comedy. I was sad to read of the fate of Carole. Landis after I watched the movie. I might have to watch this again and I am not sure I can believe what I actually watched last night. I am not all that sensitive to comedic bits that offend the current 'woke' mindset in 2023, but this movie really pushes the envelope.

Carole Landis Was Beautiful

[whpratt1 · 1/10 · 8 July 2007]

This 1941 Hal Roach production was a big hit with movie goers because the public were innocent and hard working people who enjoyed all the great humor that Hal Roach introduced from the 1920's, 30's and 40's. In todays standards this film would be horrible and a complete corny boring film. John Hubbard, (Drogo Gaines) plays the role as a playboy and gets out of a marriage by claiming he was crazy, because his bride was only a gold-digger and Drogo is placed in a mental institution. While Drogo is in the nut house he meets up with Col. Carleton Carroway, (Adolphe Menjou) who after a few weeks decides to escape with Drogo and they meet up with Penguin Moore, (Carole Landis), "I Wake Up Screaming", who owns a carnival and they decide to work and stay with Penguin and Drogo even gets involved with being a lion trainer. This is a nutty film, but a great look back at a film that was produced and directed when America was at war during WW II and the people needed a break from the horrible concerns and worry for the fighting men and woman in this horrible war.

This Will Scrape Your Funny Bone Dry

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 29 March 2007]

I have to agree with the two previous reviewers. I can't believe this film hasn't got more of a reputation than it does. It's a non-stop laugh from start to finish.

The players in Road Show look like they're having a marvelous time in this film. Hal Roach must have kept a really loose and happy set for these people to have put in the work they did.

Millionaire playboy John Hubbard gets cold feet at the altar and his gold digging bride gets him committed to an asylum. While there he meets Adolphe Menjou who's another millionaire there for a rest cure from his grabby family.

The two make an escape and wind up in a carnival owned by Carole Landis and from then on it's one mad plot situation after another.

Adolphe Menjou was a player of extraordinary range. In silent films with that waxed mustache he was usually villains, but in sound he played a good range of serious characters. Yet he had a funny side to him that when it was displayed could be hilarious. We saw more than hints of it in films like Broadway Gondolier and Gold Diggers of 1935. But here as the center of the film, he really explodes on the screen. I've never seen him funnier.

Possibly because it did not star any of the great comic actors, just a whole lot of good players doing their shtick, Road Show does not stand out in the Hal Roach list of comedy masterpieces. That's a pity because this shows what Roach could do without people like Laurel and Hardy to star in a film for him.

Don't ever miss this if it's broadcast again.

REALLY silly but somehow still very likable

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 8 April 2007]

This isn't a comedy for intellectuals, as they will no doubt find the film too silly and full of cheap slapstick to enjoy. However, if you are not a film snob and you give it a chance (especially at the beginning), you'll probably have a few laughs and enjoy yourself.

The film begins with a man (John Hubbard) about to marry. However, he's having cold feet and pretends to be crazy. During his crazy act, he overhears his fiancée say that she can't stand him and is only marrying him for his money. Before he can do anything about this, she decides, out of spite, to play up that he really is insane and has him placed in a mental institution. So far so good, though the film lags a bit in the sanitarium due to too many "crazy people" jokes.

Hubbard can't get out despite his attempts to convince the chief of staff that he is sane. In this "rest home" for the rich, Hubbard meets Adolph Menjou--who isn't dangerous but certainly is rather crazy. Menjou LIKES living there but knows of a way out so they both escape together. Menjou's character is awfully broadly written at this point--laying on the mentally ill part a bit too thick, though he does settle down later in the film and is a good sidekick for Hubbard.

On the run, the two men meet up with Carole Landis and her traveling carnival. Things look great except that the awfully loud and untalented Patsy Kelly is with the carnival as well, though fortunately her role in the film isn't a big one. Plus, so much of the time she's avoiding the romantic overtures of George E. Stone ("Runt" from the Boston Blackie series), that she doesn't get that much of a chance to yell her lines. Landis welcomes the pair of escapees and they all become one big happy family. Things come to an interesting conclusion when Menjou directs him to the mansion of his rather cracked nephew, played by Charles Butterworth.

The film has a lot going for it other than the crazy jokes. The script is bouncy and fun, the supporting singers (The Charioteers) are amazingly fun to listen to and the film never gets dull. Certainly this isn't a great film, but it is fun--and isn't that what comedy is all about anyway?

FYI--Two things to look for: Adolph Menjou's amazing hat and Shemp Howard in a small role (before joining the Stooges in films) and he's billed as "Moe"!

One of those crazy comedies before WW II

[SimonJack · 10/10 · 25 June 2010]

The opening scene in "Road Show" is one of the funniest scenes I can recall from all the movies I've ever watched. This is another of those crazy comedies produced in Hollywood during the tough economic times of the decade plus before World War II. I remember watching some of these gems when TV first began running them as afternoon and late night movies. Some, I don't recall ever having seen, including this hilarious romp, until I bought it on DVD. Movies such as this don't really need much for a plot – they just need to present scenes for the players to do their zany antics and dialog.

What's interesting about these old black and white films is that their humor isn't dated. Sure, some of the situations – in this case, a traveling carnival – are dated. But that can be a little educational for a modern audience, as well as it is entertaining. Although few people have rated this film as of the time of my review, most of the reviewers saw it for the zany and fun humor vehicle it is.

"Road Show" moves from one zany scene and incident to another. Adolphe Menjou was a master in delivery of off-hand wit in his comedies. But here, he also shows physical aptitude in some slapstick scenes as Col. Carroway. He and Drogo Gaines, played by John Hubbard, make a great comedy duo. Carole Landis plays just about the only straight part in the movie as Penguin Moore, owner of the carnival. Several other roles are hilarious and add to the fun.

In a scene toward the end, Col. Carroway has upped the prices on the signs of the carnival booths. Penguin asks, "Don't you think you've raised the prices too much?" Carroway replies, "Too much? Why these people couldn't have a good time unless they paid too much." A few songs add to the enjoyment, with an appropriate tune, "Calliope Jane," sung by the Charioteers.

Incidentally, this film was based on a novel of the same title by Eric Hatch. Hatch also wrote a novel and the screenplay based on it by the same name – "My Man Godfrey" (1936). He wrote more than 20 novels and worked for The New Yorker Magazine.

I highly recommend this comical farce for movie fans who like zany humor and real laughter.

Hal Roach rides again!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 28 October 2017]

Director: HAL ROACH. Associate directors: Gordon Douglas, Hal Roach, junior. Screenplay: Arnold Belgard, Harry Langdon, Mickell Novack. Based on the novel by Eric Hatch. Photography: Norbert Brodine. Film editor: Bert Jordan. Art director: Charles D. Hall. Music: Georgie Stoll. Songs: Hoagy Carmichael (music), Stanley Adams (lyrics). Special effects: Roy Seawright. Producer: Hal Roach.

Copyright 9 January 1941 by Hal Roach Studios, Inc. Released through United Artists. 87 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: When he fails to go through with a wedding, a handsome, personable millionaire is confined in a lunatic asylum.

COMMENT: As in the later Hi Diddle Diddle, the Menjou character is a bogus colonel type here (or is he?). Indeed this movie is almost as high-spirited as Diddle, though the players don't practice double takes, nor do they sling raspberries at the audience, nor do they draw attention to the casting of the director's girl friend.

John Hubbard tries hard, but seems rather stiff compared to Dennis O'Keefe (who would have made a much better job of the role), but if he misses out on the scenes with the lunatics (his playing is both too pat and too flat), he does have some fun with the lions.

Certainly the lovely Carole Landis seems prettier and much less formal than Martha Scott. Most of the laughs, however, are generated by Menjou, Kelly, Best and Butterworth, assisted by a goodly array of cameo turns from the likes of Shemp Howard, Jack Norton and Clarence Wilson.

Admittedly, Butterworth disappears for most of the movie, but fortunately contrives to return for the grand climax.

Most of the songs — pleasant enough, if rather ordinary — are supplied by The Charioteers.

Roach's direction appears remarkably fluid at times. Road Show was presumably designed as just that: a smooth-as-silk prestige attraction. Photography is appealing and production values rate high.