Hi Diddle Diddle [Blu-ray]

Director: Andrew L. Stone Andrew L. Stone

Overview

In the tradition of Hellzapoppin', Hi Diddle Diddle is an all-stops-out "screwball comedy" populated by certifiable zanies. Billie Burke plays Mrs. Prescott, the featherbrained mother of bride-to-be Janie Prescott (Martha Scott). When Mrs. P is swindled out of her life savings, Colonel Phyffe (Adolphe Menjou), the con-man father of Janie's fiancé Sonny (Dennis O'Keefe), vows to get her money back -- by any means possible. The plotline is merely an excuse for a series of wild nonsequitur visual and verbal gags, culminating in a cute reverse-cliché finale. Making her first Hollywood appearance in years, silent screen star Pola Negri is hilariously cast as Phyffe's opera-star wife Genya Smetana. Best bits: Mrs. Prescott revealing that a recurring female character is a "special friend of the director"; Leslie Quayle (June Havoc singing a duet with herself); and an outrageous scene in which the wallpaper comes to life during a eardrum-shattering family sing-along (the animation was provided by the Warner Bros. cartoon staff).

Product Details

Release Date:	06/13/2023
UPC:	0850049732017
Original Release:	1943
Rating:	NR
Source:	Classicflix
Language:	English
Time:	1:13:00
Sales rank:	41,087

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Dennis O'Keefe	Sonny Phyffe
Martha Scott	Janie Prescott
Adolphe Menjou	Col. Hector Phyffe
Pola Negri	Genya Smetana
Billie Burke	Mrs. Prescott
June Havoc	Leslie Quayle
Walter Kingsford	Sen. Simpson
Barton Hepburn	Peter Warrington III
George Metaxa	Spinelli
Marek Windheim	Pianist
Eddie Marr	Croupier
Paul Porcasi	Impresario
Lorraine Miller	A Friend
Richard Hageman	Boughton
Bert Roach	Fat Man
Chick Chandler	Chauffeur
Ellen Lowe	Maid
Barry McCollum	Cashier
Joe Devlin	Bartender
Hal K. Dawson	Minister
Andrew Tombes	Doorman
Byron Foulger	Watson
Ann Hunter	Sandra

Technical Credits

Andrew L. Stone

Director,Producer

Editorial Reviews

Those in the mood for something nutty and screwy are most likely to enjoy Hi Diddle Diddle, a bit of tomfoolery that unfortunately isn't as off-the-wall as it wants to be. That's certainly not from lack of trying. Edmund L. Hartmann and Frederick J. Jackson's screenplay is cut from very loose cloth, and intentionally so: they writers want to have an "anything goes" kind of set-up so that they can throw in gags and nonsense. That's all well and good, but it takes a special kind of order to frame the kind of anarchy that they're after, and it's hard to achieve that order in a manner that gives the illusion of effortlessness. They don't achieve that, with the result that much of the humor feels forced. Nevertheless, there are some bits that are simply divine, including a running gag involving an actress who keeps showing up in every scene because she's the director's girl friend, and a sequence in which wallpaper depicting Richard Wagner and kin on a picnic suddenly comes to life and flees the din that the other characters are creating. The cast is certainly not to blame for the film's inability to be as daft and daffy as it wishes to be, for Billie Burke, Pola Negri Adolphe Menjou and the rest all give it their considerable best. Perhaps if director Andrew L. Stone had the sensibility of a Mel Brooks or a Groucho Marx, Diddle might have attained the zany heights it aims for.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler