Monday, August 2, 2010

Jool Robbery

Here's a film that I'm posting because odds are you've neither heard of it nor seen it. Its a short with a ton of stars and yet it doesn't appear on the IMDB credits list of any of them (or anywhere else for that matter). It's a curiosity for any of you avid film buffs out there, but its not anything you really need search out because its not that good. Still if you want to see how many stars get get into 20 minutes this is it.

What follows is a post from another blog:

Odd all star short made as a fund raiser runs about 20 minutes and has possibly twice than many stars.

The plot has a detective going around trying to deduce who stole Norma Shearer’s jewels at the Hollywood Ball. Most of the appearances are little more than a line or two (Though some like the Little Rascals are simply seen sitting on a stoop eating ice cream). The cast includes Barbara Stanwyk, Edward G Robinson, Laurel and Hardy, Wheeler and Woolsey (they have probably the most screen time), Buster Keaton, Joan Crawford, Victor McLaughlin, Gabby Hayes, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and many others. The plot is absolutely transparent to the point where it really doesn’t hold together even for its brief running time.

Its an amusing curio and little else, a weird cross of films like Hollywood Party (a plot) or the studio review films (no plot) where actors come together for no discernible reason.

I’ve been curious about this film since my days collecting super 8 films where this was always for sale and had the selling point of a great number of stars. My quest to see the film is over but unfortunately it was a quest to find a film that’s not very good. Thankfully it was included on a DVD of Laurel and Hardy films so I didn’t actually pay for the film as such.

For film buffs its worth a look once in their career, but as anything other than that I’d take a pass.

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