ROAD SHOW
(United Artists)
ERE is a droll, diverting trifle, to be recommended if you like your entertainment escapist (see recent controversy on subject). John Hub-
bard is a wealthy young man who doesn’t like the girl he is going to marry, and escapes by playing insane at the wedding ceremony. Justifiably piqued, the girl biffs him on the head, sends him off to a mental hospital. This hospital is charmingly disguised as the Hopedale Club ("For the Rest of Your Life") and is peopled by a number of delightful lunatics, including Adolphe Menjou as
Colonel Carlton Carroway ("You've heard of Carroway seed? I’m head of the world corporation. I came here to get away from it all"). Unaccountably at liberty is Mr, Menjou’s nephew, Charles Butterworth, who likes to ride everywhere in a fire engine. Making their escape from the mental hospital, Mr. Hubbard and the Colonel join up with a travelling circus run by the attractive Carole Landis. There, after a series of events which serve to prove that nearly everybody participating should be confined at the Hopedale Club, Mr. Hubbard is finally billed as Drogo the Lion-Tamer. Demonstrating the effect which true love can have on a susceptible young man, he not only tames a whole cage full of lions, but also buys Miss Landis a brand new circus. From the opening shot of John Hubbard bolting from the altar and sitting in the vestry bleating like a sheep, to the final fade-out of an Indian brave proposing to Patsy Kelly by picture writing, it is insane comedy of a high order. Menjou, with his capacity for getting into trouble and his automatic-camera-cum-three-thimble game, supplies much of the humour, but Director Hal Roach has astutely thrown in every Aid of Entertainment he could think of. Mr. Roach, indeed, provides an object lesson in the direction of this sort of comedy. In one sequence he lets it slide into the equivalent of custard-pie throwing, but gathers it up again immediately with tight reins. The musical side is embellished with three songs by Hoagy Carmichael. Incredible as it may sound to the uninitiated, the name of Hoagy (Deep Purple) Carmichael means something in Tin Pan Alley, and his contributions to Road Show are smooth and pleasant. Typical scene: John Hubbard, with whip and kitchen chair, "taming" Adolph Menjou, who roars at him like any lion.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410613.2.31.1.2
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 103, 13 June 1941, Page 16
Word count
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396ROAD SHOW New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 103, 13 June 1941, Page 16
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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