Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . but for others this 1941 Entrance Exam may produce a flunking grade (especially if they're a normal person under the age of 30). As fans of current live-action feature film FIFTEEN REAL MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN well know, our Holy Bible doesn't have room to cover EVERY helpful spiritual pointer (such as the location of the Healing Hollow Cottonwoods of Texas). Many of the Faithful believe there may be sort of a Cultural Literacy Triage Station adjacent to the Pearly Gates, particularly if the Population Explosion spreads skyward (since They'd never allow the lines in Heaven to get longer than those at Disneyland!). In such a case, What you know could conceivably trump Who you know. H0LLYW00D STEPS OUT seems designed as a beta version of such a trial. Say an American battleship explodes, sending more than a thousand souls instantly Upward (as happened in Real Life a few months after H0LLYW00D STEPS OUT's release). Possibly there was room for all of the recently deceased way back when. If not, perhaps those who could differentiate Curly, Larry and Moe for Peter, Paul, and Mary would gain preferential entrance. There may not be anyone left alive who can pass this 1941 Heavenly Entrance Exam without lots of cramming with Lenny Maltin or Bob Osborne. Perhaps Warner Bros. could put out an up-to-date cribbing cartoon?

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Hollywood Steps Out" is a 7.5-minute cartoon from 1941, so it's having its 75th anniversary this year. Not bad. It was written by Melvin Millar and the director is the famous Tex Avery giving us one of his earlier works. It's a Warner Bros Production together with Schlesinger Studios, both big players from that era, and counts among Warner Bros' Merrie Melodies. This is certainly misleading as music is almost non-existent in this little movie. I find it interesting how they depicted cartoon characters of so many famous stars from that time, but sadly, this is really all that the film is. Neither the dialogs nor the interactions and actions are memorable or interesting at all and with most people in this film being only known to major movie buffs, if at all, the film has not aged well at all. It may have been a good or great watch for its time during World War II, but for today it is not anymore. Thumbs down.

MartinHafer I am a huge fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood, but even I had a hard time sticking with this old and rather lame cartoon from Warner Brothers. I was able to follow the many inside jokes and I knew who the celebrities were who were being parodied, but nowadays most people won't know who the actors are who are being featured--meaning that the film certainly would have gone over a lot better in 1941. The problem, though, is that even if you do know who everyone is and what the references were about, it just wasn't particularly funny. As for me, I much prefer a Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck cartoon from the same time period. Still, it is an interesting curio that old movie buffs or historians might enjoy--just be forewarned that it's far from Warner's best.

slymusic A wonderful Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Tex Avery, "Hollywood Steps Out" is perhaps the epitome of Hollywood celebrity caricatures. This cartoon essentially has no plot; all the various Hollywood personalities hang out at Ciro's, which was quite a popular nightclub back then, and they all have their comic moments. And that's basically it. (If you haven't yet seen this marvelous cartoon, please do not read any further.) Among the familiar faces I recognize are Cary Grant, James Stewart (my favorite actor), Henry Fonda, Peter Lorre, Groucho & Harpo Marx, Clark Gable, Sonja Henie, the Three Stooges (Curly, Larry, and Moe), Oliver Hardy, Leopold Stokowski, Leon Schlesinger (an inside joke), Ned Sparks, J. Edgar Hoover, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Bing Crosby, and James Cagney. There are numerous others I do not recognize."Hollywood Steps Out" is quite interesting to see how well all the various Hollywood celebrities are caricatured, not to mention the brilliant voice characterizations. Overall, this cartoon is comically entertaining.