Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

JohnHowardReid I would definitely rate the Broadway debut scene, so masterfully enacted by Frank Morgan (of all people!) and Lupe Velez – and also briefly featuring Max Steiner in the second of his only two on-camera appearances – as one of filmdom's Top One Hundred movie scenes. The rest of the movie – filmed at a frenetic pace by Gregory La Cava – is also top-notch viewing with Lee Tracy in fine form as Lupe's Clayton's friend (the friend you have when you're not having a friend). Production values are admirably extensive and once super-popular but now sadly under-rated director, Gregory La Cava, can be seen at the absolute zenith of his form. How can a director, once so super-popular with both critics and moviegoers in his day, be now so undeservedly forgotten? Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

Forn55 Gregory La Cava made some dandy movies (My Man Godfrey, Stage Door) but this isn't one of them. The film wants to be an early and sparkling exemplar of the madcap comedy genre. Alas, it is nothing of the kind. Asked to carry the weight of this film on his shoulders, Lee Tracy merely whines his way through it (although the whining is done at his usual warp speed) and is badly mismatched with Lupe Velez who comes across more as a shrew with a bad English language vocal coach than the Mexican Spitfire she eventually grew into in later roles. Frank Morgan does the best he can with the flat dialogue written for him, but even he can't bring the film to life. The plot lurches from situation to situation but none of the situations is especially funny and none of them connects with another to create a coherent narrative line. The Half Naked Truth is 77 minutes long, but it's a long 77 minutes.

st-shot This sour ball comedy features the abrasive pairing of two early sound Hollywood figures Lupe Velez and Lee Tracy. It's one scuffed up film.Bates (Tracy) is a carnival barker pimping the hips of the fiery Teresita (Velez) when she bolts with him for the big time of Broadway along with Achilles (Eugene Palette). Bates in rapid time barges in on a Jed Harris type producer (Frank Morgan) and convinces him to put Teresita in a show who then dazzles. The pair split, they get back together and return to road. One can understand La Cava's urgency to complete this project having to deal with the mercurial talents of his leads by directing it like one of his silent shorts. Tracy looks and acts like he needs to catch a train and La Cava seems to just give him the green light until he tires. Velez had yet to put spit in fire and her dancing and timing barley flicker. Palette merely croaks.The Half Naked Truth is a sloppily slapped together piece of brass and crass void of pace and humor. The single redeeming factor of Naked is that I found great enjoyment in two large crowd scenes involving cast members stolen around 42nd Street and Grand Central. They explode with a celebrated naturalness, the film just recites in bad time.

mrb1980 This funny little pre-Code film benefits greatly from the dynamite teaming of Lee Tracy and Lupe Velez. Tracy plays Bates, a carnival barker/con man whose carnival is run out of town for fleecing local residents. He comes up with the bright idea of billing his girlfriend Teresita (Velez) as "Princess Exotica" from Turkey, and heads for Broadway. In New York, Bates fast-talks his way into a contract with the perpetually confused Merle Ferrell (Frank Morgan), then admits that Teresita is not a Turkish princess after all. Teresita electrifies the audience with a rendition of "Hey, Mr. Carpenter", then begins to grow apart from Bates, who is busy blackmailing Ferrell into hiring him for a publicist position. Finally, Bates believes that he has lost Teresita, so he quits his job with Ferrell, returns to the carnival, where Teresita is singing and dancing. The wedding march song ensues, signaling an upcoming Bates/Teresita marriage and the end of the film.This movie is just hilarious, with great singing and dancing from Velez, very funny performances from Tracy and Morgan, and punchy direction by La Cava. The "Hey, Mr. Carpenter" number is terrific, the dialogue surprisingly fresh, and the gags quite good. The scene in which a frantic Morgan finds blackmail photos of himself and Velez all over his office is howlingly funny. The great Max Steiner has a small role as a befuddled orchestra conductor. My only complaint is with the strange subplot about a nudist colony, which seems out of place.Watching this film makes me wonder what might have been. Tracy destroyed his career with an infamous drunken 1934 incident, and sadly Velez committed suicide in 1944. Both should have been major movie stars, but are remembered as footnote Hollywood actors—especially Tracy, who has been all but forgotten. It's a shame, because both Tracy and Velez shine brightly in this excellent, happy film.