INTERNATIONAL HOUSE - 1933

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE- 1933

Is one entertaining old movie! With an all vaudeville cast, starting from WC Fields to Burns and Allen to Baby Rosemarie, it's 80 minutes of laughs and music. I was very impressed with this movie for number of reasons; this movie takes place in a village called Yoo Hoo China, for 1933 I was delighted to see that none of the Chinese characters were portrayed with any kind of racist or stereo typed cast. Even the character Dr. Wong, played by Edmund Breese a caucasian actor, showed none of the broken accent, or any bumbling characterization for the sake of comedy.





The story tells Dr Wong has invented the very first television and invited a cast of VIPs all over the world to visit International House Hotel. Lots of small comedy routines done by Burns and Allen , Gracie in her top form as the air head. It was a delight to see Bela Lugosi as a ladies man later turned villain.





W C Fields was the main character of this cast of wacky characters, he played Prof. Quail who flown into China in a flying car, which looked pretty good. And a very interesting appearance by Cab Calloway and his orchestra singing about "The Reefer man". The "creepiest" scene in the movie was a performance by Baby Rose Marie, Rose Marie of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" at the age of 7 or 8, belting out a tune with same gestures of the adult Rose Marie in the later part of her career.
"International House" is really ahead of its time and a true Comedy Classic!