Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Universal)
Screwball film revolving around a hotel in China where people are gathered to view and buy a new invention called the "radioscope", or television. W.C. Fields is a lost airplane pilot, well really a "gyroplane", who literally lands in the middle of the hotel. Peggy Hopkins Joyce plays herself, chasing after any millionaire who happens to be in the hotel. George Burns is the house physician, along with his nurse Gracie Allen, doing their usual schtick. The television gag allows for numerous short musical diversions, including Cab Calloway's famous rendition of "Reefer Man", a creepy 10-year-old Rose Marie singing a blues number and Rudy Vallee crooning a love ballad. Occasionally hilarious, but also episodic, predictable and decidedly un-PC, particularly its depiction of the Chinese.
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