How Long Is “Hullabaloo”?

It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that the MGM programmer Hullabaloo bears no relation to the 1960s rock-and-roll series of the same name. Frank Morgan plays Frank Merriweather, an old-time actor who tries to revive his fading career on radio (just as John Barrymore was then doing in real life). His first attempt at radio success culminates in a Welles-like "Invasion of Mars" scare, which loses him his job. Merriweather manages to redeem himself in the last scenes by trotting his talented youngsters (Virginia Grey, Virginia O'Brien and Leni Lynn) before the microphones. The film's funniest scene finds Merriweather offering a re-enactment of the recent MGM feature Boom Town, delivering astonishingly accurate imitations of Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr-a bit of cinematic ledgerdemain accomplished by dubbing the Boom Town soundtrack over Frank Morgan's lip movements.