"Mad Holiday" is a typical low budget 30s thriller, centering on Edmund Lowe as a vacationing movie idol, a shipboard killer and a diamond heist. But the real mystery is why Loew's co-star, Elissa Landi, never became a star in her own right. Rising above the grade B trappings as an incognito author, she's a revelation...sexy, stylish and bouyantly amusing with the sparkle of a Rosalind Russell or Katherine Hepburn. She also gave a stand-out performance in the second "Thin Man" caper, "After the Thin Man" (albeit in a less captivating role.) But by 1943, her screen career was over. She's not the only gifted performer who somehow got lost in the maze of the studio system. But watching her sail through this otherwise tepid crime story, one an only wonder how Hollywood let her get away.
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MikeMagi17 June 2013
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In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made tons of mystery films in which amateurs solve crimes that the police are just too stupid to solve. It seems that anyone who wanted to be a detective could solve crimes in these pictures....school teachers, reporters, and, in "Mad Holiday", actors.
When the story begins, Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) is finishing up his sixth mystery movie...and he's sick of them. He feels that the stories are trite and he refuses to do any more. Before he'll even consider returning to the studio to work in any film, he wants a vacation. However, when he takes a cruise, wouldn't you know it but bodies would start piling up, and, in some cases, disappearing! Apparently it all has something to do with a stolen Chinese diamond...and reluctantly Trent begins investigating the case along with Ms. Dean...the woman who wrote his trite screenplays.
In support of Lowe are a variety of familiar actors (such as Zasu Pitts, Edmund Gwenn and Edgar Kennedy), but the most interesting was Ted Healy. While I never have been a Healy fan, he is an interesting guy here because it's so obvious that the part was written for Ted Healy and His Stooges. The Three Stooges had been partners with Healy up until about 1933 and here, without the Stooges, he inexplicably smacks a few guys around as if they were Moe, Curly and Larry! Again and again, he's slapping poor schmucks who just seem willing to take it! It really was weird.
Even though this plot is too familiar, having Trent be an actor who has no interest in investigating crimes is unusual. He only begrudgingly investigates...and he really would rather be left alone.
So is it any good? Yes...mostly because I love Lowe and loved his style in this movie. He's an actor mostly forgotten today, though he certainly deserves to be remembered. Here he manages to take a B-mystery and inject a lot of life into it. Well worth seeing and fun. -
ksf-22 September 2020Phil Trent (Ed Lowe) has been playing a super sleuth in films for years now, and wants to just get away for a while. he gets on a cruise ship to escape, but of course the crowds recognize him. his publisher pulls a stunt that makes him look foolish. in all the confusion, he meets the actual writer of the detective stories who just HAPPENS to be on the same cruise ship. Zasu Pitts is in here for comedic fun, and plays a drunk who hates drunkards. and the real bodies start piling up. and a diamond is missing. the usual shenanigans. mixups. twists that aren't so surprising. now we're off the ship and in a chinatown theater. and Trent is still hot on the trail of the diamond and the murderer. it's pretty good. low key fun. some slapstick comedy tossed in. Directed by George Seitz. died young at 56, but not much information available on him.
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Michael_Elliott13 December 2013Mad Holiday (1936)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
MGM crime-mystery about actor Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) who grows tired of playing a mystery solver so he decides to quit the film business and go on a trip. On board a ship he runs into Peter Dean (Elissa Landi) who just happens to be the writer of his story. It doesn't take long for the two to find a dead body and now they're got a real mystery to solve. It's clear that this "B" picture was trying to recapture the magic of THE THIN MAN and while it doesn't reach the levels of that classic, the fun cast makes the film worth viewing. There's no question that Lowe was an expert at playing this type of character. The character is rather full of himself, charming and has a way with words so Lowe is perfect at this. He's especially good early on once he finally cracks and realizes that he doesn't want to act in these type of pictures. Landi makes for a good partner in crime as the two manage to have some nice chemistry. The supporting cast has some very familiar faces with Edgar Kennedy stealing the picture as a detective who just happens to be on board the ship. Zasu Pitts plays a rather dimwitted fan of the actor and Ted Healy can be seen playing a stooge promotional man for the studio. The actual mystery itself is a pretty good one as you'll certainly be left in the dark as to who the killer is and what the exact motive was. Director George B. Seitz does a nice job at keeping the film moving at a nice pace and the screenplay also has some good touches and especially when it gives the viewer a few winks about what happens behind the scenes of one of these films. MAD HOLIDAY is far from perfect but it's a nice little time killer. -
Here Edmund Lowe plays actor Philip Trent who is tired of playing the same detective in a series of B films. The problem is these B films make money! So the studio and the author of the detective books do not want Trent to leave. Trent decides to decompress on a cruise between LA and San Francisco, but his vacation turns out to be anything but refreshing. The writer turns up on the cruise to try and convince Trent to stay, and then there is an actual murder mystery on the ship that turns out to have lots of twists and turns in it.
Ultimately this film is somewhat like "The Thin Man" in that you have a reluctant detective (Lowe) and a woman spurring him on and getting involved in the mystery herself (Elissa Landi). This is actually a very good role for Landi, actually much more up her alley than some of the other films I've seen her in.
The film gets very busy with lots of minor character actors showing up, including the zany Zasu Pitts and the always on edge Edgar Kennedy. I might have given this film an 8/10, but Ted Healy absolutely ruins every scene he is in, he is just so obnoxious. He cut the Three Stooges loose in 1934, they went to Columbia, the rest is history. Healy stayed at MGM ,and the rest is just not funny. In this film he has some kind of pseudo stooge that looks like a genetic splicing of Moe and Larry. It is all very weird.
The end is just a big joke, but as (deliberately) corny and hammy as the individual parts were, it really fit well into a satisfying whole of a spoof. I'd recommend it. -
The same year (1936) he played Philo Vance in MGM's "The Garden Murder Case", Edmund Lowe starred in this witty spoof of the entire "debonair super sleuth" genre, which is co-written by a woman, Florence Ryerson (the same woman who wrote another MGM Philo Vance entry, "The Casino Murder Case", one year earlier), and co-stars the obscure today Elissa Landi as a female writer of popular mystery books. Lowe and Landi seem perfectly in tune with each other and with the irreverent spirit of the film - they make a good pair. The film has an unusually strong supporting cast, however you might say it feels a bit overcrowded at times, as neither Zasu Pitts not Ted Healy have roles that are a) essential to the plot (even as red herrings), and b) particularly funny (Healy's sidekick does have the funniest scene in the film, though: the one with the wristwatches). Also, although most of the film is set on a ship, it never really creates the illusion that the ship is actually travelling. But the ending is very surprising - perhaps it can also be taken as a clever satire on one of the oldest clichés in the mystery genre. **1/2 out of 4.
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SnoopyStyle18 April 2022Philip Trent (Edmund Lowe) plays the popular film character, private detective Shelby James, as written by Peter Dean (Elissa Landi). He hates the character and the work. He quits the long-running series and goes on a cruise ship vacation. A mysterious blonde barges into his room and seemingly murders somebody. He stumbles upon the body just he claims to hate about the films.
I like the starting premise but I lose interest in the murder mystery. There are ways to heighten the intensity. The leads don't have enough chemistry until getting handcuffed together. Maybe they just needed some time alone. They need to get arrested sooner and the story should finish on board the ship. It's a lot of joking around. The murder mystery gets convoluted and confused. This has a bit of fun. I can do without the fake Chinese but that's the times. I would think that the idea was to make this a long-running amateur sleuth couple franchise. At last, this isn't one which lasted. -
For those of you familiar with The Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, you will see many similarities but I believe this is not nearly as good as Powell and Loy together. Edmund Lowe is an actor who plays a detective but is tired of doing the same thing so he wants to take a vacation to get away from what he considers poor detective stories. On the ship he meets up with his co star for the movie, Peter Dean played by Ellisa Landi. They accidentally get involved in a real murder and can't seem to get out of several "scrapes" together. They do all right as a couple but again, I believe this movie tried to copy The Thin Man style and didn't do too well. There's a lot of slapstick in this movie so if you enjoy that from the '30's you will enjoy this movie. All in all it isn't too bad so I gave it a 5 but no higher. If you enjoyed this movie you will love The Thin Man series so I highly recommend any of those.
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mark.waltz16 January 2020Veteran detective Edmund Lowe takes on his own persona playing Philip Trent, a movie star typecast as a detective who walks out on his career and finds himself involved in an actual murder. Desperate to be alone on a cruise ship, he disguises himself but can't fool the public, especially fan zasu Pitts and the mysterious Elissa Landi whom he finds in his room where she promptly passes out, disappears and is seen running out of his room holding a knife. Of course, there's now a corpse in his room, and there's a twist that the audience won't see coming. It's the type of twist that could lead an actor to murder, especially of those at the studio he wants time away from.
This is sort of "The corpse cried wolf" as every time a dead body pops up, a police officer passenger (Edgar Kennedy) thinks he's searching for publicity. This mixes in comedy, mystery and romance, with Kennedy's slow burn, Pitts' drunken act as she gushes over Lowe and Ted Healy's aggressive publicity agent interfering as Lowe and Landi become further involved. Harlan Briggs, as Pitts' husband, seems there only to roll his eyes at every wacky line his wife says, especially concerning their Asta like schnauzer who ends up with a hangover just like Pitts.
There's also some delightfully bizarre characters: mysterious Gustav von Heffreitz, edgy Soo Yong as the mastermind behind an attempted jewel theft; the creepy Rafaela Ottiano (disguises in Asian make-up) as Yong's servant; Cecil Kellaway as a murder victim's valet, Raymond Hatton as a jewel thief who plays corpses in films, and Herbert Rawlinson as the captain overwrought with corpses on his ship. Witty but preposterous, this is the type of film that's completely irresistible as long as you are open to its absurdities. The MGM gloss helps this rise above its B status, but don't expect another "Thin Man" series out of this. -
Norm-3028 May 1999This film is a spoof of ALL the mystery films of the 30's & 40's. An actor quits his job playing a "super sleuth", goes on a Vacation, and discovers a REAL murder!
Lowe & Landi are terrific together; there's quite a "chemistry" between them. It's a shame that they didn't make this combo into a series!
More laffs are provided by Edgar Kennedy (with his "slow burn"), Zazu Pitts, and Ted Healy. It's quite obvious that everyone enjoyed making this film! It's a real HOOT! (Especially funny how it spoofs its own "mystery" genre).
The only (slight) drawback to this film is that it's incredibly easy to figure out who the "masked murderer" is....but, you've GOTTA see this film! -
boblipton17 May 2013Edmund Lowe and Elissa Landi are terrific in this comedy-drama directed by sure comedy hand George Seitz. They are supported by the always hilarious Edgar Kennedy and Zasu Pitts, as well as the annoying Ted Healy, with Edmund Gwenn in a small but well-performed role.
The movie looks like it was originally intended for William Powell and Myrna Loy as a spoof on THE THIN MAN, but the lead pair -- Lowe plays a movie actor trapped in a series of successful murder movies written by hack Landi -- manage their own chemistry. Lowe times his wisecracks like Groucho Marx and Landi's timing and character reminds me of Greer Garson, still three years from being noticed by Louis Mayer.
Seitz had had a sure hand for comedy, both as a writer for Broadway and for the movies since silent days. He would direct a couple more great comedies for Metro, including the amazing MY DEAR MISS ALDRICH and then spend the remainder of his life directing the lively Andy Hardy series. If you get a chance to see what he could do with a good script and adult actors, take it.