CRAZY HOUSE-Universal-1943-The second film featuring the
comedy team of (Ole) Olsen & (Chic) Johnson after their chaotic HELLZAPOPPIN (based on their Broadway show). 

The team play themselves and want to make another movie for Universal but the studio head (played by Thomas Gomez) refuses so they decide to make their own "independent" movie! They hire a director (played by Patric Knowles who was in HIT THE ICE with Abbott & Costello and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN the same year) and go about "signing" talent. Singer Cass Daley (who made very few movies) and Martha O'Driscoll (who later played the hunchback nurse in HOUSE OF DRACULA!) co-star. Parts are funny but the whole thing is bogged down by more musicial numbers than in any two Abbott & Costello movies! Many familiar character actors appear: Shemp Howard, Billy Gilbert, Percy Kilbride, Hans Conried, Franklin Panghorn, Bobby Barber and Charles Middleton. Actors and Actress appearing as themselves include: Leo Carillo, Johnny Mack Brown, Allan Jones, Count Basie and many more. Basil Rathbon and Nigel Bruce have cameos as Holmes & Watson!! Although Crazy House was not a hit, Olsen and Johnson would star in one more movie for Universal, GHOST CATCHERS (also with O'Driscoll). They would become stars of early TV several years later. Director Edward F. Cline worked with Buster Keaton on many of his classic silent films and later directed films with WC Fields and Olsen & Johnson's other movies.

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