The Christmas Party

1931 was quite a year for Jackie Cooper. He began it while still a member of Hal Roach's Rascals (a.k.a Our Gang) before then filming Skippy for his uncle Norman Taurog at Paramount. After that film's success, Roach then sold Cooper's contract to his distributor M-G-M so he could do features there starting with The Champ which was also a success. So that probably got the powers-that-be there to make a promotional short featuring their now-hot child star and surrounding him with many of the studio's other adult stars in a holiday greeting meant to wow the theatrical audience with all the celebs in the studio's roster at the time. What I saw was quite amusing if not hilarious with whoever I recognized turning up at Jackie's "party" like Clark Gable, and, oh, let's not forget Norma Shearer who seems to have an "in" with Mr. Mayer but then, she was married to his second-in-command, Irving Thalberg, at the time. So on that note, The Christmas Party is worth a look for anyone curious about these things.

The studios had to keep the screens filled of all the theaters they owned, so the studio- related short was a staple of sorts. It had to fill time, be mildly entertaining, and somehow showcase or advertise the studio.

The point was to remind the audience that MGM in this case had most of the stars, so coming to this particular theater every week was a good bet.

This was a seasonal edition and it is interesting in a way. It "folds" the notion of stars serving the audience with the same stars graciously serving unruly kids. The idea is clever, especially for 1931 when the folding notion was so young.

There's some mild entertainment value in seeing scenes that obviously were ad-libbed.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

When this short film begins, Jackie Cooper arrives home after his team won the football game. He asks his kind of grouchy mother if he can have the team over for a Christmas party and she reluctantly agrees. But soon kids start inviting ALL their friends and it looks like the party might be a disaster. When Jackie realizes what's happened, he asks Norma Shearer to help him and soon all the swell folks at MGM are throwing the kids a nice party. Included among the cameos are Clark Gable, Polly Moran, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Marion Davies, Lionel Barrymore, Ramon Novarro, Cliff Edwards, Charlotte Greenwood (and her long and wiggly legs) and quite a few others.

The film is a totally staged but enjoyable film. I truly doubt these movie folks would routinely throw parties for kids...especially Wallace Beery, who Cooper described as a complete creep in his autobiography. So, it's a film you can enjoy...provided you really don't take the story very seriously. I liked seeing all the cameos and like it despite it being incredibly phony.

This hard-to-find little film was MGM's Christmas Short Subject for 1931 and it's a lot of fun for old movie buffs.

The plot (Jackie Cooper wants to give a Christmas dinner to his neighborhood pals and his friends at the studio lend a hand) is a mere contrivance to show as many of MGM's top talent as possible in 9 minutes. Norma Shearer - as Thalberg's wife she was Queen of the Lot - gets the most screen time. The enjoyment is in trying to put the correct moniker to all the others as they appear - most for only a few seconds.

In order of their appearance, here is a complete listing of the uncredited celebrities: Jackie Cooper, Norma Shearer, Jimmy Durante (dressed as Santa), Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Polly Moran, Reginald Denny, Clark Gable, Charlotte Greenwood, Lionel Barrymore, Leila Hyams, Cliff Edwards, Ramon Novarro, Marion Davies, and Anita Page.

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Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

MGM may have called itself the studio with "more stars than there are in heaven," but this little short with JACKIE COOPER as the centerpiece of attention as a child star, surrounded by the studio's impressive list of contract players, features a lot of "stars" that today's fans are totally unfamiliar with. That studio slogan was only appropriate when we talk of MGM during the '40s and '50s.

Sure, people will recognize the lovely Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Wallace Beery and Jimmy Durante, but are unlikely to know who's who when Anita Page, Reginald Denny, Marion Davies, Charlotte Greenwood and Polly Moran arrive for Cooper's studio birthday bash.

Nevertheless, it's an amusing slice of film history and guaranteed to satisfy the nostalgic feeling a lot of us have for the pre-Golden Years at Metro.