Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"The Christmas Party" is a black-and-white sound film from 1931, so it has its 85th anniversary this year already. The star here is Jackie Cooper and this was made the very same year he got his Oscar nomination, but all kinds of big names from that era have little cameos too, such as Clark Gable for example. Check out the cast list for everybody who shows up in these 9 minutes. Unfortunately, in terms of content, it is not too great, but that should not come as a surprise. Watching other people party and celebrate is nothing too exciting if you are just the audience. I personally also wondered why they celebrated Christmas as I thought it was mostly a family event, but I guess company celebrations were already a thing back then and there were many kids to join Cooper celebrating. The final message from Cooper to us is nice, but it does not make up for the boredom from before. I have to give this one a thumbs down.
tavm
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.
Neil Doyle
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.
Michael_Elliott
Christmas Party, The (1931) *** (out of 4) Charles Reisner Jackie Cooper wants to throw his football team a Christmas party at his house but soon other teams learn of it and want to come as well. The house is too small for everyone so Cooper asks Mayer if he can have the party on one of the MGM lots. The actual story here isn't all that important but what is are all th A-list stars who make an appearance here. Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Anita Page, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Marion Davies, Jimmy Durante (as Santa) and Norma Shearer are just a few of the stars that show up. If you know anything about Mayer you'd know that there's no way he'd really allow a party to take place on his set but I guess that's besides the point since the film itself is just trying to be charming and it does that. Mayer doesn't show up but there are plenty of others that make this a must see for fans of Hollywood's Golden Era.MGM Christmas Trailer (1937) *** (out of 4) A 15-year-old Judy Garland sings "Silent Night" in this very short (2-minutes) short from MGM. There's really nothing to judge here except the song and Garland does a great job with it. I'm sure something extra could have been added to plump up the running time but what's here is very good.
