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To me, this movie is perfection.

It is a performances centric movie

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Hollywood Steps Out (1941) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Delightful Warner short doesn't have any real story to speak of but the highlight here is seeing all sorts of Hollywood stars out dancing at a club. We get countless cameos including Gable, Garbo, Hardy, Cagney, Bogart, Robinson, The Three Stooges, Rooney, Stewart, Weismuller, Grant and many others including Karloff as the Frankenstein monster. Again, there's no real story going on here as the entire seven-minutes is just a set up for the various stars to run into one another. There are quite a few highlights but one would have to be the seen with Cagney and Bogart planning some crimes. Another is the brilliant final gag that I won't spoil here but it certainly ends the film on a big laugh. It was also fun seeing all the spoofs thrown at Gable but one of the biggest laughs comes from an Andy Hardy joke. The film contains the usual great animation, nice score and the brilliant voice work by Mel Blanc.

Hollywood Steps Out is paradise for the old movie fan, or someone familiar with the great performers of the Golden Era. Big name stars and character actors alike are all in motion to the beat of The Conga. In fact, in a running gag from the opening scene where the Kleig Lights are swaying in time to The Conga, right on through to the ending where Clark Gable catches Groucho Marx in drag, everyone seems to be doing that dance. Wouldn't you? I know I would! Fun stuff! For those who 'don't understand' this cartoon I suggest the following...either start watching classic movies, or watch other cartoons. Anyone who enjoys watching the classic movie era is going to love this. Those unfamiliar with those films, and their stars, are going to be lost. As for me, I watch this one over and over and still love it!

The Hollywood set steps out at Ciro's to be precise, where the night-clubbing action is exclusively set. The script is not particularly amusing or inventive, but fascinating all the same. The voice impersonations are mostly very skillful. One of the longest spots has Jimmy Stewart declining an invitation to rumba. At least two gags deal with Crosby's horse-racing ventures, whilst the climax features a bubble dance by "Sally Strand". Naturally the stars in evidence at Ciro's on this particular night (Dinner $50 and up. Easy terms available) are weighted in favor of Warner Bros, though a number of "foreign" stars receive a fair innings including the Hardys (both real and fictional), the Three Stooges, and Harpo Marx. Some of the faces are glimpsed so fleetingly they will be difficult for a 2007 audience to recognize. And maybe two or three are now forgotten.Musically, the film is a feast for song-lovers with snatches from Nat Ayer's "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", Tony Jackson and Egbert Van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby", Allie Wrubel's "The Lady in Red", Isham Jones' "It Had To Be You", James Brockman, James Kendis and Nat Vincent's "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", M.K. Jerome's "Congo", Harry Warren's "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", Murray Mencher's "Merrily We Roll Along" and others, all delightfully rendered by the studio orchestra under the baton of Leo F. Forbstein.To sum up: In view of the star line-up, somewhat disappointing, but still a must for all movie buffs.

A wonderful Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Tex Avery, "Hollywood Steps Out" is perhaps the epitome of Hollywood celebrity caricatures. This cartoon essentially has no plot; all the various Hollywood personalities hang out at Ciro's, which was quite a popular nightclub back then, and they all have their comic moments. And that's basically it. (If you haven't yet seen this marvelous cartoon, please do not read any further.) Among the familiar faces I recognize are Cary Grant, James Stewart (my favorite actor), Henry Fonda, Peter Lorre, Groucho & Harpo Marx, Clark Gable, Sonja Henie, the Three Stooges (Curly, Larry, and Moe), Oliver Hardy, Leopold Stokowski, Leon Schlesinger (an inside joke), Ned Sparks, J. Edgar Hoover, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Bing Crosby, and James Cagney. There are numerous others I do not recognize."Hollywood Steps Out" is quite interesting to see how well all the various Hollywood celebrities are caricatured, not to mention the brilliant voice characterizations. Overall, this cartoon is comically entertaining.