Tweet My Favorite Hollywood In-Joke

James Garner's commentary on having escaped his WB-TV contract!!

How about Joseph Cotten, as Eugene Morgan in "The Magnificent Ambersons," reading a newspaper in which Cotten appears in a photograph with the column Broadway Beat by Jed Leland--the character he played in "Citizen Kane"?

In Casino Royale (1967)
a manhole cover is lifted
and the song What's New
Pussycat blares from the
opening.

There's always Douglass Dumbrille's order to throw Cagney in the can, "Lock him up and show him a grapefruit!" from Hard To Handle.

Doris Day in "Caprice" going to the movies to see "Caprice" and not liking it.

In Show People, Marion Davies as Peggy Pepper is shown a picture of
Marion Davies movie star and expresses a dislike for her.

There's always Douglass Dumbrille's order to throw Cagney in the can, "Lock him up and show him a grapefruit!" from Hard To Handle.

Just watched One Two Three on the weekend, and there was a great grapefruit gag in there as well, along with Cagney muttering, "Is this the end of Rico?"

In HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Cary Grant has somebody intercept Ralph Bellamy. In describing him, Grant says, "He looks like Ralph Bellamy."

[Christopher Jacobs]

In WALK, DON'T RUN, which we just saw at the Cinecon, Cary Grant whistles or hums the theme music from CHARADE and I think at least one other earlier film he'd been in. And CHARADE, of course, seems to be having self-aware fun at how Hitchcockian it is.

Olsen & Johnson giving away the ending to Citizen Kane in Hellzapoppin'.

Olsen & Johnson giving away the ending to Citizen Kane in Hellzapoppin'.

Or in CRAZY HOUSE when Chic Johnson tells a Universal executive over the phone, "This is your favorite comedy team." The executive replies, "Oh, Abbott and Costello!"

Laurel and Hardy had a few in-jokes. In BABES IN TOYLAND, Ollie asks Stan, "What can you do that I can't do?" and Stan reprises the "earsie-nosey" bit from FRA DIAVOLO. In BLOCKHEADS, Stan tries to make his hand into a lighter, a running gag in WAY OUT WEST.

This may not be exactly an in-joke, but in OUR RELATIONS Stan suggests they use bed sheets to dress up as "Singapore Eskimoes" and Ollie says, "That sounds screwy to me but any old port in a storm. You've got to be right once in your life," thus summing up the entire history of L&H films.

I have two. In the film FOOLISH WIVES, Miss Dupont is reading the book FOOLISH WIVES by Erich von Stroheim. In HOT WATER, the policeman's signed name on the traffic tickets is Gene Kornman, Harold Lloyd's still photographer at the time.

In HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Cary Grant has somebody intercept Ralph Bellamy. In describing him, Grant says, "He looks like Ralph Bellamy."

Even more funny is Grant's reference to old Archie Leach in that film.

In HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Cary Grant has somebody intercept Ralph Bellamy. In describing him, Grant says, "He looks like Ralph Bellamy."

Even more funny is Grant's reference to old Archie Leach in that film.

There's also the inadvertent reference to Grant's character in Alice In Wonderland, "Get back in there, you mock turtle!". One might call it a happy coincidence. I must go back and look at Twentieth Century, I think there's an inside joke in that Hawks film as well.

There's also the inadvertent reference to Grant's character in Alice In Wonderland, "Get back in there, you mock turtle!". One might call it a happy coincidence. I must go back and look at Twentieth Century, I think there's an inside joke in that Hawks film as well.

Almost every gag in the Road pictures is an in-joke.

There's also the inadvertent reference to Grant's character in Alice In Wonderland, "Get back in there, you mock turtle!". One might call it a happy coincidence. I must go back and look at Twentieth Century, I think there's an inside joke in that Hawks film as well.

Almost every gag in the Road pictures is an in-joke.

In one sense, yes, but I think the true definition of an in-joke is that only those in on the joke will be aware of it, but it does not otherwise call attention to itself for those who aren't in on the gag. The jokes in the Road pictures, and the jokes described above in the Olsen & Johnson pictures and the reference to Ralph Bellamy in "His Girl Friday" are more "self aware" jokes than actual in-jokes.

There's also the inadvertent reference to Grant's character in Alice In Wonderland, "Get back in there, you mock turtle!". One might call it a happy coincidence. I must go back and look at Twentieth Century, I think there's an inside joke in that Hawks film as well.

Almost every gag in the Road pictures is an in-joke.

In one sense, yes, but I think the true definition of an in-joke is that only those in on the joke will be aware of it, but it does not otherwise call attention to itself for those who aren't in on the gag. The jokes in the Road pictures, and the jokes described above in the Olsen & Johnson pictures and the reference to Ralph Bellamy in "His Girl Friday" are more "self aware" jokes than actual in-jokes.

One in-joke in Twentieth Century is where Carole Lombard exclaims "I'm no Trilby!", Barrymore having been Svengali a few year before.

The one attributed to Marshall Neilan: "An empty limousine drove up and Louis B. Mayer got out!

thanks Hal Erickson!

I should have mentioned this before Cinecon so someone could keep their eye out--but in Sensation Seekers, there's a scene where an older minister tells the younger one about the woman he didn't marry and pulls out a picture of her--was that a picture of Lois Weber? I saw it a few years back and thought it might be, but it went by too fast for me to be able to examine it closely.

greta

In Abbott & Costello's WHO DONE IT?, there are two gags referring to "Who's On First?" I won't reveal one, but the more obvious one is when they turn on the radio and hear "themselves" doing the routine and turn it off in disgust. There's a similar gag in THE SILENCERS, when Dean Martin turns on the car radio and hears Sinatra singing; he hurried changes the station to hear...himself singing.

Mike S.

Greta,
No that wasn't a photo of Lois Weber, looked like a nice young woman of the late 1890s though.

I should have mentioned this before Cinecon so someone could keep their eye out--but in Sensation Seekers, there's a scene where an older minister tells the younger one about the woman he didn't marry and pulls out a picture of her--was that a picture of Lois Weber? I saw it a few years back and thought it might be, but it went by too fast for me to be able to examine it closely.

greta

It is indeed a picture of Lois Weber (from ca. 1913), and this definitely qualifies as an in-joke or a cameo a la Hitchcock in "Lifeboat."

Greta,
No that wasn't a photo of Lois Weber, looked like a nice young woman of the late 1890s though.

Sorry, Mary, you are incorrect on this one. It was Weber.

In Abbott & Costello's WHO DONE IT?, there are two gags referring to "Who's On First?" I won't reveal one, but the more obvious one is when they turn on the radio and hear "themselves" doing the routine and turn it off in disgust. There's a similar gag in THE SILENCERS, when Dean Martin turns on the car radio and hears Sinatra singing; he hurried changes the station to hear...himself singing.

Mike S.

Again, these seem more like "self-aware" gags than true in-gags.

[Christopher Jacobs]

I just watched Kenneth Branagh's HAMLET for the first time earlier tonight (well for most of last night, actually), and while he''s excellent in the role, I'm wondering if it's more than coincidental that Derek Jacobi was cast as Claudius. (Of course it's quite a different Claudius, in this case.)

Ok, good distinction between in-jokes and self-aware jokes. How about this: in the later Charlie Chans with Warner Oland, it seems that Harold Huber turned up as the local police chief in CC ON BROADWAY, AT MONTE CARLO, and AT THE RINGSIDE (uncompleted but Huber continued in the role when the film morphed into MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE). Had Oland lived on I suspect we would have seen more of Huber too.

I can't recall the title, but there was a noir-ish 40's or 50's crime drama where a sign reading "HOTEL LEONARD SHELTON" is in the background.

Ok, good distinction between in-jokes and self-aware jokes. How about this: in the later Charlie Chans with Warner Oland, it seems that Harold Huber turned up as the local police chief in CC ON BROADWAY, AT MONTE CARLO, and AT THE RINGSIDE (uncompleted but Huber continued in the role when the film morphed into MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE). Had Oland lived on I suspect we would have seen more of Huber too.

I think you'll find that more than just Huber turn up in nearly every Chan or Moto picture. Virginia Field, Thomas Beck, etc. One has the remember that the audience saw two or three Chans or Motos a year, with no reissues, no TV re-rens, no DVDs or DVRs. While audiences were familiar with Huber, they'd probably forgotten he played the police chief in the last one before the next one hit theaters.

In making B pictures (and to some extent A pictuires as well, back in the day) filmmakers often relied on stereotypes and familiar faces. It provided a shorthand way for audiences to know a character without having to sketch in a lot of plodding backstory detail.

like Fred Kelsey playing a dumb cop or a dumb detective.

This reminds me of a good point raised on Frank Thompson's podcast recently. Today, a 'character actor' is seen to be someone who can play a huge variety of different types. In the old days, it was almost the opposite - there were people who always played the same sort of role (kindly priests, gruff policemen, dotty old ladies, etc) and the mere act of casting them was a sort of shorthand.

Chris Snowden, you've just reminded me of another more recent in-joke, of sorts - Kenneth Branagh playing Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn (2011). It almost qualifies as gimmick casting.