Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Hattie 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.

bkoganbing For those wondering what Oliver Hardy was doing in a film without Stan Laurel, we have to remember that Hal Roach created the team back in silent days when he had these two comedians both signed to contracts with him. Their contracts were negotiated separately unlike Abbott and Costello or the Ritz Brothers, etc. So with Ollie signed with studio again and Stan balking at terms, Hal Roach decided to pair Hardy with Harry Langdon who was trying to recapture the stardom he enjoyed in the silent era.Ollie is a country doctor in post Civil War Mississippi who lives with wife Billie Burke and daughter Jean Parker in genteel poverty. James Ellison, late of the Hopalong Cassidy series, wants her hand in marriage, but his mother Alice Brady forbids it as Jean's parents are just not her sort.Nevertheless Ollie and Billie try to help Jean with her romance, but Ollie gets himself entangled with traveling medicine show man Harry Langdon and his performing elephant Zenobia. When the pachyderm becomes ill, Ollie effects a cure and the beast's gratitude makes his life miserable.Though they were advertised as a team, Langdon and Hardy are not a team really in this film, though their scenes with Zenobia are pretty funny. They're like Abbott and Costello in The Time Of Their Lives, a comedy team in two separate roles in which they only interact occasionally. Actually Burke and Brady, a couple of veteran Broadway performers, have some scenes together and they're pretty good in and of themselves.Getting Alice Brady and Billie Burke was a casting coup of sorts for Hal Roach. Look at the rest of his cast which he got from the major studios, if he was to have a new comedy team, they would be launched properly.Of course Stan Laurel came to terms and Langdon and Hardy were no more. But Zenobia is a film filled with gentle humor and some good comic situations.

MartinHafer While this certainly isn't a great movie and is in many ways pretty forgettable, it is a decent time-passer and worth seeing from a historic sense. This is the only film that Oliver Hardy starred in without Stan Laurel since they became a team in the late 1920s. However, when Laurel's contract expired he refuses to re-sign as he and Hardy (who was still under contract) wanted to explore other career options other than to continue with Hal Roach Studios. So, Roach decided to try pairing Hardy with a new partner--hoping he and Hardy would catch on and Hardy would soon re-sign with the studio. However, the film lacks the balance of a true Laural and Hardy film, as Hardy is definitely in the leading role. And, fortunately, Hardy does a pretty good job as the kindly doctor who is befriended by an elephant and he's able to carry this amiable film. Additionally, the movie is very interesting because in a supporting role (one that could have been played by Stan Laurel) was the silent film comedian, Harry Langdon. As there are few of his films still in existence, this is one of the rare chances you'll get to see,...as well as hear him. The story itself is pretty silly but handled so well, you probably will forgive this.Despite being a story about an Elephant that falls in love with Hardy, about the only thing you may not like about the film is Stepin Fetchit--the horribly stereotyped Black actor who made a career out of playing some who is dumb and lazy. It's quite a contrast to the role played by Philip Hurlic as 'Zeke'--a smart, precocious and cute Black child. At least there were contrasts, as most of Fetchit's earlier roles provided nothing to balance the negative image.

rasxyz It is real cool the way this simple and seemingly silly movie has a big story to tell about bigotry and slavery and not just the obvious retrenches to the declaration of independence and "black pills" and "red pills". I wonder how many people who saw Zenobia in 1939 got the hidden messages subtle and obvious. Everyone reviewing Zenobia here in IMDb may have missed or did not mention an underling theme in the symbol represented by Zenobia the "elephant" that is big and always present like an elephant. Did anyone guess that maybe Zenobia represented a symbol of ….(you put your own word here about bigotry)? This is a great movie for using humorous subtleness to expose race, bigotry and prejudice at a time (1939) when people did not want to hear about race problems. It seems no coincidence that the most prejudice state Mississippi was chosen for the location and not Georgia or any other southern state.One sees the film with the view to the more subtle inferences to race with a Big Elephant named Zenobia. You may have a whole new perspective on the film and what appears to be "poorly written", "little real humour (humor)", "racist performance of Stepin Fetchit", etc. is really a great presentation. Considering the times (1939), and the subtle symbol of "Zenobia", then this movie is a down right genius of production! I think Stepin Fetchit knew what the movie meant and was a lot smarter than people think.

drednm Oliver Hardy stars as a small-town doctor in Mississippi who hits on hard times when he insults the local rich woman (Alice Brady). Meanwhile his daughter (Jean Parker) is engaged to the rich woman's son (James Ellison). Brady will not have Parker as a daughter-in-law because the the family's low social standing. Hardy's wife (Billie Burke)invites everyone to dinner to try to smooth thing over. Disaster.When Hardy is summoned to come help someone who is sick, he races across town only to find that the patient is an elephant (Zenobia) in a traveling carnival. Zenobia's owner (silent comic great, Harry Langdon) helps Hardy figure out how to treat an elephant. Zenobia is so grateful, she falls in love with Hardy and refuses to leave his side. Langdon gets mad and sues Hardy (with the help of mean-spirited Brady). There is a good court room scene and the usual ending.The cast works well in this mild but pleasant comedy. Many will be disappointed by Langdon's standing in for Stan Laurel, but it's interesting to see Langdon in a talkie. Definitely a B film, but not without its good points.Hardy is very good in a comic role that allows him a little room to act. Burke and Brady are total pros, and Jean Parker is pretty and pleasing. Ellison is a blank.Hattie McDaniel plays the cook, J. Farrell McDonald is the judge, Olin Howland is the lawyer, Hobart Cavanaugh plays a patient, Philip Hurlic (as the kid) has a great scene, June Lang plays a rival, and Stepin Fetchit plays himself. William Bakewell can be spotted in a bit part.