Lack of good storyline.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It is a fun movie with many fun joyful moments. It's about 2 families one rich, one poor coming to grips with the rich boy falling in love with the poor girl. I will say for being poor she lives in a grand house and wears really nice clothes. I loved each actor in their role. I love old movies that dare to address what is usually whispered. Racism is boldly addressed when the black child asks the white doctor why he can't go to the white parties. The Doc is colorblind and only sees people as people because of his love of the Declaration of Independence. The young black child ends up stirring not only the movie actors but the movie's audience. I had no idea who the actors were, just recognizing them as the movie progressed. I was watching in the lunch room and at the end of the movie 5 people had sat down with me enjoying the movie. I really enjoyed this film and will be adding it to my collection.

IT HAS LONG been conventional wisdom that, "Children and Dogs bring people together. The old proverb had adapted itself quite handily to the motion picture business long, long ago. W.C. Fields, for example, was a leading exponent of this belief; although his creed concentrated much more on the human portion of the statement.WHILE DOGS MAY well reign supreme in the four-legged category, most any animal has at least a portion of this screen magic. Throughout motion picture, there has been a veritable menagerie of creatures, great and small, who have shared the spotlight with their partners of the species homo sapiens sapiens. In many an instant, they stole many a scene; if, indeed, the entire picture.RATHER THAN HAVING humans competing with Dogs (Lassie, Benji, Yukon King, Rinty, etc.), or a Chimp (Cheetah, Zippy, J. Fred Muggs) or a Fish (Flipper*, Mr. Limpet), we have an elephant (Zenobia) in an eternal triangle with her owner (Harry Langdon) and the kindly town Doctor (Oliver Hardy). The humor is broad and varied. It is quite different;so, please don't expect this to be a Laurel & Hardy comedy; you see, Schultz, SONS OF THE DESERT it's not! IT WOULD SEEM that at this point in film history, being Anno Domini MCMXXXIX (that's 1939 A.D.), that there was a deluge of news and interest in anything and everything which even remotely related to the American Civil War was in. Although there is no specific date given in the picture, it would seem to be Ante-Bellum, that's Latin for "before the War." The costuming and situation with the Black Actors (Hattie McDaniel, Lincoln Perry) would seem to suggest neither Wartime nor the Reconstruction.THERE IS ALSO a speech by Oliver Hardy to the young boy about how matters concerning Whites have nothing to do with Black Folks and the concerns of Black People aren't any business of Whites. We concluded that this is sort of a disclaimer for Hal Roach Studios in any historical matters that might arise; such as had been the case of the D.W. Griffith epic silent, BIRTH OF A NATION. (This may sound silly today, but one must view things through the eyes of those in that period; as well as through contemporary lenses.) WITH RESPECT TO the film itself, it is quite amusing. Whereas we had previously said that it was no L&H Comedy, it did strike several chords wit its audience. It was a fine showcase to the versatility of Mr. Hardy, who demonstrated that he was truly an actor; with "Ollie" being his most successful character.IN THE CASE of Oliver's co-star, Mr. Harry Langdon, it was a true tour de force; for he did a fine job of bringing a somewhat updated version of his "Adult Baby" persona from his Silent Screen days, when his name was at one time mentioned in the same breath with those of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.FOLLOWING HIS APPEARANCE in ZENOBIA, he returned to work as a behind the scenes gag man and to making two reelers for Roach and Columbia; all of which were okay, but mediocre shorts and surely a far cry from his salad days at Sennett and First National.TAKING THE TIME to stop and view the film, which was known as ELEPHANTS NEVER FORGET in the U.K. will not be totally wasted time. You will most probably enjoy it a lot more than you would have thought. We certainly did.NOTE * Alright, we know Flipper was a Dolfin, and hence a warm-blooded, live bearing MAMMAL!!

Since this is Black History Month and I'm reviewing African-Americans on film in mostly chronological order, let's start my review of Zenobia by mentioning three of the players: Stepin Fetchit, Hattie McDaniel, and Philip Hurlic. Stepin (spelled Step'n in the credits) is Zero-the butler. He's quite funny with his talking under his breath about his thoughts every time he gets ordered. Having seen quite a few of his performances now, I have tolerated his presence a bit more because of some of the subtle brightness he brings to his parts. Hattie (whose last name has an 's' added in the credits) brings the same commanding presence that I last saw in Show Boat, which I just watched this morning. And Philip, the kid here that I just saw in The Green Pastures, as Zeke proves to be the most intelligent one in the movie when he recites The Declaration of Independence with the reward being a quarter from Oliver Hardy's character of Dr. Tibbett. They all were fine performances here despite some of the stereotypes they're forced to play. Now, with Hardy briefly split from Stan Laurel (because of the latter's dispute with Hal Roach), he's the carrier of this movie and he does just fine especially in his scenes with Harry Langdon and an elephant, Zenobia, that Langdon-as Professor McCrackle-owns. Those scenes are the most "Laurel and Hardy"-like in the film. Also in fine form were Billie Burke as Hardy's wife, Bessie Tibbett, Olin Howard as Attorney Culpepper, and J. Farrell McDonald, another supporting player from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life (he played the old man whose tree was hit by George Bailey's car), as the Judge. One other note: Jean Parker who plays Hardy's daughter Mary Tibbett here, would later in the year play his potential fiancée in The Flying Deuces which marked Laurel and Hardy's re-teaming. So on that note, I highly recommend Zenobia. Oh, and having just seen the Hall Johnson Choir in The Green Pastures, it's nice hearing them here too.

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.