HAIL, CAESAR (Rated PG-13)

Among the current movie choices the one with the most fascinating title is “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”

Now, I am not really into the romantic fiction popularized in English literature by Jane Austen, but then zombies are probably more contemporary than 19th century novels.

Nevertheless, this aforementioned zombie film is possibly what George A. Romero, having resurrected, as it were, the undead in his seminal film “Night of the Living Dead,” would likely have contemplated to wreak havoc on British upper class society.

The Coen brothers are also filmmakers who enjoy turning tradition on its head, as exemplified in their body of work from the black comedy crime thriller “Fargo” to the stoner comedy crime film “The Big Lebowski” and to the Western cat-and-mouse drama “No Country for Old Men.”

The latest target for Joel and Ethan Coen, in their shared role as writers, directors and producers for “Hail, Caesar!,” is a scattershot homage to the fading Golden Era of the Hollywood studio system during the post-World War II period of societal changes.

Even if the glamorous façade of Tinseltown was beginning to crack, the Hollywood film industry still churned out sword-and-sandals epics, bold Technicolor musicals often featuring Gene Kelly, Busby Berkeley-style aquatic spectaculars, and a healthy dose of Westerns. 

The Coens acknowledge the glittering allure of this era by putting George Clooney in the key role of vain and spoiled movie star Baird Whitlock, the leading man in a Biblical spectacle, while Scarlett Johansson is an aquatic film star loosely patterned on Esther Williams.

Though “Hail, Caesar!” has a plot that seemingly lacks continuity and coherence, the objective appears to be to pull back the curtain and showcase the unexpected humor and industry drama found behind the scenes at the fictitious Capitol Pictures.

I am not sure what to make of the kidnapping plot of Baird Whitlock by industry members of the Communist Party who hold him for ransom for $100,000.

Imagine that – the Marxists are looking for a big payday. Even a Soviet submarine ends up in the picture off the coast of Malibu.

The real central figure of this film is Josh Brolin’s Eddie Mannix, head of production at Capitol Pictures and the studio’s “fixer,” who spends his days putting out fires, from the sexual peccadilloes of his stars to coaxing religious leaders to sign off on his latest Biblical epic.

Set in the early 1950s, “Hail, Caesar!” opens fittingly enough with Mannix working in the late hours of the night, just before dawn, as he arrives just ahead of the police to keep one of the studio’s prized starlets from being arrested on a morals charge.

Meanwhile, at the Capitol Pictures studio lot security is apparently quite lax since Mannix is often hounded by twin sister gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both played by Tilda Swinton), each sporting an outlandish hat typically worn at the Kentucky Derby.

Swinton’s turn as the columnists is smartly amusing because as identical twins they can only be distinguished by the fact that one claims to have 19 million readers while the other alleges 20 million. The funny thing is the siblings are bitter rivals who hate each other.

The forward motion of the plot, such as it is, focuses on vignettes of the various studio stars in action.

Scarlett Johansson’s DeeAnna Moran, a free-spirit who talks like a sailor on shore leave, faces the scandalous predicament of being an unmarried pregnant woman needing Mannix’s help for a public relations cover-up.

Frances McDormand has a brilliant, albeit all-too-brief, turn as an acerbic chain-smoking film editor.

Channing Tatum fares better with more screen time in his role of a sailor-suited song-and-dance man who puzzles Mannix with his strangely suspicious behavior.

The actor who steals the show in many respects is Alden Ehrenreich’s aw-shucks cowpoke Hobie Doyle, the studio’s rising star in a string of successful B-movie Westerns, who nevertheless struggles as much with his acting abilities as he does with his drawl.

Playing against type, Hobie is foisted upon famed snooty British director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) to star in a sophisticated drawing-room drama, for which he is completely ill-suited.

The funniest scene happens when Laurentz attempts through various takes to get Hobie to utter one line of dialogue with the elocution of a sophisticate. Hobie’s charm is that he’s probably the only honest person in show business.

The intent of this showy Coen brothers venture, overstuffed with a lot of name talent, was to produce a love letter to the studio system laced with acerbic edge that the brothers can famously deliver.

In spite of its flaws, “Hail, Caesar!” has a number of comical conceits that prove workable, with George Clooney game once more to play the doofus as he has in several Coen films.

The hilarious moments, however, may be overshadowed by the end result of a somewhat jumbled mess.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.