Director:
Paul Sloane
Year: 1930
Rating: 7.0
Wheeler and Woolsey are as well remembered by today's generation of film
fans as the Buffalo Nickel or Dr. Brown's soda, but back in the 1930's they
were a top comedy duo and starred together in over 20 films. I first came
across them a few weeks ago in a film titled Dixiana (1930) in which they
were supporting actors doing their shtick and I was unimpressed. In fact,
I thought they were awful and stated this on a forum. A bunch of folks came
back telling me that Dixiana was not a good sample of their work and that
I should try some of the films in which they starred. I wasn't planning to
till I came across the DVD set of nine of their films for a sensible price.
So I dove in with this film and much to my surprise I thought it was pretty
funny.
Wheeler and Woolsey were first teamed up in Rio Rita (1929) where they were
supporting actors again to Bebe Daniels and John Bole as in Dixiana. It was
a huge hit (but apparently the existing version is missing a lot of film)
and partly saved RKO. So RKO signed the comedy team and kept them together
and began starring them in their own films. From 1930 to 1937 they were to
pair up in 21 films as well as a few solo ventures (that generally failed
at the box office). In 1938 Woolsey died from kidney failure and Woolsey
sort of faded away.
Along with them in many of their films is the nutty love interest, Dorothy
Lee, a squeaky Betty-Boop character who had been a singer in the Fred Waring
Band and is dimwittedly adorable. Their comedy is all over the place - chaotic
and silly with a barrel full of puns, quips, dances that pop out at unexpected
moments and at least before the Code was implemented in 1934 lots of double
entendres. Interesting is that neither (at least in this film) is the straight
man with the other being the dummy as were so many of the comedy teams at
the time. Both are fast-talking con men who work together as smooth as butter
on ice. Dorothy is the exclamation mark with a smudge of sex appeal.
The plot of this one is almost superfluous but here it is. The two of them
are over in Paris during WW I and have gone AWOL imitating officers, waiters,
Ambassadors and MPs - but generally all for the cause of chasing les belles
of Paris. This was when we could still make fun of the military and that
this film does. Two MPs chase after them the entire film with little success
but leading to some amusing bits as is their attempt to seduce women. Dorothy
is the daughter of the Colonel responsible for finding them who falls for
Bert. They perform a cute little dance number as does Woolsey with his femme
as they parody both modern dance and burlesque in the same number. Edna May
Oliver is also on hand as the wife of the Colonel and she gives us plenty
of her trademarked snitty looks. The film was just funny. I expect their
humor might start to feel a little repetitive over a few films but this was
good fun.
