Wheeler & Woolsey

I love Wheeler & Woolsey. Back before TCM, AMC used to show a lot of the Wheeler & Woolsey comedies. That's where I first saw "Kentucky Kernels", "Caught Plastered" and "Silly Billies", and later got some of their other films from a collector on VHS. When the Warner archive released the two sets of their films (minus "Rio Rita" and a few others, released separately), I bought them.

One of their best was on loan to Columbia: "So This is Africa", similar to other comedies at the time, but featuring some terrific double talk sketches & a pre-code sensibility that is hysterical. "Cockeyed Cavaliers" is very good too with a song that was definitely a take-off on "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", and "Hips Hips Hooray" has a great number that is very risque. "Peach O'Reno" has the memorable set piece of a lawyer's office that with the flip of a switch turns into a speak easy. There's the Apache dance in it too where Wheeler, dressed in drag, tosses Woolsey all of the dance floor. It's obviously a dummy, but very funny!

I had never heard of them until the marathon last Saturday. The films shown were a lot of fun. Sad that Woolsey died in 1938 after having been ill for the better part of two years (during which time he continued to work). Wheeler went on forever in movies and TV.

"Caught Plastered" (1931) has really cute animated credits set on a cartoon train, much like the old "Felix the Cat" cartoons. The old lady (Lucy Beaumont) is a bit much to take with her fragility and constant crying, but it reminds me of several of the old "Our Gang" shorts made around the same time. In those, the old lady became feisty in the last few minutes and got to clobber the villain.

In talking about Wheeler & Woolsey, you can't forgot Dorothy Lee, a perky young lady who wasn't the best actress, but had a lot of charm. The film version of "Girl Crazy" (1932) has a great production number of "I Got Rhythm" where the cactus get involved in the dancing. Mitzi Green is also very amusing in it, doing imitations of George Arliss and Edna May Oliver.

They injected a lot of filth into their movies before the Code was enforced in July 1934. But they are tiresome to watch after about 10 minutes.

George Stevens began his feature career directing their antics.

Wheeler & Woolsey are an admitted acquired taste. NY Times reviews didn't always like their films, and Woolsey was obviously considered a second rate Groucho Marx even though I liked him. "High Flyers" (1937), their last film, was bolstered by the presence of Margaret Dumont, Lupe Velez and a kleptomaniac dog who somehow was able to put human dentures in his mouth.

Never heard of them.

The wackiness that is "So This is Africa".

I've seen "So This is Africa," "Dipsomaniacs" and, last night, "Dixiana." "Dipsomaniacs" was the loopiest, "Dixiana" the most charming. I too think Wheeler is kind of cute. He's in drag at the end of "Dixiana." Dorothy Lee was credited in "Dixiana" but I didn't see much of her: "Dipsomaniacs" featured her more prominently.

R8 Have you seen the two with Betty Grable? ("Hold Em' Jail" & "The Nitwits") Edna May Oliver is in a few of theirs as well ("Half Shot at Sunrise", "Cracked Nuts", "Hold Em' Jail") and is a good foil for Woolsey. Jobyna Howland was his foil in "Hook, Line & Sinker" (which features the vampy Natalie Moorehead) and "Dixiana". Margaret Dumont also pops up in "Kentucky Kernels", which features Lucille LaVerne ("La Vengeance" from "A Tale of Two Cities") in a bigger part. That's best known for featuring Spanky McFarland as the kid who likes to break glass.

Big Sissy-Marys, the both of them.

I find their film hard to sit through. They may have clicked with early ‘30s audiences, but their routines seem endlessly talky and flat to me. Their risqué dialogue isn’t enough to make me enjoy them. Definitely an acquired taste.

I'd never heard of them, but I did find this clip.

It is of interest mainly because it shows an early use to two-strip color film.

The cute Wheeler & Woolsey/Spanky McFarland musical moment, featuring Noah Beery singing to Lucille LaVerne (with teeth!)