High Flyers

'High Flyers' marked the end of the partnership between Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, which had begun eight years earlier with 'Rio Rita'.

Although their films had been hit and miss for a while, this one really is pretty awful. It's only just over an hour long, but your attention still wanders. Robert Woolsey is clearly not well (and indeed this was his last appearance before his early death), and although he has a musical number with peppy Lupe Velez, it doesn't have much go in it.

Slightly better is Wheeler's Chaplin impersonation which comes from his music hall days. 'High Flyers' is sort of worth watching for this, but you won't remember much about the rest of the film, and it is far worse in quality than most of their other work.

A sad way to end their association, really. Wheeler made a few more films, including 'Las Vegas Nights' and 'The Cowboy Quarterback', but never again regained the success he had with Woolsey in the early days of RKO.

Robert Woosley and Bert Wheeler are a comedy duo whose career was hurt by the strict enforcement of the Production Code in 1934: their often risquè humor was necessarily reduced to mostly "safe" slapstick. In "High Flyers", their last film together, the comedy is weak and repetitive, and the story is aimless. But there are a few funny bits, and some bright spots, particularly a couple of specialty numbers which have absolutely nothing to do with the "plot": Lupe Velez's terrific impersonation of Dolores Del Rio (what adds an extra punch to this is that Del Rio was probably the only other Mexican female star working in Hollywood at that time), and Wheeler's equally terrific impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. There is also a pretty spectacular plane crash. ** out of 4.

A couple of zany HIGH FLYERS find themselves involved in the hunt for missing stolen diamonds.

The wonderfully funny team of Wheeler & Woolsey (Bert Wheeler is the little guy with curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny fellow with glasses & cigar) provide lots of solid laughs in this fast moving comedy crime caper. Of course, crash-landing on a millionaire's estate inhabited by peppery Lupe Velez, lovely Marjorie Lord & the monumental Margaret Dumont might raise anyone's spirits.

Jack Carson is hanging around as a crooked reporter, while an exasperated Paul Harvey tries to figure out why his household is suddenly so topsy-turvy. Maybe it has something to do with the trio of gentlemanly criminals - Charles Judels, Lucien Prival & Herbert Evans - who have arrived, hot on the Boys' trail.

Lupe & Woolsey perform a wildly exuberant gaucho number, while a solo Velez gets to do devastating impressions of her Hollywood rivals Dolores Del Rio & Simone Simon. Not to be outdone, Wheeler is terrific mimicking Charlie Chaplin & Bill Robinson. Dumont, meanwhile, provides chuckles as a matron infatuated with crystal gazing.

Ultimately, though, HIGH FLYERS is rather bittersweet, as it was the last Wheeler & Woolsey film. First brought together by Flo Ziegfeld for Broadway's Rio Rita, the Boys had starred in 22 features from 1929 until 1937, carving out a unique niche in the history of movie comedy.

Tragically, however, even while filming for HIGH FLYERS was underway, Robert Woolsey was already stricken with kidney failure. After a year of horrible suffering, he died on October 31, 1938. He was only 50 years old.

Bert Wheeler continued on in films for awhile, making a handful of unremarkable movies. But the spark that came from his association with Robert Woolsey was gone. When, at the age of 72, Wheeler died on January 18, 1968 from emphysema, it was more than 30 years since the release of the final Wheeler & Woolsey film. The Boys - energetic, hilarious & ever so eager to please - had slipped into almost complete cinematic obscurity.

Jerry Lane (Bert Wheeler) and Pierre Potkin (Robert Woolsey) are carnival barkers offering a ride, but they have never piloted a plane. Smuggler Dave Hanlon tricked them into flying a real plane. It goes badly and they crash onto the Arlington estate. They have a series of misunderstandings. They fall for the daughter Arlene (Marjorie Lord) and the maid Juanita (Lupe Velez).

I don't find the guys funny. They don't get one single laugh even when one of them try to play the Chaplin tramp. One does a black-face dance and Arlene claims that it's the funniest thing ever. The only slightly funny one is Juanita with her exaggerated Latina character. There is some song and dance mixed in. It's not the best, but at least, that's somewhat fine.

Some false advertising on the part of Wheeler&Woolsey as they run a carnival airplane ride leads the boys into a peck of trouble. Bert Wheeler is advertised as an air ace giving flying lessons.

This bit reminded of a Monk episode where Tony Shalhoub says he can swim because he took a correspondence course. Wheeler has read all on the subject of aviation but he's never flown and even Woolsey didn't know that.

So how stupid does that make crook Jack Carson who is trying to steal some valuable jewels arriving by ship from Europe? Carson's man steals them on ship and drops them over in a life preserver. Bert is supposed to take a seaplane over the spot they are dropped, retrieve them and give them to Carson who is to meet them on another boat. He says it's valuable pictures.

Anyway the boys make a mess of it when it's a police seaplane they steal and then after retrieving the swag get taken in by millionaire Paul Harvey, wife Margaret Dumont and daughter Marjorie Lord. With cops and Carson looking for them and the family dog stealing and burying the jewels the whole steps on the edge of absurdity.

Sadly this was Wheeler&Woolsey's last film with Bob dying a year later. And even more sad is that they seem to have been forgotten.

A pity because this film had some gems. Bert does a homage to Charlie Chaplin with Marjorie Lord with a Little Tramp routine. And Bob gets vamped by the maid Lupe Velez and they do a nice patter song and dance.

If you are a Wheeler&Woolsey fan this one is a bittersweet must.