Half Shot at Sunrise

Wheeler and Woolsey are two of my favorite comedians from this era. You just never know what to expect. This takes place in France during World War I, and while there is always an expected amount of sexual innuendo in their movies, (and in a lot of movies made before the codes) this one has the most I've seen yet. Ex. Cute innocent Dorothy Lee says to the boys she's about to turn in as A.W.O.L. for reward "I expect to make $500 from both of you tonight." to which Woolsey exclaims to Wheeler, "You're in Paris now boy"! Don't even get me started on Leni Stengel as the exotic Olga. I found this movie very enjoyable, even when things invariably get silly.

Wheeler and Woolsey play two service men during the First World War and go AWOL in Paris changing identities as they go to avoid being captured. How good they are at not being caught is best summed up early in the film when the steal their image off a photograph. Its lunacy from an earlier era and at times its quite funny. The duo made numerous film through the mid 1930's stopping only when Woolsey died of kidney failure.

This is a film thats not quite on par with the duos later films. Thats not to say its not funny, it is; its just that films were still feeling their way around sound and so the cameras often had limited motion and set ups which make them feel stiff. If you can get past that feeling and want to see an under appreciated comedy duo then rent this or any of the other Wheeler and Woolsey films.

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey play a couple of soldiers during the late World War who like to be permanently on holiday in Paris. It seems in Half Shot At Sunrise that the majority of Pershing's military police force are out chasing them. And the police seem to have been trained at the Keystone Academy.

But while all this is going on Wheeler has made the acquaintance of their perennial leading lady Dorothy Lee who is the daughter of their commanding officer George MacFarlane. In fact MacFarlane would like to dally with a Mam'selle or two. If you were married to Edna May Oliver that would be understandable.

I never understood why Wheeler who was always playing these schnook characters before Woody Allen perfected them was always getting the girl. I always thought the strong end of the team was Woolsey with those wisecracks and that ever present cigar which seem to have been implanted in his mouth.

Fans of the duo and others should like this amusing military comedy.

Always say "Dorothy Lee" in the same breath as "Wheeler and Woolsey". Here our favorite pert, loose-limbed ingénue has a grand time singing and dancing and trading quips with the two comedians who are on the loose in Paris in 1918. The script by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ralph ("Five Dollars-A-Word") Spence, James Ashmore Creelman (who will always be remembered for King Kong) and the famous Broadway librettist Anne Caldwell represents a deliciously zany parade of visual and verbal nonsense which the performers endeavor to keep moving at an admirably fast pace despite the well-meaning efforts of stodgy director Paul Sloane to slow it down. A special pat on the back (if "back" is the right word) for Leni Stengel who makes quite an impression in a whole crowd of lovely Parisians. Production values are remarkably extensive. RKO were obviously expecting to clean up on this one.

RKO gave the vaudeville comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey a second starring feature with this fairly funny piece set in Paris during the Great War. The boys are AWOL from their lowly ranks in the army and running amok amongst the girls in the wicked city. Meanwhile the colonel (former singer George MacFarlane) is juggling a romance with the sparky Olga (scene-stealing Leni Stengel) and the suspicion of his wife (Edna May Oliver's film debut), while his youngest daughter (the team's resident cutie, Dorothy Lee, fixing on curly-haired Wheeler as usual) is on the prowl for someone to ‘be nice' to her.

The movie has a watchable mix of pure comedy (the roller skating waiter, the scented letter, the café scene), songs (the usual duet for Wheeler and Lee; plus a fun bit for Woolsey and Stengal where he ends up dancing in a fountain in his underwear), and romance – with the obligatory happy endings after all the mayhem. What does jar though is the attempt to signpost the war by sending the boys to the Front – this section just doesn't fit somehow.