Hook Line and Sinker

The downside of this movie, one of the early collaborations of Bert Wheeler (the sweet curly-haired guy) and Robert Woolsey (the cigar-chomping wise guy), has one major failing for me: no musical numbers! I think this is the only one of the their nine-year series at RKO not to have even one song, and I missed that.

Anyway, the film is pretty much on-form. The boys play insurance agents who go into the hotel business after meeting heiress Dorothy Lee (I think this is her weakest performance, far too stilted to make any kind of good impression on the viewer). The hotel she has inherited is a wreck but they soon make it good (how we don't see) and attract the attentions of some jewel thieves. Dorothy's mother (the large and booming-voiced Jobyna Howland) and her intended (the urbane Ralf Harolde who played a similar role in the earlier 'Dixiana') also arrive to thwart the plans made so far. In support are Stanley Fields, George Marion (as the oldest bellhop in the world), and Hugh Herbert (the sleepy house detective), and all are watchable.

There are a few highlights amongst the set pieces, the noirish shootout at the end, Natalie Moorhead as the fake Duchess vamping the boys for the safe code, Howland's tales to Woolsey about her numerous previous marriages, and more. Good stuff, but that scene with Bert and Dorothy planning their future by the hotel till really needs a song!

A couple of scam artists go legit to help a young lady run the dilapidated hotel she's inherited. Over time they turn the place into a swanky high-society hot spot. But when mobsters, a crooked lawyer & a phony countess arrive, the Boys find themselves in trouble HOOK, LINE AND SINKER.

This slight comedy features the always watchable team of Wheeler & Woolsey. (Bert Wheeler is the one with curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny fellow with glasses.) Their one-liners fly faster than the bullets which climax the movie. Dorothy Lee, their frequent co-star & Wheeler's perpetual love interest, is still kewpie-doll cute. The massive Jobyna Howland is great as Woolsey's lady love - a ferocious female not to be fooled with. Hugh Herbert, usually so much fun, is given little to do as the ineffectual hotel detective.

This is a very funny film starring Wheeler and Woolsey, a comedy team that is all but forgotten these days. Their brand of humor tended to be verbal and punny, but they were also adept physical comedians as well.

Here the pair end up helping, and romancing, a runaway fom a rich family. She's inherited a hotel and the boys decide to help her turn it into THE hot spot. Using their way with words they manage to have newspapers write the place up---mentioning how safe their safe is. This of course brings a steady stream of crooks all of which want to be the one to crack the safe.

Extremely well written, the film suffers from a few slow spots where the fast and furious dialog stop for a silent shot or moment. Normally it wouldn't be bad, but here it off sets the pacing of the film, which for the most part is fast moving, even if it seems not to have a direction.

If you want to see a good comedy you haven't seen before, by all means pick this up, its 75 minutes well spent.

Hook Line And Sinker has Wheeler&Woolsey meeting Dorothy Lee on a road way while they successfully talk a cop out of a speeding ticket and sell insurance to him. She's running away from her mother's arranged marriage to the family attorney Ralf Harolde. Lee talks the boys into helping her run a fleabag hotel which is in her name.

There's a good reason why Harolde wants to marry her. In reality he's a gangster and he's used the place as a crook's hideout for years. But when Bert and Bob take it over they start a publicity campaign which works all too well saying the place has become THE in vacation resort for society folks. They come bringing all their money and jewels. Society bigwigs and gangsters, what a spot for a caper.

As for the romance Lee of course falls for Bert and her mother the amazonian Jobyna Howland just loves the moves that Woolsey is putting on her. Harolde's being foiled at every turn. It all leads up to a gangster invasion and a hilarious shootout at the climax.

This is a good introduction to Wheeler&Woolsey who are too sadly neglected today.

Wilbur Boswell and Addington Ganzy abandon their insurance business (read scam) and enter the hotel business with Mary Marsh, who has runaway from home to escape her mother and the family's lawyer Blackwell, whom Mary is being forced to marry by her mother. Unknown to Mary, her mother, and Boswell & Ganzy, is that Blackwell is running a criminal organization and its main hideout is the basement of the hotel. Also coming to the hotel are every sort of criminal set out to crack the hotel safe, so its up to our two heroes, along with a bizarre house detective and the always sleeping bellboy to save the day. A very enjoyable and funny film from Wheeler and Woolsey with Dorothy Lee around again as Mary. As with the majority of the W&W films there are a bizarre bunch of characters and plenty of zaniness to please the audience. Great ending with the shootout. Rating, 8.