Caught Plastered

Another big hit for the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Caught Plastered is set in a drugstore the boys take on to save a nice old lady from the clutches of the local charming crook, played by Jason Robards Snr.

All the usual elements are here - wisecracks, double takes, a song and dance number, the perky Dorothy Lee - and the film is really rather good. The plot takes advantage of the fact that Prohibition was still very much in force, and the opening titles have a cartoon train rushing through the landscape.

Highly recommended.

A beautiful print for 1931. Dorothy Lee.gets drunk and sings with Bert in a musical moment of wonder. Wheeler was a genuine romantic lead opposite Lee with Woolsey as avuncular liaison to Mother whose business picks up with the right kind of medicine. There are no slow spots in the 69 minutes this takes. There are several laugh out loud moments. Amidst a stream of consciousness like "Those moth balls are no good. I've never hit a moth with one yet. Still I'm glad I didn't. Because if I did the moth would cry and I can't stand to see a moth ball." The comparison to Burns and Allen is closer than most. The cast is loaded with characters unburdened by Code limitations e.g. Woolsey hooks up briefly with a flirtatious book buyer whose prurient interest ultimately a book can't satisfy, as Woolsey explains to her, losing the customer.

Tommy Tanner (Bert Wheeler) and Egbert G. Higginbothom (Robert Woolsey) are out-of-work vaudevillians. They encounter a crying old lady on the tram. She recently lost her husband and is about to lose the family drug store. The guys offer to help her save the place. She has 30 days.

Apparently, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are a vaudevillian comedy team back in the day. That's what they look like and act like. I'm sure that they have a full stage act of setups and punchlines, one after another. It's fine, but it's not so exciting cinematically. They need to add more physicality to their bits.

CAUGHT PLASTERED (RKO, 1931), directed by William A. Seiter, is a rare find on television these days. It stars the once popular but highly forgotten comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Wheeler as the dizzy character with a talent for singing and dancing; Woolsey the one with the glasses, cigar and wisecracks like comedian Groucho Marx, but nobody can top the old Grouch. Wheeler and Woolsey play a couple of drifters who help out an old woman (Lucy Beaumont) save her drug store from a crook (Jason Robards Sr.). Dorothy Lee, who appears in almost all of the W&W comedies, once more plays Bert's love interest. They supply the catchy tune, "I'm That Way About You."

I enjoy this movie mainly because I remember it being the very first Wheeler and Woolsey comedy I've seen (back on Turner Network Television in 1989). Some people might refuse to watch these guys today on the basis that they don't know who they are. Unfortunately, because their comedies seldom made the late show lineup on commercial television stations back in the 50s, 60s or 70s, W&W never became immortal as the Marx Brothers or Laurel and Hardy, but when given a chance, one can see how good their comic timing can be and how good these two guys are together. True, their latter films in 1936-37 were not up to par, but if anyone wants to see them at their comedic best, watch either CAUGHT PLASTERED or what many consider their funniest outing, HIPS, HIPS HOORAY (1934). For now, CAUGHT PLASTERED is worthy for film buffs of 1930s comedies. Silly to be sure, but quite funny. Great attention grabber: Check out to the opening credits with cartoon train rolling down the track with the wheels in the persona of Woolsey's eyes and glasses, and that wacky music intro. Wheeler and Woolsey were amusing as comedy teams go, and worth rediscovering today.

Formerly presented on American Movie Classics prior to 2000, it's presently shown, but not often enough, on Turner Classic Movies. (**)

Bert and Robert are out of work Vaudeville comedians bumming their way through life when they run into a sad little old lady who owns a down-on-its-luck drug store. They feel sorry for her and decide to help her out, creatively. However a local do-gooder (I never really trusted the type) wants to quickly buy the drugstore for his own purposes. And if you think he looks like Jason Robards Jr., he should because it's his father! Dorothy Lee, the cutest cupie doll since Betty Boop, sweetens this concoction by being not only the police chief's daughter, but the object of both Bert and Mr. Robards Sr.'s affection. Will the boys save Granny? Will Bert & Dorothy sing a duet? Will they all stay sober? See this fun and short comedy for yourself. I recommend it!