The Rainmakers

Another chapter in the Wheeler and Woolsey collection of oldie but goody comedies. The local farmers are standing around wondering what to do about the lack of rain for their crops. Of course, if that many people are going to suffer, there might be someone who will GAIN from the lack of water. There's usually a pretty strong, coherent story under all the vaudeville gags we get from them, and this one is no different. (My favorite is Peach O Reno! ) Lots of visual, slapstick gags, as well as clever one, two, and three liners. Of course, Rainmakers has the required runaway train. With a love story thrown in too. Costars Berton Churchill and George Meeker. It's also interesting, in that it works in the history of the dry, dustbowl years, where there was just no water for the farmers. A fun 78 minutes, if you're watching the Turner Classics version. Directed by Fred Guiol, who had directed a whole bunch of the Wheeler & Woolsey films.

The Rainmakers have Wheeler&Woolsey in the title roles of this film. They've got a Rube Goldberg like contraption that actually works with a magnet. They conduct a successful indoor experiment with their machine.

There's been a drought in this area of southern California and these two have been hired to make it rain. One guy is opposed to it and that's skinflint Berton Churchill who actually has an irrigation project in mind, but also wants to pick up a lot of cheap real estate.

There's one long extended gag at the end as the boys get one each on a pair of locomotives which are to crash and provide a show for the locals. Of course much goes wrong with the idea. Most likely inspired by Buster Keaton's classic The General.

The indoor shower is pretty funny as well and Berton Churchill is at his pompous best. All in all a good Wheeler&Woolsey film.

Okay, I have got to admit that I think Wheeler and Woolsey were among the least funny comedy teams ever--and you might want to keep this in mind when reading the review. I've seen about eight of their films (since I'll watch almost ANY movie if it was made in the 1930s) and I keep waiting for them to be anything other than mediocre. Oh well, at least they were funnier than the Ritz Brothers and a few of their films were even funnier than some of Abbott and Costello's worst films.

The boys are professional rain makers called to a dusty town because the farmers will be ruined if they don't get some rain. I really liked the scene just after this where they are caught up in the tornado--it's underplayed well and the special effects are really good. However, once they make their way to the town that is featured in the film, things slow down considerably. There is a decent train chase sequence near the end (though in a serious continuity mistake, the one train that was only a few yards behind the other suddenly is a mile or two behind once Wheeler and Woolsey disembark). Not a bad film, but lacking magic and staying power.

This is a polished and entertaining W&W vehicle that is nothing remarkable but proves that their mostly forgotten films hold up more or less as well as that of most other screen comedy teams' from the era. Woolsey (who doesn't do a lot for me) is a supposed rainmaker called in desperation to a drought-plagued agricultural town; en route he picks up Dust Bowl farmer Wheeler, whose naif act is still pretty amusing.

The complications are ordinary but diverting enough (the highlight being the only song, a drolly staged duet for Wheeler and their usual leading lady Dorothy Lee) until we get to a long, elaborate runaway train climax that's good if not great--it's Buster Keaton-esque, with the big diff that Keaton would have avoided back-projection in favor of visibly real, risky stuntwork. Anyway, this is no forgotten classic but a fun outing for a team that shouldn't be so entirely neglected today.

This film, coming late in the Wheeler and Woolsey cycle, is often dismissed as poorly written and executed, although it is actually very enjoyable, fast-paced, memorably written, and sees the two boys on good form as ever.

Dorothy Lee (in her last appearance with the team I think) is as sweet as ever, in her usual role as ingénue and love interest for Bert Wheeler. They have a song, as ever, this time set around an orange tree which drops its fruit whenever someone tells a lie. Lee said it was her favourite of their numbers, and it is certainly one of the best.

A long set-piece with out of control locomotives seems a bit misplaced in the second half of the film, but is still funny. The double entendres and quips of earlier films in the series have been irradicated by the Hays code and the move towards family decency, but this film remains sharp and funny.