Peach-O-Reno

I won't summarize the film. Others have already done that. I will say that it almost appears as if there were two different films spliced together. The second part, the trial, seems different from the first part, offices of Swift and Wattle. But, regardless, this is the best of the Wheeler and Woolsey films. I watch it whenever I simply want to laugh.

Joe and Aggie Bruno get into a terrible fight at their 25th wedding anniversary. They both decide they want a divorce and separately go to Reno. There they both end up at the law office of Wattles (Bert Wheeler) and Swift (Robert Woolsey), where the boys dispense marital justice in bulk.

In most Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, the boys are broke and trying to set up a con to better their situation. Here they are already thriving, so much, in fact, that the law firm across the street is trying to put them out of business - Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, and Jackson. Let's just call them the Jackson Four.

Complications include the Jackson Four up to no good, the ex-husband of a former client who wants to shoot Wattles and Swift for handling his wife's divorce, and the two grown daughters of the Brunos coming to Reno to try and stop their parents from divorcing. Like so many Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, this builds from controlled chaos in the beginning to full blown mayhem in the courtroom scene finale.

Wheeler and Woolsey have always been a hot or cold taste for most film buffs. They were basically a less acerbic version of the Marx Brothers sort of humor, made more palatable for the small town senses. They are basically at their best when telling a few racy jokes and doing a song and dance, but they are not trying to be comedy greats, just pleasant entertainers. If you don't buy into their relaxed sort of charm, they aren't going to win you over. But their pre-code films, including this one, do work quite well, and of their post-code films, the only truly awful one is MUMMYS BOYS, and that's because it has no musical numbers.

I'd consider this one to be one of their best.

I guess humor, like beauty, is in the eye (ear) of the beholder. Wheeler and Woolsey are two of my favorite funnymen but Peach-O-Reno contains some of the oldest and stalest jokes ever put on film. I'll bet they were funnier in 1932, but here it is 2011 and some of the material fell flatter than a pancake despite their best efforts and that of the supporting cast.

Joseph Cawthorn and Cora Witherspoon are the old married couple trying to get a divorce, after a hilarious scene at their 25th wedding anniversary party which turns into an argument and a trip to Reno. They are excellent and very funny when on screen - maybe they should have given these two old pros more screen time. Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee have a good song and dance number and Wheeler himself is quite good impersonating a floozy to aid Cawthorn's cause for divorce.

There is some good fun here and there and I have a hard time knocking Wheeler and Woolsey in any case, but maybe "Peach-O-Reno" should have been seen in 1932 and then stored in a vault somewhere. It came as a two-fer with "Girl Crazy" - maybe I'll have better luck with that one.

Lots of clever jokes, chuckles, men in drag. Sight gags and the usual fare for Wheeler and Woolsey, even some filthy one liners in here if you pay attention. A couple of those jokes would have been snipped right out when the film code started being enforced just a couple years later. This one is all about going to Reno for a quick divorce, with the two men cast as Wattles and Swift, divorce lawyers, with some surprises thrown in. At one point, the two "attorneys" represent opposing sides in one divorce case, but it's really all about getting their jokes out as fast as they can. Watch for Cora Witherspoon, who was in Bank Dick with W.C. Fields. I thought this was a riot, even if it's extra short at just 63 minutes. The jokes and timing in this one hold up better than some of their other oldies. Directed by William Seiter, who had made tons of comedies with ALL the Hollywood greats. I recommend it - its a fun one!

Into the third year of the Wheeler-Woolsey partnership with RKO, this little gem, running at just over an hour, gives us Wattles and Swift, the divorce lawyers (with a bus laid on to ferry likely divorces from the railway) who just happen to run a casino by night (!).

To get himself out of a scrape with a vengeful gun totin' husband, Bert Wheeler dolls up as the silliest drag act you'll ever see (Mae West had nothing on this blonde broad!); little Dorothy Lee gets to join him in another great song n' tap routine; and Robert Woolsey chomps cigars and makes his usual line of lecherous wisecracks. Watch out for a wonderful number mid-way where the boys dance together with Bert still dragged up; and a useful way to store those casino chips! Really funny...