Kentucky Kernels

Kentucky Kernels is another Wheeler/Woolsey comedy, where they decide to adopt Spanky (the same Spanky McFarland from the "Our Gang" show.) They go down south to visit the Colonel (Noah Beery) and Aunt Hannah ( Lucille LaVerne ) and meet up with the lovely Gloria Wakefield (Mary Carlisle) and the feuding Milfords. The plot is kind of all over the place, but we do get a good dose of Wheeler and Woolsey's standup comedy act along the way. Cast includes Willie Best ( Sleep N Eat ) as Buckshot; Director George Stevens sure did some of the great ones (A Place in the Sun, Diary of Anne Frank, Gunga Din). Some other interesting film connections - Viewers will spot Margaret Dumont (as Mrs. Baxter, head of the Children Welfare League), who made all those movies with the Marx Brothers. Writers Kalmar and Ruby had also written material for the Marx Brothers. Also, Mary Carlisle and Noah Beery's brother Wallace were both in Grand Hotel in 1932. Fun comedy, but pretty wacky and zany. Made at the beginning cusp of the production code in 1934, there are quite a few scenes and jokes that show two men are living together, sleeping in the same bed, keeping house, and adopting a child... pretty far ahead of its time!

Kentucky Kernels (1934)

*** (out of 4)

George Stevens directs this Wheeler and Woolsey film where the two take an adopted boy (Spanky from Our Gang) back to his relatives in Kentucky but soon finds themselves in a feud between two families. It's been hit and miss with me and these W&W films but this one here is clearly the best I've seen. The comedy ranges towards jokes about rednecks and some rather politically incorrect stuff but the duo brings some great comic timing and the added bonus of Spanky makes this a damn good comedy. There's some wonderful gags including a horse accidentally drinking moonshine and another scene where W&W try and talk themselves out of a speeding ticket. The jokes aimed at the Southern families work very well and Spanky steals the show with each scene that he's in. The running joke is that he likes to break windows so there's plenty of that going on. There's also a large shoot out at the end, which looks to have more bullets flying than any of Warner's gangster pictures. The film borrows a lot of Keaton's Our Hospitality but works well on its own.

A zany Vaudeville magician & his assistant become KENTUCKY KERNELS when they try to return a small boy to his rightful inheritance down in Plantation Country. What they don't realize is that they're walking right into the hottest feud in the Kentucky Hills...

Wheeler & Woolsey are in top form in this funny comedy (Bert Wheeler is the short guy with curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the fellow with the spectacles & cigar.) Although largely forgotten today, they were often hilarious and always fun to watch. This time they are given powerful support from little Spanky McFarland, of the OUR GANG series, one of the greatest of all child stars. Spanky, with his penchant for glass breaking, fits right in with the goofiness that abounds in all W & W films.

What there is of the plot is simply meant to move the gags along, although opening with an attempted suicide is a bit heavy. The romantics this time - between Wheeler & Mary Carlisle - is particularly thin. Others in the cast are basso villain Noah Beery; elderly Lucille La Verne (memorable a few years later as the voice of the Witch Queen in Disney's SNOW WHITE); and always funny Willie Best, here acting under his nickname of Sleep ‘n' Eat. The monumental Margaret Dumont is given little to do in her few scenes; one longs to see her cast as Woolsey's foil.

The Boys - all of them - sing `One Little Kiss'.

Any enjoyment you get from KENTUCKY KERNELS will depend on whether or not you can view the film in the context of its time and accept all of the foolishness with that in mind. Otherwise, it's not a particularly rewarding way to view Wheeler and Woolsey. Surely, their reputation was based on better material than this.

The thin plot has the boys adopting SPANKY McFARLAND from an orphanage run by MARGARET DUMONT. He's a cute little bundle but has a penchant for breaking glass at every opportunity--and the script gives him plenty of excuses. Unfortunately, most of the gags are the kind of one-liners that must have killed vaudeville, delivered in brisk style but corny nevertheless.

LUCILLE LaVERNE shows up as an old dowager (she was the voice for The Wicked Queen in Disney's "Snow White"), and MARY CARLISLE is the love interest for one of the boys. The politically correct will be insulted by the WILLIE BEST racial humor in scenes where the boys go south.

Strictly a product of its time, ending in a skirmish between a Hatfield and McCoy type of family feud.

Always enjoy Wheeler & Woolsey, even if their movie output is uneven; some are very funny, some are not so. I thought this one was pretty funny and that it succeeds due to the professional direction of George Stevens.

It is old-fashioned in that much of the humor consists of what must be old corny vaudeville jokes, sight gags and outrageous puns, all of which might not go over with today's audiences. Speaking for myself I can appreciate such antiquated antics, and I can also put into context outdated racial humor, such as found here in Willie Best's character. He plays his usual slow-talking, pop-eyed servant ("feets, do yo' duty!") by which he became famous.

Spanky McFarland was always a cute little kid and doesn't disappoint here. And this maybe the only time Noah Beery,Sr. sings on screen, and takes a turn along with everybody else singing a Kalmar-Ruby song "One Little Kiss", a very tuneful number written for this picture. Some reviewers take issue with the inane plot, about two feuding Kentucky families, but c'mon, folks. It's just a Wheeler & Woolsey comedy; were you expecting Ingmar Bergman?