Labbra dipinte

Ditsy Daisy Maxwell (Dorothy Lee) is warned to sell more lipsticks. She spends her time in her nightie demonstrating lipstick inside the store's window display. It's a hit only for the men. It doesn't help that hustlers, Andy Williams (Bert Wheeler) and Dr. Robert Dudley (Robert Woolsey), are across the street pulling all the attention. Andy falls for Daisy and Daisy falls for the boys' lies. She tells beauty supply owner Miss Frisby (Thelma Todd) who then hires the boys to promote a new flavored lipstick.

This opens with a Ruth Etting song. It is pre-Code by a few months. The girls have some revealing costumes and there are some suggestive humor. Wheeler and Woolsey have faded from cinematic memory. They are a matter of personal taste. They have an old vaudevillian flair which can wear thin quickly. I do find it mildly humorous in a knowing way. This is comedy in an archaeological sense of the word.

The very beginning of this film made it obvious that it must have debuted in early 1934--before the newer and tougher Production Code was adopted. This code prohibited nudity, suggestive material, cursing and many other things that had been prevalent in films up until this point in time. And, when there is a scene featuring many naked women with their naughty bits strategically covered (something that never would have been allowed in late 1934), you might be a bit surprised.

As far as the film goes, it stars Wheeler & Woolsey--two of the very top film comedians of the day who are all but forgotten today. Most of it, I think, is because they tended to rely on corny jokes and the writing of their films was very, very inconsistent. I used to hate their movies but later noticed some of their films were very good--when the material was worthy (such as in "Caught Plastered"). Will this be one of their good vehicles or yet another lame one? In addition to the team, the film features three ladies. One is the very familiar Thelma Todd (though, oddly, with black hair)--who seemed to be EVERYWHERE in comedies during the early thirties--with appearances with Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase and the Marx Brothers. Ruth Etting (whose life was later chronicled in "Love Me or Leave Me" with Doris Day) also was on hand--mostly to sing. And, not surprisingly, Dorothy Lee is also in the film--as she was in practically all the team's films playing Wheeler's love interest and to sing duets with him.

The boys are cosmetics salesmen--trying to hawk a variety of beauty products. When they accidentally switch bags with an industrialist (switching their cheap lipsticks for a bunch of valuable securities), things heat up a bit! Later, while being chased by detectives, the two end up getting in the middle of an auto race--a very contrived moment to say the least. The rear projection used to make it look like they were driving isn't 100% horrible but why have these cosmetics salesmen involved in a cross-country race?! And what happens to them next just just about defies description and it almost looks like they were making their own version of "The Wizard of Oz"! I've gotta say that this portion of the film is the weirdest and craziest I've ever seen in a Wheeler & Woolsey movie! It's kind of funny, but certainly NOT cerebral--sort of like stuff you might see the Three Stooges doing.

Overall, this is a slightly better than average film for the team--though, this really isn't saying much!! It's reasonably entertaining for anyone who can stand listening to Woolsey's lame quips--and they are pretty lame.

Good---pool scene Bad---too much singing

As an art deco dream, this risqué pre code silliness is an RKO deluxe farce with their in house duo W&W. It all depends on your taste for their shyster/naive antics and you might find their style grating if unaware what to expect. If you know W&W then settle in for the usual gay romp except this time the RKO art direction and set design is a major star as well...esp in the first half. As a story line, well there almost isn't one apart from them trying to get laid and sell flavored lipsticks in a skyscraper. The second half is a ridiculous car chase with cartoon style stunts and yelling. The film opens with a delicious beauty plea by Ruth Etting as the RKO showgirls lounge nude in bubble baths with strategically placed perfume bottles. One later scene is a demolition derby to music of someone's gorgeous deco office... and yet another taste test lip locking surprise features some really rude gags. The costumes on the showgirls out rival the S&M look of LULLABY OF Broadway a year later. Made a year before the censorship code of 1934, HIPS HIPS HOORAY is about as rude and funny as it could be for the time... but today the real star of the film is the RKO set and design department.

Another little gem from the mad 30s boys of RKO as this frenetically paced oddity takes us from flavoured lipsticks to a mad Keystone-like car race in the space of just over an hour. Alongside cigar-chomping Woolsey and irritating little Wheeler we have Dorothy Lee (as per usual) and Thelma Todd playing the cutie romantic interest parts, and a short song right at the beginning from third-billed Ruth Etting (in a rather fetching hat).

Best sequences in this one - "Just Keep On Doin' What You're Doin'", really funny - the whole car race sequence, and the bevy of cuties with flavoured lipsticks ("we've got to guess what flavour" - oh, sure ...). I bet the set cleaners at RKO were knee-deep in bananas by the end of the shoot though :)

This one doesn't showcase W&W at their best (see "Diplomaniacs" or "Half Shot at Sunrise" for that). The verbal badinage is generally lame, and the sight gags and slapstick are mainly of the "seen 'em before" variety. This is rather unfortunate, since the flick definitely has a dynamite premise. The boys are street hucksters promoting flavored lipstick, but thanks to ever-vivacious Dorothy Lee, manage to link up with a high-class, publicity-seeking cosmetics emporium.

Despite the middling comedy antics, this is a must-see for pre-code aficionados. The opening number, a live radio studio broadcast featuring naked models in bathtubs (their naughty bits discreetly obscured by hair-do's and foreground objects) is pretty eye-popping, as are the minimal outfits sported by the hot-to-trot sales crew in a risqué scene wherein the boys test the product "in vivo". Thelma Todd and famed songstress Ruth Etting are on hand, and the tunes are catchy enough. If you liked "Roman Scandals" and "Murder at the Vanities", by all means check it out.