Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaA would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.
- Regia
- Sceneggiatura
- Star
- Police Captain Jennings
- (as Charles Wilson)
- Singer
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- Cop
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- Minor Role
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- Cop on Stakeout
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- Police Officer Barney Riley
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- Hoofer
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- Black Widow Henchman
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
Recensioni in evidenza
A rather routine Wheeler & Woolsey comedy (Bert Wheeler is the one with the curly hair; Robert Woolsey has the cigar & spectacles) but the Boys are always fun to watch. Betty Grable is on hand this time as Wheelers love interest. Blustery Hale Hamilton is one of the Black Widows victims. Erik Rhodes has a small role as a suspect. Willie Best is on hand to add to the madcap finale. Film mavens will recognize Arthur Treacher as the man with the tennis equipment.
Wheeler & Grable sing You Opened My Eyes - Woolsey warbles The Black Widows Gonna Get You If You Dont Watch Out. There is some racial stereotyping, not unusual in Hollywood films of this period.
Ok! I laughed hard at nothing rhyming with oranges. That's a great joke. They do keep bringing it back for the diminishing returns. Maybe they should have given it to Wheeler. This comedic pairing is not making me laugh a lot. They are mildly amusing at times. This movie is mildly amusing at times. Take the cop hat for example. It's a slow meandering joke that isn't all that funny until Johnnie comes back with it. It feels like a long walk to get to one good laugh. That's this movie.
Anyway, a notorious criminal called the Black Widow is known for sending out letters of extortion demanding money or the victim would be killed. Hamilton decides not to give in and does wind up dead as a result.
Unlike Abbott&Costello's Who Done It which has a lot of the same plot premise, The Nitwits is better edited and the perpetrator doesn't come out of nowhere as in Bud&Lou's film. Unfortunately due to one of the gags which involves Woolsey inventing a chair in which a charge of electricity passes through you so you blurt the truth out, we learn a little prematurely in my opinion who the culprit is.
Anyway because Betty is a prime suspect, Wheeler&Woolsey get themselves involved in the investigation. They prove as much help to the cops as Abbott&Costello did, but like them they do stumble on to the perpetrator.
One reason this film is not revived too often is the climax also involves a bunch of black people being allowed by one of their peers who works as a janitor to use the basement for a quiet crap game. Their fright reactions in the climatic chase of the culprit plays into a lot of racial stereotyping.
Anyway I did like Woolsey's Rube Goldberg contraption as a gag. Maybe they could use a real one of those at Guantanamo.
Along the way there are a couple of innocuous songs, one of them sung by a very young BETTY GRABLE before stardom at Fox, which she duets with BERT WHEELER. She's the secretary of a murdered executive and for awhile she joins the list of suspects, although we know she's innocent. ERIC RHODES has little to do as a man with a good reason to be one of the suspects, but the plot mainly has to do with Wheeler and ROBERT WOOLSEY (who looks like Phil Silvers on diet pills), and their scatterbrained encounters with the policemen trying to solve the case.
George Stevens directs the whole thing at a fast clip, especially the climactic ten minute scene of frantic over-the-top slapstick that concludes the story.
Summing up: Just okay if you're a fan of Wheeler and Woolsey. It's the kind of slapstick farce the kiddies usually enjoy at a Saturday matinée.
Lo sapevi?
- QuizOne of 21 movies made by popular comedy duo Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey between 1929 and 1937, before Woolsey died in 1938. It is also the last minor feature directed by film luminary George Stevens before he broke through with "Primo amore (1935)."
- BlooperWhen Johnnie throws the bowl of water in Newton's face, it knocks the cigar out of his mouth. But, in the next shot, he is holding the cigar in his left hand.
- Citazioni
[first lines]
Male Singer: [singing] I'm not the same at all, / And I can blame it all; / I thought that love was a lark. / There's something strange in me, / The sudden change in me; / I walk around in the dark. / Suddenly I found a star. / You've opened my eyes. / You made me see the light, / The beauty of the night. / You've opened my eyes. / You taught me to see / The sunny side of things. / The heart within me sings. / You brought this to me.
- Curiosità sui creditiOpening credits are shown on a player-piano music roll, which ends with the screen filling with black music notes.
- ConnessioniReferences High Gear (1931)
- Colonne sonoreMusic in My Heart
(1935)
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Music by Jimmy McHugh
Sung and Danced by Bert Wheeler (uncredited) and Betty Grable (uncredited)
Later reprized by Bert Wheeler (uncredited), Robert Woolsey (uncredited),
Betty Grable (uncredited), and the jail prisoners
I più visti
Dettagli
- Tempo di esecuzione
- 1h 21min(81 min)
- Colore
- Proporzioni
- 1.37 : 1