Hook Line and Sinker

This Wheeler and Woolsey comedy manages to be one of their best and funniest. I watched this with a friend who normally doesn't laugh too much during early-talkie films, but he was roaring with laughter while watching this. This may be the only one of their films without any musical numbers, but the non-stop comedy makes up for it. Jobynna Howland is hysterical as cute Dorothy Lee' s imposing mother. Ralf Harolde is his usual villainous self, and Natalie Moorehead is very funny as a fake countess. I understand that this film was one of RKO's biggest profit-makers, released in December, 1930. The backlash against musicals was in full-force here, and even the opening credits have no music, a roaring motorcycle and blaring siren underscoring them. There is a brief bit of music during a party scene, played by an orchestra seen on-screen, and a brief fanfare over the end credit, and that's it. Again, I have to say, even though I am pre-disposed to musicals, this is so funny that I rank it over some of W&W's more musical efforts. If you want a good laugh, check this out.

While this comedy falls off a little towards the end, it's still a great repository for the Funny Stuff that W and W did best. You might call Bert and Bob "Dumb and Smarter", with Wheeler's sweet-natured shlub a perfect match for Woolsey's sly, Groucho-esque wisecracker. The story shell is pure silliness, and the double-entendres come fast and furious. This certainly isn't their best vehicle, but anytime you see these guys in the cable schedule(which, alas, is not often), WATCH 'EM!!

This comedy starts out very well with a promising set-up, and although it cannot maintain the same standard throughout, it's mostly entertaining, if rather silly. Wheeler and Woolsey make a pretty good comic team, and the complicated, deliberately implausible plot provides them with some good moments. Director Eddie Cline, better known for the comedies he made with Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields, keeps things on track.

We are first introduced to the two leads in a funny scene where they try to talk a policeman out of giving them a ticket. Shortly afterwards, they are involved in all kinds of complications at a run-down hotel, involving a large cast of dubious characters. While the pace is a little uneven, it keeps your attention, and there are also a couple of clever lines of dialogue. While it doesn't quite fulfill its early promise, this is definitely worth a look if you enjoy comedies from the 30's.

The downside of this movie, one of the early collaborations of Bert Wheeler (the sweet curly-haired guy) and Robert Woolsey (the cigar-chomping wise guy), has one major failing for me: no musical numbers! I think this is the only one of the their nine-year series at RKO not to have even one song, and I missed that.

Anyway, the film is pretty much on-form. The boys play insurance agents who go into the hotel business after meeting heiress Dorothy Lee (I think this is her weakest performance, far too stilted to make any kind of good impression on the viewer). The hotel she has inherited is a wreck but they soon make it good (how we don't see) and attract the attentions of some jewel thieves. Dorothy's mother (the large and booming-voiced Jobyna Howland) and her intended (the urbane Ralf Harolde who played a similar role in the earlier 'Dixiana') also arrive to thwart the plans made so far. In support are Stanley Fields, George Marion (as the oldest bellhop in the world), and Hugh Herbert (the sleepy house detective), and all are watchable.

There are a few highlights amongst the set pieces, the noirish shootout at the end, Natalie Moorhead as the fake Duchess vamping the boys for the safe code, Howland's tales to Woolsey about her numerous previous marriages, and more. Good stuff, but that scene with Bert and Dorothy planning their future by the hotel till really needs a song!

Hook Line And Sinker has Wheeler&Woolsey meeting Dorothy Lee on a road way while they successfully talk a cop out of a speeding ticket and sell insurance to him. She's running away from her mother's arranged marriage to the family attorney Ralf Harolde. Lee talks the boys into helping her run a fleabag hotel which is in her name.

There's a good reason why Harolde wants to marry her. In reality he's a gangster and he's used the place as a crook's hideout for years. But when Bert and Bob take it over they start a publicity campaign which works all too well saying the place has become THE in vacation resort for society folks. They come bringing all their money and jewels. Society bigwigs and gangsters, what a spot for a caper.

As for the romance Lee of course falls for Bert and her mother the amazonian Jobyna Howland just loves the moves that Woolsey is putting on her. Harolde's being foiled at every turn. It all leads up to a gangster invasion and a hilarious shootout at the climax.

This is a good introduction to Wheeler&Woolsey who are too sadly neglected today.