Anzol, Linha e Chumbada

A couple of scam artists go legit to help a young lady run the dilapidated hotel she's inherited. Over time they turn the place into a swanky high-society hot spot. But when mobsters, a crooked lawyer & a phony countess arrive, the Boys find themselves in trouble HOOK, LINE AND SINKER.

This slight comedy features the always watchable team of Wheeler & Woolsey. (Bert Wheeler is the one with curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny fellow with glasses.) Their one-liners fly faster than the bullets which climax the movie. Dorothy Lee, their frequent co-star & Wheeler's perpetual love interest, is still kewpie-doll cute. The massive Jobyna Howland is great as Woolsey's lady love - a ferocious female not to be fooled with. Hugh Herbert, usually so much fun, is given little to do as the ineffectual hotel detective.

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.

Wilbur Boswell and Addington Ganzy abandon their insurance business (read scam) and enter the hotel business with Mary Marsh, who has runaway from home to escape her mother and the family's lawyer Blackwell, whom Mary is being forced to marry by her mother. Unknown to Mary, her mother, and Boswell & Ganzy, is that Blackwell is running a criminal organization and its main hideout is the basement of the hotel. Also coming to the hotel are every sort of criminal set out to crack the hotel safe, so its up to our two heroes, along with a bizarre house detective and the always sleeping bellboy to save the day. A very enjoyable and funny film from Wheeler and Woolsey with Dorothy Lee around again as Mary. As with the majority of the W&W films there are a bizarre bunch of characters and plenty of zaniness to please the audience. Great ending with the shootout. Rating, 8.

This is a very funny film starring Wheeler and Woolsey, a comedy team that is all but forgotten these days. Their brand of humor tended to be verbal and punny, but they were also adept physical comedians as well.

Here the pair end up helping, and romancing, a runaway fom a rich family. She's inherited a hotel and the boys decide to help her turn it into THE hot spot. Using their way with words they manage to have newspapers write the place up---mentioning how safe their safe is. This of course brings a steady stream of crooks all of which want to be the one to crack the safe.

Extremely well written, the film suffers from a few slow spots where the fast and furious dialog stop for a silent shot or moment. Normally it wouldn't be bad, but here it off sets the pacing of the film, which for the most part is fast moving, even if it seems not to have a direction.

If you want to see a good comedy you haven't seen before, by all means pick this up, its 75 minutes well spent.

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!!