So This Is Africa

This is another classic in Wheeler and Woolsey's long line of slapstick films. However, it is one of the more difficult ones to obtain a copy of. I managed to get the non-TV print (which is 54 minutes) and mine runs 65 minutes. The story, or better, the excuse for their burlesque humor is pretty weak this time. Wheeler and Woolsey play out of work vaudeville performers who are at the end of the line. Their only income stems from their exploitation of several large lions (don't ask). For some reason, they are invited to film an epic African movie on location, and this is officially where the story ends and the sexual double entendres enter. Dorothy Lee is missed, but Raquel Torres (from DUCK SOUP) is pretty good playing a female type of Tarzan. My favorite scenes are where Wheeler and Woolsey encounter a bear in Africa, and the very strange all-female tribe of "Africans." For Wheeler and Woolsey fans, this ranks very high on the must-see list. Also, I think this is their only film not produced by RKO, instead being done at Columbia Pictures.

The original film was 90 minutes long, but even in the precode era the Motion Picture Division of the Education Board of New York State found 26 minutes of the film unsuitable for audiences and thus these scenes and lines were cut. What's left is largely incoherent yet funny.

As for the plot, Ultimate Pictures has sent the director Mrs. Johnson-Martini to Africa to make a film, but she returns empty-handed because she is afraid of animals. The company finds out about Wilbur (Bert Wheeler) and Alexander (Robert Woolsey) and their tame toothless lions and decide to hire them to go to Africa with Mrs. Johnson-Martini and make the movie using these tame animals.

When they all get to Africa the plot about making a movie as well as the lions simply disappears and there are just a series of skits and dance numbers involving a tribe of women warriors who, at night, love any men they come in contact to death. It's daytime, but an eclipse occurs and Wilbur and Alexander are trapped with the women when they turn wildly amorous. Complications ensue.

According to Wikipedia - "The character of "Mrs. Johnson Martini" is a play on the real-life celebrity of the era Osa Johnson, generally referred to publicly at that time as Mrs. Martin Johnson. In collaboration with her husband, Johnson was a well-known documentary filmmaker. At the time So This Is Africa was issued, Johnson and her husband had just returned from a two-year stint in Africa and had released the documentary film Congor."

My favorite Wheeler & Woolsey movie. (And I have them all.)

Is it in bad taste? Oh yes. Does it make any sense? Less than you'd think. Is it any good? YES!

The best part of the movie is where Wheeler meets 'Tarzana' (Raquel Torres). You might think the perfect woman is a 25 year old Sophia Loren, Barbara Eden or Marjorie Weaver. Wait to you meet the sexy 'Tarzana' she's 23 years old and never been kissed. Upon discovering kissing it's all she wants to do, and is Wheeler happy to oblige.

The duo then encounters a tribe of all female Amazons whose traditions include 'loving' men to death, but the men are not afraid. So This is Africa was a 90-minute film, cut down to 65 minutes by censors. Don't be so shocked, Disney and other studios continue to censor movies today. I would pay real money to see the original 90 minutes. So This is Africa is one of the most-heavily censored films of the pre-Code era. The National Board of Review memos include comments like "Nothing as salacious has ever come before the National Board in the eight years of my reviewing", "Absolutely nothing to recommend it", and "The Board would harm itself it were to pass such a picture."

Shockingly, there's never been an official release of this movie on DVD by Columbia. The film is currently owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The film has been shown on Turner Classic Movies in the past, and can be found elsewhere.

I've seen most of Wheeler and Woolsey's films and must say "So This is Africa" is their weirdest and nuttiest movie. It's their only venture away from RKO and it makes you wish they'd done more films for Columbia because it's that wacky!!

The first portion of the film is rather conventional by the team's standards. The boys are stuck unable to pay their hotel bill and without jobs...and they're also stuck with five full-grown but friendly lions they won in a raffle! I am shocked Wheeler and Woolsey agreed to act with the lions as it looked very dangerous...and stupid!

After spending much of the film doing nothing in particular, a film director (Berton Churchill) catches up to them and offers them a job. He wants the boys to bring their lions to Africa for a Tarzan- type film. However, soon after arriving in the jungle, all pretense about making a movie is gone. Mostly it consist of the comely Mrs. Johnson-Martini pitching woo with Woolsey and Woolsey inexplicably playing very hard to get! During all this nonsense, Wheeler is rescued by Tarzana and this jungle heroine is really attracted to him. But before either has a chance to make whoopee, they are captured by Amazon women (in Africa?) and then the men arrive and there's a free-for- all and the strangest endings I can recall having seen which seems to be promoting gay marriage...as did the scene where Woolsey was about to marry Wheeler!! It's all VERY pre-code and very strange...and I am not sure how audiences of the day took to this and all the stronger than usual sexual innuendo as well as a bit of cursing. Strange beyond belief but also funny and much better paced than most films by the team.

Originally filmed at some 90 minutes, Wheeler and Woolsey's only film at Columbia was chopped at the insistence of the censors and never re-released until its emergence on TCM some sixty-odd years later.

Wilbur and Alexander are failed lion tamers, who have a small tribe of toothless tame lions they won in a raffle. These lions are of great interest to a film company who need a film about Africa. So, the hapless two and their animals go on safari, alongside the oversexed Mrs Martini.

The jokes are fairly thick and fast in this 65 minute print, which includes a passionate female Tarzan, a huge group of Amazons, a foot-licking bear, a gorilla called Josephine, and a couple of musical numbers (one spoofing Minnie the Moocher).

Although usual cutie Dorothy Lee is missing, Raquel Torres and Esther Muir do well as the love interests for the boys, and Wheeler and Woolsey themselves are on fairly good form.