Cockeyed Cavaliers

Cockeyed Cavaliers has Wheeler and Woolsey as a Restoration period kleptomaniac and his good friend. Wheeler and his taking ways land Bert and Bob in the village stocks in a very funny sequence. Rescuing them is their perennial leading lady Dorothy Lee who has been contracted to become a lady in waiting for Duke Robert Grieg's duchess Thelma Todd with the idea is that the Duke will take his pleasures.

Lee rescues the guys while she is fleeing in male drag. But they wind up back at Grieg's court with Bert and Bob pretending to be visiting royal physicians with their apprentice. Bert finds out Lee is a girl and Bob expresses some nasty thoughts to the duchess.

It's all climaxed with wild wild boar hunt. Very funny stuff although Woolsey plays the whole film without his ever present cigar which hadn't been invented yet.

Wheeler and Woolsey find themselves in the era of kings and castles, but that won't stop them. Wheeler can't help but steal everything he sees from jewelry to horses to carriages. It's a disease, after all, and the trance-like state that carries him away causes giggles among viewers. The two men impersonate two noble men including a doctor and go to the Baron (Noah Beery) to diagnose him. The Baron is gone for the time being, but the beautiful Lady Genevieve (Thelma Todd) is home. Marital bliss-- hooey! You'd find yourself calling "Yoo-hoo" too.

The beginning of the film is perhaps the funniest, which can feel a bit disappointing by the end, but really, there are great moments throughout. The music provides a great many laughs, and even though the transition into song is a bit awkward, the use of musical numbers illustrates the absurdity of the film. It is pure fun and nothing else. Fans of early comedy will delight. Now why aren't Wheeler and Woolsey better known?

One of the funniest films ever made, Cockeyed Cavaliers is an absolute riot of side-splitting mayhem from its inventively sung-dialogue start to its wild boar wow of a finish. For once, Woolsey is not over-shadowed by his partner. In fact, here he is by far the dominant figure. Not only does he get to romance glorious Hot Toddy (of all people), but he's equally hilarious in song and dance. And the way he cleverly appropriates Garret and Spence's additional dialogue to make it seem like an inspired series of ad libs (maybe it actually is) made me roll in the aisle. Oddly, whilst he shares many wonderful slapstick routines with Wheeler, the main stooge for his verbal jousts is Noah Beery, who enjoys the grandest time of his life as a buffoonish heavy. I never dreamed that Noah Beery (who spent most of his career playing the sort of roles brother Wallace rejected) had the makings of a such a splendid clown. The rest of the players led by the vibrant pocket Venus, Dorothy Lee, and rounded out by Robert Greig doing full justice to his dyspeptic duke, are a credit to RKO's unsung genius of a casting director. And as for the work of Mark Sandrich, take your choice of superb, sensitive, skillful and smooth. Other credits (special bows for the photographer and editor) are equally adept, while production values rate as literally out of this world.

Similar to Laurel and Hardy, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a (lesser known) comedy team of the 1930's. "Cockeyed Cavaliers" is the only one of their movies I've ever seen. It's a lively, fun little movie, full of obviously deliberate anachronisms featuring Wheeler and Woolsey as a couple of ne'er do wells in 17th century (?) England, who get mistaken for the King's physicians.

The movie has an imaginative musical opening, and several musical numbers scattered throughout (The Big, Bad Wolf was great fun.) Wheeler and Woolsey get to join in the song and dance routines, and they even find romance along the way. There are also a fair number of laughs around Woolsey's character being a kleptomaniac who steals - literally - anything and everything, up to and including horses and carriages. It's a little difficult to accept that Dorothy Lee (who played Woolsey's love interest) could have been mistaken for a boy - but I guess that's just part of the movie's quirky charm.

I'm just not much of a fan of the comedy teams of this era unfortunately. (No - not even Laurel & Hardy.) But, still, this is an enjoyable enough movie to pass some time with. Fans of the genre if this era would rate this much higher than I do. (6/10)

This is the one where the boys are in the 1600s (although you'd never guess from Woolsey's cigar and specs!), where Bert is a kleptomanic - the scene early on where he manages to steal a necklace, four horses, and finally a carriage in quick succession is a hoot - while Bob tries to keep their heads on (literally). Cutie Dorothy Lee, meanwhile, is trying to escape being married to burly oldie Robert Grieg the randy Duke, and runs away disguised as a boy.

Highlights of this fun film are the two songs - the first, The Big Bad Wolf is Dead, might go on a bit, but gives the boys a chance to do a dance routine, plus Noah Beery joining in with his magnificent bass voice; the second, Dilly Dally, is a catchy number for the boys, Dorothy, and lovely Thelma Todd (who had so much potential but would die in tragic circumstances just a year later). I also got quite a buzz from the scene in the inn which referenced the previous year's Garbo pic, Queen Christina (where the 'boy' admits she is a girl). Then of course there is the wild boar hunt, a triumph of trick photography.

Director Mark Sandrich would move on to direct Top Hat and other well-remembered movies shortly after, but this one does him and his cast proud.