Hips, Hips, Hooray!

HIPS, HIPS, HOORAY! (RKO Radio, 1934), directed by Mark Sandrich, stars the comedy team of Bert Wheeler (the innocent boyish type banana eater) and Robert Woolsey (the one with the horn-rim glasses, cigar and all the wisecracking quips) in another one of their wildest romps. Often classified as their very best comedy, it's certainly their most fast-paced 68 minutes. Aside from puns, wisecracks and cartoonish style antics, there's also Dorothy Lee, the team's frequent co-star, making her return engagement as Wheeler's love interest for the first time since GIRL CRAZY (1932), to make their reunion complete. There's also a musical highlight performed by the third billed "mistress of melody," Ruth Etting, appearing only for a few minutes singing a bright tune set during a radio program.

The plot opens at the struggling enterprise of Maiden America Beauty Products Inc. where Daisy Maxwell (Dorothy Lee), one of its models and sales clerks, is trying to attract customers by demonstrating at the store window. She finds the attention is not on her but on a couple of peddlers across the street, Andy Williams (Bert Wheeler) and "Doc" Dudley (Robert Woolsey), demonstrating flavored lipsticks. Mistaking Daisy's wave as her way of being acquainted, Andy walks over to her and is told she's losing customers because of what they're doing. To help this "swell kid," Andy offers to help sell her products along with theirs, but with a couple of police officers nearby and to keep from getting arrested for soliciting without a license, Andy and Bob give away $24.50 worth of her items instead. Because the company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to Arnold Beauchamp (George Meeker), its crooked manager, siding with Madame Irene (Phyllis Barry), its competitor, Miss Frisby, Daisy's employer, stumbles upon the idea that because of Andy and Doc's "expert salesmanship," that they should merge with the boys, in spite the fact they Andy and Doc aren't what they appear to be. In order to make a good impression with the girls, Doc arranges for Mr. Clark (Spencer Charters), president of the Clark Investment Company, to leave his office at the Banker's Trust Building just long enough for the duel to use his office to discuss business matters with Daisy and Miss Frisby. When caught in the act of song and dance, they all make a hasty retreat, with Doc unwittingly taking Clark's bag of bank securities instead of his own bag of lipstick products. Before the promotional cross country auto race between competitors Maiden America and Madame Irene, situations occur as Andy and Doc find themselves being pursued by a couple of detectives, Epstein (James Burtis) and Sweeney (Matt Briggs), hired by Mr. Clark to locate his missing bank funds. As Andy and Doc discover their error and attempt to return the money, they find the bag has mysteriously disappeared, forcing the boys by doing the same thing.

In typical fashion in most Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, there's musical moments on two songs, mostly reprized throughout the story, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. The motion picture soundtrack includes: "Keep Romance Alive" (sung by Ruth Etting); "Just Keep on Doing What You're Doing" (sung/performed by Wheeler, Woolsey, Dorothy Lee and Thelma Todd); "Just Keep on Doing What You're Doing" (reprise); "Keep Romance Alive" (chorus girls/production number); "Keep Romance Alive" (tap dance by Bert Wheeler/comic dance by Robert Woolsey); and "Just Keep on Doing What You're Doing" (closing). While the comedy antics of Wheeler and Woolsey are a mix of hit and miss, best moments occur in the pool room where the balls have minds of their own, along with silly but often amusing race car chase.

While the Wheeler and Woolsey comedies have lacked any sort of attention and cult following in later years of other comedy teams as Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello due to lack of television broadcasts, HIPS! HIPS! HOORAY, and several of their other works, have achieved some rediscovery over the years when distributed to home video and cable television broadcasts on American Movie Classics (prior to 2001) and Turner Classic Movies. This particular one, however, with certain blackouts and brief scenes indicating edited material to tighten structure in plot, retains enough routine entertainment to have viewers "keep on doing what you're doing," by sitting back and enjoying this one. (***)

Another little gem from the mad 30s boys of RKO as this frenetically paced oddity takes us from flavoured lipsticks to a mad Keystone-like car race in the space of just over an hour. Alongside cigar-chomping Woolsey and irritating little Wheeler we have Dorothy Lee (as per usual) and Thelma Todd playing the cutie romantic interest parts, and a short song right at the beginning from third-billed Ruth Etting (in a rather fetching hat).

Best sequences in this one - "Just Keep On Doin' What You're Doin'", really funny - the whole car race sequence, and the bevy of cuties with flavoured lipsticks ("we've got to guess what flavour" - oh, sure ...). I bet the set cleaners at RKO were knee-deep in bananas by the end of the shoot though :)

This one doesn't showcase W&W at their best (see "Diplomaniacs" or "Half Shot at Sunrise" for that). The verbal badinage is generally lame, and the sight gags and slapstick are mainly of the "seen 'em before" variety. This is rather unfortunate, since the flick definitely has a dynamite premise. The boys are street hucksters promoting flavored lipstick, but thanks to ever-vivacious Dorothy Lee, manage to link up with a high-class, publicity-seeking cosmetics emporium.

Despite the middling comedy antics, this is a must-see for pre-code aficionados. The opening number, a live radio studio broadcast featuring naked models in bathtubs (their naughty bits discreetly obscured by hair-do's and foreground objects) is pretty eye-popping, as are the minimal outfits sported by the hot-to-trot sales crew in a risqué scene wherein the boys test the product "in vivo". Thelma Todd and famed songstress Ruth Etting are on hand, and the tunes are catchy enough. If you liked "Roman Scandals" and "Murder at the Vanities", by all means check it out.

Traveling hucksters Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey sell Dr. Dudley's Flavored Lipsticks from the back of their truck. Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee also sell lipstick, with the rather more respectable firm of Maiden America Beauty Products.

Through what may be called a misunderstanding, the two businesses merge. A bag of lipstick samples is accidentally switched with a banker's bag of treasury bonds. A couple of detectives set out after Wheeler and Woolsey, who flee and eventually find themselves driving a fast car in a cross country auto race. It never really make sense but the wild climactic car chase is fun.

Wheeler and Woolsey are their usual comic selves - Wheeler more mild-mannered and romantic, Woolsey the cigar smoking blowhard. Their frequent costar Dorothy Lee is fine as the girl who finds goofy Wheeler irresistible. Thelma Todd mostly plays it straight as manager of the lipstick firm - unfortunately her role offers little opportunity for Thelma to show her comic skills.

Fast moving and very silly but the hectic pace does not always equal hilarity.

Not a great movie, and not one that I'd recommend to anyone new to pre-Code films, because it's pretty silly and there are many better titles to choose from. It grew on me, though it took over 24 minutes (one third of the film) because it starts off so slowly. Be forewarned there are a lot of corny jokes mixed in to the slapstick humor of Wheeler and Woolsey.

Where the film picked up for me was when the number "Keep On Doin' What You're Doin'" is performed. Dorothy Lee is vivacious and has a sweet voice, and when Woolsey starts dancing around like a ballerina with a lampshade around his waist, it starts off a pretty cute and wild sequence between the four principals (Thelma Todd is the other) that's well choreographed by Hermes Pan. Later when the song is reprised in the park, it's amusing when Woolsey confuses a squirrel going up his leg with Todd's hands, continuing to see the title lyrics. There's quite a bit of skin on display, most notably a lineup of lipstick sellers wearing backless outfits with a couple of straps over the chest, short shorts, and fishnet stockings. The boys have to figure out what flavor the lipstick is by kissing them, you see. One of the women is Marion Byron, who you might recognize from the Buster Keaton film Steamboat Bill, Jr.

In addition to the pre-Code salaciousness, there are actually a few pretty decent special effects as well, including a nice scene with stop motion photography at the pool hall, and later a car hopping over another during the auto race. Taken altogether it's an odd mix (reminding me of a combination of George Burns, Benny Hill, and The Great Race), but if you can forget the silly plot and excuse the occasional groaner from Wheeler and/or Woolsey, there's enough here to keep it interesting as the film progresses.