SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

JohnHowardReid Director: EDWARD CLINE. Screenplay: Tim Whelan, Ralph Spence. Story: Tim Whelan. Additional dialogue: Bobby Clark, Robert Woolsey, Myles Connolly. Photography: Nick Musuraca. Film editor: Archie Marshek. Art director and costumes for Misses Lee, Howland and Moorhead: Max Rée. Music director: Max Steiner. Assistant director: Fred Fleck. Sound recording: Hugh McDowell. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Myles Connolly. Producer: William LeBaron. Copyright 15 December 1930 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Mayfair: 24 December 1930. U.S. release: 26 December 1930. 75 minutes. SYNOPSIS: With an eye to the carriage trade, two sharpies re-open a rundown resort hotel in Florida. COMMENT: Although hampered both by director Eddie Cline's rather static early talkies' technique and a rather unevenly paced script with gags flying thick and fast being suddenly replaced by ho-hum turns of the straight and narrow plot, this is still a highly watchable Wheeler and Woolsey. The biggest disappointment is the complete absence of musical numbers (aside from the welcome intrusion of an orchestral dance band). On the other hand, the comic capers are splendidly re-inforced by Hugh Herbert and George F. Marion (of all people!), with a nice assist from both Jobyna Howland and Natalie Moorhead when they finally get into stride. A minor problem is the complete absence of background music which often gives the effect that the comedians are playing in an echo chamber. Production values are top-drawer. Rée's vast hotel set is a wonder to behold. AVAILABLE on DVD through Alpha. Quality rating: Nine out of ten.

ksf-2 ONE of the earlier of the 26 films Wheeler and Woolsey made together in the 1930s. and FIVE of those were directed by director Ed Cline. Cline was certainly a comedy director... he had worked with Keystone in the silents, and W.C. Fields several times. Picture, sound and editing are all pretty rough, but we're lucky to still have this one around in any condition. Pretty corny but funny gags, some verbal, some sight-gags. It DOES move a little slowly, but if you stick with it, it works out. They DO keep pausing for audience laughter, which slows it way down when we see it on a tv today. The guys, Boswell and Ganzy, meet up with Mary, who has decided to go run her family's old, run-down decrepit hotel. When she doesn't know is that people are already scheming against her, so there's the conflict to be overcome. "Mary" is Dorothy Lee, who worked with Wheeler and Woolsey in about half the films they made. Did women really speak in those high-pitched, baby voices back then? and did the men fall for it? It's kind of fun, albeit a tad slow and dated by today's standards. Like watching an old vaudeville bit. Currently showing on Moonlight Movies channel. If you're a fan of Wheeler and Woolsey, you'll dig it.

bkoganbing 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.

Ron Oliver 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.