This article was originally published in abridged
form in the March/April, 1978 issue of "American Classic Screen."
This is the first publication of the original version with some revisions
and added notes.
THE SCREWBALL SATIRISTS:
WHEELER AND WOOLSEY
by
William M. Drew
They frolicked across the screen--two funny little men, one a sad-faced little fellow with a boyish, quavering voice, the other a skinny character with horn-rimmed glasses, a huge cigar and straight black hair parted in the middle. For eight years, during the depths of the great depression, this pair of outrageously zany satirists of pretension made millions laugh throughout the world, attaining a popularity comparable to their contemporaries, Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers. Then, in 1938, one of the pair died. In the succeeding years, their films, although fondly remembered by veteran filmgoers, were seldom revived and this team, once a synonym for wacky humor, was virtually unknown to a later generation. Although they received their share of favorable reviews in their day, many critics did not appreciate their antics, with the consequence that they were ignored and forgotten by most film historians. The fact that strong satire was a basis for much of their humor was overlooked. It was forgotten that the popularity of their films had helped to establish RKO-Radio as a major studio and had provided excellent opportunities for newcomers to the cinema like Joseph L. Mankiewicz, George Stevens and Betty Grable. Forgotten was the fact that the team and their films retained their hilarious vitality and appeal long after more pretentious and once-acclaimed productions of the same period had faded. Yet the three greatest comedy teams in the history of the American cinema are Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers--and Wheeler and Woolsey.
Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were among the few comedy teams that did not combine a straight man with a comic and their films were accordingly permeated with a sparkling, often satirical madness that was seldom found in the works of such later teams as Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis who adhered doggedly to the stereotyped "straight man-comedian" formula. Like Laurel and Hardy, Wheeler and Woolsey evolved individual comic characters who provided an excellent contrast and were likable as well as amusing. Bert Wheeler was a parody of the traditional romantic lover with his wavy brown hair and his round, pretty but wide-mouthed face. While his characterization often displayed, in its naivete and foolishness, the classic screen innocent, he still possessed an underlying roguishness which harmonized with his partner. Bob Woolsey, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the team, was a lecherous, scheming, boastful, but good-natured con-man. The cigar, horn-rimmed glasses, penchant for loud clothes, skinny physique, mincing and swaggering walk and hair parted in the middle enhanced his characterization. Although it was not always stressed, Wheeler and Woolsey often displayed a genuine affection for each other in their films. An example of this occurs in THE NITWITS (1935) in which Bob, believing Bert to be a murderer, confesses to a crime he did not commit in an attempt to save his friend from the law. Since, for all their zaniness, their characterizations were believable and had more warmth than many other teams, it was possible for Wheeler and Woolsey to have love interests in their films. Wheeler's feminine counterpart, often played by Dorothy Lee, combined the innocence of the ingenue with the roguishness of the flapper, creating a perfect match for Bert's personality. Woolsey's feminine partners, on the other hand, were worldly-wise and boldly flirtatious, complementing his characterization. There was a consistency in the characterizations of the team. In most situations, Wheeler and Woolsey insisted on remaining Wheeler and Woolsey--the romantic Bert and the more realistic Bob. Even when confronted with a dangerous situation, they usually managed to preserve their oddly dignified, wisecracking insouciance. In CRACKED NUTS (1931), when Bob is scheduled to be executed, instead of resorting to a traditional display of comic fright, he calmly asks to be executed in a "clever, modern way." Wheeler and Woolsey's characters exhibited a continual "joie de vivre" and in HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE (1930), the boys, while AWOL in Paris during World War I, have a hilarious time flirting with girls, exchanging wisecracks and using disguises to elude the military police. This buoyancy was also manifested in the many song-and-dance routines they performed in their films with a polish comparable to the musical performances of Eddie Cantor.
A leading characteristic of the team was a steady stream of nonsensical dialogue with puns and wisecracks. Like the Marx Brothers, Wheeler and Woolsey used this dialogue to undermine the reality of any situation by reducing it to absurdity. When Bob is confessing to a murder to save Bert in THE NITWITS, he declares: "I'll teach him to pull a knife on me. I cut his ear from throat to throat." "You mean you shot him in self-defense," the detective says. "No," Woolsey replies, "I shot him through the heart." "He was shot through the head," states the detective. "Well, his heart was in his mouth," is Bob's comeback. In COCKEYED CAVALIERS (1934), Bert is a kleptomaniac. When a woman is heard to remark, "I just heard that the countess has had her face lifted," Bert says to Bob, "Don't look at me. I didn't take it." In the same film, Thelma Todd describes her low-cut dress as "the coming thing," to which Bob remarks, "It must be coming because there's a lot of it that hasn't arrived yet." In HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE, Bob says to a woman, "I can't recall your name but I've forgotten your face." Later in the same film, when the two comedians are masquerading as waiters in a cafe, a customer asks them, "Have you a wild duck?" to which Bob replies, "No, but we could take a tame one out and aggravate it for you." In CRACKED NUTS, the boys have considerable difficulty in pronouncing the phrase, "twenty miles as the crow flies." This results in a whole routine centering around the mispronunciation of the phrase, during which Bob exclaims, "Don't you know the king's English?" to which Bert replies, "No, is he English?" The two comedians' many years of experience in vaudeville and on Broadway contributed to their excellent timing in such exchanges. They were also masters of the insult. When a woman angrily demands of Woolsey in PEACH O'RENO (1931), "How can you look me in the face?," he rejoins, "I'm just getting used to it, I suppose." And when Bob calls a man a "weasel" in KENTUCKY KERNELS (1934) and the man indignantly protests that he has never been so insulted in his life, Bert comments, "That's your fault. You don't get around enough."
(Bert and Dottie in "Rio Rita")
Not only were they skilled in verbal humor, the team also used many hilarious sight gags in their films. One of these is a slapping routine in RIO RITA (1929), performed as they are perched next to their fiancees (Dorothy Lee and Helen Kaiser) on a ship's railing overlooking the water. The routine begins as the duo affectionately pinch each other's face while their girl friends sing "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other." It proceeds, gaining in tempo, to the point that they are soundly slapping each other in the face with the momentum causing both of them, along with their fiancees, to fall of the railing into the water. In a scene in CRACKED NUTS, Bert, wanting to visit with his girl friend, Dorothy Lee, climbs into her apartment from the window. Unfortunately for him, he finds that her aunt (Edna May Oliver), who does not approve of Bert's romancing Dottie, is also in the room so, to avoid being caught by her, he hides in the shower. As Miss Oliver prepares to take a shower, she turns on the water, not knowing Bert is there, whereupon Bert, trying to avoid getting wet, grabs a nearby umbrella and stands under it as the water pours down.
THE NITWITS uses elaborate sight gags when Bob attempts to induce Bert to escape from the surveillance of the police. Bob mistakenly thinks that Bert is a murderer and the police are out to "get" him. Bert and Bob are on the ground floor of the building where the murder took place when a policeman arrives to prevent any possible suspects from leaving the building. Bob tries to distract the policeman so that Bert can escape by grabbing the policeman's hat and tossing it into the street. Instead of using this stratagem to flee, Wheeler goes into the street, comes back with the hat and obligingly returns it to its owner. Throughout this sequence, Woolsey makes liberal use of pantomime in an attempt to outwit the policeman and to try to get his message across to Wheeler who remains oblivious to Bob's anxiety. Another technique utilizing visual comedy was the wild chase in the classic slapstick tradition which often climaxes their films. One of the funniest scenes in cinema history occurs in KENTUCKY KERNELS when Bert and Bob ride in a buggy pulled by a drunken horse. The horse, who gets "high" on Kentucky hillbilly moonshine, pulls Wheeler and Woolsey along at a breakneck speed.
With their blending of verbal and visual comedy, Wheeler and Woolsey's films are a combination of two rich traditions of American humor, silent screen comedy and native literary humor. Their directors and writers, who were representative of these traditions, were among the best directorial and writing talents of the time. The merging of these talents with Wheeler and Woolsey's own skills as veterans of the vaudeville comedy that had produced most of the silent film comedians and had influenced a generation of American humorous writers, resulted in an outstanding series of screen comedies. Their directors, most of whom were graduates of silent screen comedy, included Edward Cline, William A. Seiter, Norman Taurog, Mark Sandrich and George Stevens. (Stevens's first major successes as a director were his films with Wheeler and Woolsey.) Several of the team's writers were also distinguished veterans of silent comedy including Tim Whelan who had been a leading gag-man for Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon, and Ralph Spence, the celebrated writer of humorous titles for many silent comedies. Wheeler and Woolsey, skilled writers themselves, worked with such expert screenwriters as Herman J. and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, S. J. Perelman, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Norman Krasna and Al Boasberg--most of whom also worked with the Marx Brothers during the same period. The work of these comedy writers was part of the same basic tradition of humorous literature that produced important and individual contemporaneous authors like Ring Lardner, Nathanael West, Robert Benchley and James Thurber.
In an age when many members of the critical establishment regarded most American films, including the majority of comedy films, as unworthy of serious attention, it is not surprising that Wheeler and Woolsey's works received a number of unfavorable reviews. Not all of the critics, however, were unappreciative of their comedies. The New York Times film critic, Mordaunt Hall, said in his review of THE CUCKOOS (1930) that "Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Woolsey are almost as mad as all the Marx Brothers together" and wrote of their GIRL CRAZY (1932) that "it offers a brand of humor that few could resist." Quinn Martin of The New York World said in his review of HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE that the team "attains a pitch of hilarity comparable to that of the Marx Brothers." He wrote that their HOOK, LINE AND SINKER (1930) was "exceptional" and perhaps "the funniest of their series." The prestigious film magazine, Photoplay, also consistently praised their works. Perhaps the best early summary of the team's talents appeared in The Theatre Magazine's review of HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE:
Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are rapidly becoming one of the
screen's dependable comedy pairs--each is a perfect foil for the
other, physically and in manner. Given adequate comedy and
burlesque lines to deliver, be they ever so insane or preposterous,
they can be counted on to make the most of their opportunities for
they have a fine sense of pace and keen perceptions of the ridiculous.
From their screen debut in 1929 in the hit
musical, RIO RITA, to THE NITWITS directed by George Stevens in 1935, Wheeler
and Woolsey reigned supreme as RKO's most popular box-office stars, appearing
in a succession of sparkling, zany comedies. But beginning in 1935,
the team was affected by changes which were taking place within the film
industry. In 1934, after years of harassment by pressure groups like
the Legion of Decency, the film industry established the Motion Picture
Production Code to regulate its product, a situation which inevitably affected
the performing styles of comedians like Wheeler and Woolsey and the Marx
Brothers who were well-known for their risqué gags and double entendres.
Wheeler and Woolsey's peak period of popularity, the early 30s, was a cynical
era hardened by the worst years of the Depression while continuing to be
influenced by the legacy of the free-and-easy 1920s. When the New
Deal began to take effect in the mid-30s, resulting in a more hopeful and
confident outlook in the nation's mood, Hollywood began to make films that
stressed traditional virtues, designed for the American family. At
the same time, the studios made expensive productions that were intended
to gain intellectual prestige for the industry. More and more, Hollywood's
attitude became "middlebrow," aspiring but failing, because of the nature
of the cinema as a mass medium, to fully attain a so-called "highbrow"
position. Simultaneously, the industry tended to spurn or ignore
the allegedly "lowbrow" slapstick and broadly farcical humor, an attitude
which had grievous consequences for the later films of the three great
comedy teams of the 1930s. Various other complicating factors caused
Wheeler and Woolsey to become the first of these teams to be adversely
affected by the changing times. For one thing, they were replaced
in 1935 by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as RKO's most consistently popular
stars. Wheeler and Woolsey's films, becoming much less important
to RKO, were now turned out as second features, no longer receiving the
care that they had once been given. Their performances as a team
may also have been affected by the fact that Bob Woolsey suffered from
a series of illnesses during the making of their last films. These
illnesses culminated in his death in 1938 from kidney disease at the age
of 50. Like the later efforts of Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers,
Wheeler and Woolsey's last five films, made from 1935 to 1937, are often
quite weak. While they contain a number of amusing scenes, most of
these later works are slow-paced and uninspired compared to their previous
films. Like Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers in their later
films, Wheeler and Woolsey's characterizations are much less vivid and
sympathetic in the majority of their last efforts. Even if Bert and
Bob had lasted longer, it is doubtful that they could have regained their
former position in the cinema, since the climate of the industry had become
less favorable to broadly satirical comedy. But at least they would
have remained in the public eye like their contemporaries, making it more
possible for there to be a later reappraisal of their film work.
.....Continued.....