Does a Bear Laugh in the Woods?

Print Article

posted September 2, 2008 6:55 AM

And giving thanks once again to whatever Gods created basic cable, we feel constrained to alert you that Turner Classic Movies will be showing the 1932 RKO production Hold 'Em Jail this Wednesday morning at 7:15 am (EST). Thanks, of course, may not be the most appropriate word given that it's a starring vehicle for Wheeler and Woolsey, a duo that if not the absolutely worst comedy team of all team is certainly on everybody's short list for the Top Five unfunniest. Here's a brief clip from the film to give you an idea.

Actually, given the presence of reliable slow-burn comic Edgar Kennedy, that excerpt may be a bit atypical of W&W's ouevre, in the sense that it's capable of inducing a wry smile while he's on camera. And we should also note that the film features the 15 year old Betty Grable and her legs in their first screen appearance. In any case, I find Wheeler and Woolsey perversely fascinating, in part because I am convinced that Robert Woolsey, the bespectacled half of the team, appeared in at least one of their films with his trademark round black glasses drawn on with greasepaint a la Groucho Marx's mustache. So far, though, a web search has proved unavailing in that regard; if any W&W scholars out there can confirm or deny this, I would be glad to hear from them (if not, perhaps, to shake their hands).

7 Comments

mndean said:

We all have our quirks. I don't mind Wheeler and Woolsey. They're no great comedy team (still better than the Ritz Brothers), but I like some of their films. I never can defend them from any aesthetic point of view, but their precodes are certainly worth a look (the big exception is Dixiana, which isn't even a W&W film and is a terrible movie). Anyhow we're talking RKO, which I swear from watching TCM, put out many of the dullest precodes in Hollywood. At least W&W are a sop thrown to us who love precode content. Post-code W&W are only worth watching if one wants to see the early career of George Stevens. One of those even has Wheeler romancing Betty Grable.

P.S. I don't remember ever seeing Robert Woolsey wearing greasepaint glasses. Ever. If you find evidence, I'd be interested.

September 2, 2008 8:11 AM

Steve Simels said:

Better than the Ritz Brothers? That's a stretch, I think. Watch their "Three Musketeers" (dir by Allan Dwan) -- a minor classic, with two truly hilarious musical numbers. And Harry Ritz was a huge influence on Mel Brooks....

September 2, 2008 8:57 AM

Gummo said:

Years ago, the Film Forum had a Before the Code festival and I saw Wheeler & Woolsey's Diplomaniacs. Don't remember much about it except that it was very surreal. But it didn't leave a bad impression.

No, the worst comedy team of all time has to be Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, who made Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044406/

Mitchell & Petrillo's slavish copying of Martin & Lewis is so pathetically blatant, Jerry Lewis wanted all copies of their movie seized and destroyed.

Petrillo's mimicking of Lewis's every gesture and rhythm is downright eerie, especially considering that he doesn't have a single funny line.

Two quotes from IMDB:

This is the only known existing filmed record showing Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo doing their act, which was a blatant imitation of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (Lewis, in fact, later sued Petrillo for copying his act so closely).


In his research and preparation for playing Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood (1994), Martin Landau watched this film three times stunned, saying that it was so bad "it made the Ed Wood films look like Gone with the Wind (1939)".

September 2, 2008 9:42 AM

mndean said:

I grant you that Harry Ritz was the most talented Ritz brother (far eclipsing the others), but maybe he shoulda been a single. As for the Dwan, that's one I haven't seen (probably I never looked for it because a Don Ameche 3 Musketeers film just didn't sound appealing, even with Dwan directing). Other filmed Ritz (including a short) struck me as more antic than funny. The other RItz I'd wanted to but haven't seen was Straight, Place, and Show. I'd heard good things about it, but then, I heard good stuff about Kentucky Moonshine, too, but didn't care for it.

Comedy is the one area where there seem to be really wide disagreements (hey, some of my friends really, really don't like W.C. Fields, which gobsmacked me when I learned of it).

September 2, 2008 12:08 PM

Plum P said:

Bonjour!

you're so clever, monsieur Simels!

September 2, 2008 6:49 PM

dSmith said:

Bobby Clark had glasses painted on his face. He made some shorts with his partner Paul McCullough but he was mostly a Broadway star after McCullough's tragic suicide.


September 2, 2008 6:50 PM

Aloys Kontarsky said:

dSmith said:

Bobby Clark had glasses painted on his face. He made some shorts with his partner Paul McCullough but he was mostly a Broadway star after McCullough's tragic suicide.

So that's who that was. That was bugging me too....


September 2, 2008 7:34 PM

Leave a comment