Wheeler & Woolsey

Anyone here like the films of Wheeler & Woolsey?

They were a great comedy team of the 1930's at one time as, if not more, popular as the Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy but they were hated by the censors and when Woolsey died, Wheeler was mishandled by the studios but made a comeback as a standup, they came from Vaudeville, and was loved by many of Hollywood elite such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope.

Time has not been kind in regards to the preservation of their memory but some of their films do air on TCM from time to time and were available on laserdisc but aside from their three public domain films (Dixiana, Hook Line & Sinker and Half-Shot at Sunrise) their films have not been released on DVD. While I find these amusing, Half-Shot the best of the three, their best films are among those not on DVD. 20 of their 21 films together are controlled by Warner that is now considering releasing them but their RKO material is in poor condition, all the more reason for Warner to get started restoring and preserving them along with the rest of the somewhat neglected RKO library they own. Warner is great with these things but owns so much and it seems Warner then MGM films are more of priority aside from Astaire & Rogers and King Kong.

There is a petition to Warner to release these films, any help would be appreciated as these are prime examples of anarchistic comedy and should gain the attention of fans of such things and slapstick, farce, satire, parody, musical, vaudeville, dance, innuendo:

http://www.petitiononline.com/cuckoos/petition.html


My favorite of this cycle of films is Diplomaniacs wherein the duo are barbers on an Indian Reservation sent to represent the Indians at the Geneva Peace Conference to obtain world peace but they are hindered by an arms manufacture and his pre-packaged vamps. It loses something in my description but it is full of naughty innuendo, utter nonsense, anti narrative chaos and fun. It could be likened to the Marx Brothers Duck Soup and W.C. Fields Million Dollar Legs in its brilliance.

Other greats of theirs include ****eyed Cavaliers, Hips Hips Hooray, Cracked Nuts, Girl Crazy, and Peach-O-Reno.

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Stupid typo, it is Wheeler & Woolsey for the topic. I can't seem to change the actual topic.

I fixed the title for you. Gosh yes I remember them from when I was a kid watching old movies all the time. Good stuff.