Runtime: 67 minutes
Directed by: Mark Sandrich
Starring: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Thelma Todd, Dorothy Lee, George Meeker
From: RKO
In this special late nite Letterboxd posting, I reveal that this is my first Wheeler & Woosley film. Even on Letterboxd, I imagine that not everyone who views Pre-Code pictures will be familiar with the vaudeville turned movie actor duo Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsley. I have known of them for years since it took until last night to finally pull the trigger. This was found-via the Bowels of the Internet-due to stumbling upon a recent review which proclaimed how racy the movie was.
This is piffle where the duo are cheap humbugs that sell… flavored lipstick on street corners without a license. They fanoodle around and meet Dorothy Lee, a common sight in their movies. She’s connected to a beauty-supply company and that’s about all the viewer needs to know. Hips is never uproariously or a knee-slapper, yet there were funny scenarios, amusing puns, running gags, sight gags new to me, and absurd scenarios. Plus, there’s even a few songs, including one from Ruth Etting, as herself. She’s a singer turned actress popular at the time who is long-forgotten by now.
The film features moments racy even for a Pre-Code. There’s a gag involving a woman’s cleavage, other dames are in what appeared to be fishtanks, and yet more appear in rather revealing outfits, which included a bit of side-boob. There is a scene rather creepy by 2026 standards where the duo… kiss those women in the revealing outfits so they can guess what flavored lipstick they have on. What a sight it was to see someone who looked like a Brundlefly combination of Orville Redenbacher & a tortoise kiss multiple young women! But boy, is it unfortunate that one of the two detectives following the duo is named… Epstein.
Hips did make me laugh so I was happy to see this; I didn’t even mind that this was basically a loosely-strung together series of gags. It was nice seeing Thelma Todd, a charming young blonde who sadly passed away at the age of 29 via circumstances that could have been her taking her life, or could have been murder. On a lighter note, it was nice to see Phyllis Berry in a smaller role-she was in the 1939 Three Stooges short Three Little Sew and Sews. They plus Lee all did swell jobs.
As the film also featured a few songs and a rather wild song & dance number, I was entertained by this piffle, which was only 67 minutes long. It may be many months in the future, but eventually more Wheeler & Woolsey will be witnessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment