Hook, Line and Sinker (1930)

Very Cool!!!

Truly Dreadful Film

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

A Disappointing Continuation

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.

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.

Wheeler and Woolsey were an American comedy duo team like Abbot & Costello or Laurel & Hardy during the 1930s. This film is slapstick comedy about these con-men who travel with a girl who has inherited a hotel. Unfortunately for her, the hotel is a dump. But luckily, Wheeler and Woolsey are there for support. They turn the hotel into a social hot spot. There is just a few problems. The girl is in love with sweet guy but her mother wants her to marry for money to a sour guy. The dumpy hotel is a place for the shady characters. Anyway, there is a lot of slapstick humor, silly romances, and comedy to allow this film to grow on you after awhile. I never heard of Wheeler and Woolsey and it's too bad. Maybe they air these old black and white films to late at night for me. Anyway, it's probably when the talkies became huge.

'Hook, Line and Sinker' is the very generic title of this very generic comedy, starring Wheeler & Woolsey, who are very nearly the most generic comedy team of all time. (That dubious honour goes to the Ritz Brothers.) I consistently enjoy watching Wheeler & Woolsey, yet I frankly find them neither very good nor very original. Whenever Robert Woolsey pitches woo to some rich dowager (as he does here, to Jobyna Howland), it's impossible to avoid thinking of Groucho Marx flirting with Margaret Dumont ... and Woolsey suffers by comparison to the great Groucho. Wheeler & Woolsey are very similar to the much later British comedy team Morecambe & Wise ... but I doubt that Eric and Ernie deliberately imitated Bob and Bert. Wheeler & Woolsey also remind me of their contemporaries Clark & McCullough, with Robert Woolsey sometimes seeming to do an outright imitation of Bobby Clark.In 'Hook, Line and Sinker', Wheeler & Woolsey make their entrance riding a two-seat tandem bike; this immediately reminded me of the British comedians the Goodies, who rode a three-seat tridem (which is funnier). More importantly, the Goodies got a large number of gags from their trademark tridem, whereas Wheeler & Woolsey abandon the tandem after its initial appearance. This seems to be the biggest problem with Wheeler & Woolsey: their inability to milk and develop a gag. In one of their films, W&W did a routine very similar to Abbott & Costello's 'Who's on First' (BEFORE Bud and Lou did it), yet they failed to develop this premise as richly as Bud and Lou would use it later. In fairness to Wheeler & Woolsey, part of their problem was their gag writers: most of the scripters who wrote material for W&W were concurrently also writing gags for the Marx Brothers, and the Marxes got first pick of all the best material ... lumbering W&W with literally the leavings. At one point in 'Hook, Line and Sinker', the soundtrack plays Kalmar and Ruby's hit song 'Three Little Words', reminding me that Kalmar and Ruby (who worked closely with the Marx Brothers) wrote the best gags for 'Hips, Hips, Hooray!', which is almost certainly Wheeler and Woolsey's funniest film: it features two delightful songs as well as some ingenious sight gags.'Hook, Line and Stinker' ... sorry, 'Sinker' ... seems to borrow half its plot from the Marx Brothers' previous film 'The Cocoanuts' and its other half from the Marx Brothers' 'Monkey Business', which actually hadn't been written yet when this movie was made. Bert and Bob are briefly insurance salesmen who chuck it to help Dorothy Lee run her hotel. As luck would have it, the hotel is also the secret hideout of some bootleggers, who check into the hotel with some luggage from the Acme Machine Gun Company (a name you can trust).Dorothy Lee was Bert Wheeler's perennial love interest in these movies. Here, she's more annoying than usual, speaking her dialogue in a high-pitched squeal that (unfortunately) matches the annoying voice that Wheeler normally uses for his own gormless character. Their dialogue scenes in this movie sound like chalk on a slate. Bert and Dorothy do have one very amusing scene in which they flirt by pressing keys on a cash register; unfortunately, the photography is too dim for us to see that Dorothy is pressing the "NO SALE" key. (Or is this just down to a badly-processed nitrate print?) Throughout this film, the photography features undercranking at oddly-chosen moments.Amazingly, the funniest performance in this film (as a precognitive bellhop) is given by George Marion Snr, whom I usually find unbearable. I was also impressed by Hugh Herbert, who made this film before he developed the annoying "woo-woo" finger-patting routine that would ruin his performances in so many later films. Natalie Moorhead is amusing as an ersatz duchess whose Continental accent keeps coming and going, while William B Davidson plays a counterfeit duke who doesn't even bother attempting a phony accent.A few decades after this film was made, Jerry Lewis recycled the title 'Hook, Line & Sinker' (he preferred an ampersand) for one of HIS worst comedies, which at least had the tiny merit of (very) vaguely having something to do with fishing. In this Wheeler & Woolsey film, the title's utterly irrelevant. (Yes, I know that it's an American figure of speech roughly equivalent to 'the full monty'.)'Hook, Line and Sinker' is one of the weakest Wheeler & Woolsey films, and not a good introduction to Bert & Bob for audiences who have never seen this team before. Your introduction to W&W should be 'Hips, Hips Hooray!' or 'So This Is Africa', or even 'Rio Rita' or 'Dixiana'. I'll rate 'Hook' just 4 points out of 10.