Wheeler and Woolsey

Upcoming Wheeler & Woolsey Movies

ww — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:46:05 +0000

It’s been a while, but TCM has finally added some Wheeler & Woolsey films to their upcoming schedule. First up is Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934 – RKO) starring our favorite duo, along with frequent co-star Dorothy Lee, Thelma Todd, Ruth Etting – and an extremely young Betty Grable in an extremely small part! Showing Wednesday, July 29th at 8PM Eastern on Turner Classic Movies.

On October 14th, 2009 we have a Wheeler and Woolsey extravaganza!

8:00 PM – The Cuckoos (1930)
10:00 PM – Hook, Line & Sinker (1930)
11:30 PM – Caught Plastered (1931)
12:45 PM – Peach-O-Reno (1931)

We’ll be back with more about each of these movies soon. In the meantime – Enjoy Hips, Hips, Hooray!

January 2009 Update – The Cowboy Quarterback 1/30/2009

ww — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:30:32 +0000

Hi folks! Just a quick note to let you know that in honor of Superbowl Weekend, Turner Classic Movies will be running football movies *all day* on Friday, January 30th – including a repeat performance of The Cowboy Quarterback at 3:45PM Eastern time. This 1939 Warner Brothers picture features Bert Wheeler, in his first solo performance after the death of Robert Woolsey.

Last time it ran, I tried to record it and my machine hosed up somehow, so I for one am very glad to have this second chance – I’ve never seen it!

I’m not sure why they’re not running one of my personal favorite WW films – Hold ‘Em Jail – as it has one of the funniest football game scenes you’ll ever see, but perhaps that’ll come up again later in 2009.

Unfortunately, there are no more WW films on the schedule for the next few months, but we’ll keep an eye out, and in the meantime, we have a boatload of pictures and memorabilia to upload. So keep checking in – or better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed, and have new posts delivered to you!

Thanks, gang!

Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934 – RKO)

ww — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:06:36 +0000

Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934 - RKO)

One of the funniest and best of Wheeler & Woolsey’s musical comedy movies, full of scantily clad dancing girls, double-entendre jokes, and the sort of high paced action and physical humor that made the team wildly popular, especially among younger men and teenage boys.

Wheeler & Woolsey play a pair of poverty-stricken street vendors one step ahead of the law. Through quick-wittedness and a lot of luck, they manage to talk their way into running a women’s lingerie firm. Even critics and nonfans agree this is one of Wheeler & Woolsey’s best movies.

Next showing:
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
8:00 PM Eastern Turner Classic Movies
Runtime: 67 Minutes

Dixiana (1930 – RKO)

ww — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:35:30 +0000

Wheeler and Woolsey’s third movie together was intended to equal the success of 1929’s Rio Rita. It starred longtime leading lady Bebe Daniels, who came to prominence in 1915 as Harold Lloyd’s love interest in his string of hit comedies. Dixiana was a lavish and expensive musical with a color sequence near the end of the film, which included dance routines by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, as well as Wheeler & Woolsey. The film fared poorly at the box office, possibly because the effects of the Great Depression were in full force by September 1930, when the film was released. Wheeler and Woolsey had already established themselves as stars earlier that year with The Cuckoos and would save RKO with their extremely successful films following Dixiana. Though a bit long and slow at times, Dixiana has a lot of great laughs and music whenever Wheeler and Woolsey are on the screen.

Please enjoy this film clip from the 1930 Feature film, Dixiana.

Girl Crazy (1932 – RKO)

ww — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:29:41 +0000

Girl Crazy

Wheeler & Woolsey’s most often remade film (three or four times) was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name. RKO paid composers George and Ira Gershwin to even write a new song exclusively for the film. Rumor has long been the the final product was compromised by then-studio head David Selznick’s constant tampering with the film, but it’s well worth a viewing as is.

The Cowboy Quarterback (1939 – Warner Bros)

ww — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:01:18 +0000

Bert Wheeler’s first movie since the death of Robert Woolsey and his last film as a leading man. It is best remembered for his comic vocal performance of “Mother MacCree” with Eddie Foy Jr., another old vaudevillian and a personal friend of Wheeler. Overall, the film isn’t the best example of Wheeler’s
work, but it is rarely shown and worthy of at least one viewing by diehard fans. Clips from this movie have surfaced in British music videos in recent years. Wheeler & Woolsey have always been “bigger” in England and Irish network television still shows their films in prime time, 70 years after their original
release.

Hold ‘Em Jail (1932 – RKO)

ww — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:11:35 +0000

This was Wheeler and Woolsey’s tenth film together and a favorite among fans and critics alike. It also introduced 15 year old Betty Grable to her first major film role as Wheeler’s love interest. The film is endlessly funny and was the source for gags and situations in roughly six Three Stooges shorts made several years later. Edna Mae Oliver and Edgar Kennedy are in top form as a prison warden and his priggish sister. This film bears repeated viewings, so record it if possible, but don’t miss it!

Rio Rita (1929 – RKO)

ww — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:43:19 +0000

Rio Rita 1929

Rio Rita was adapted from Ziegfeld’s hit musical of 1928. The stage version catapulted Wheeler and Woolsey to stardom after years of moderate success as solo performers. This 1929 film made the team movie stars, eclipsing the top billed Bebe Daniels and John Boles, both long established film stars. The herald (handbill) pictured was used throughout Australia and reversed the star billing to Wheeler and Woolsey over Boles and Daniels, who received star billing in the U.S. release. This big budget film was the first true movie musical and was a smash hit which was re-released to theaters twice after its initial run. It included a lengthy Technicolor musical sequence near the end of the film and began the screen partnership of Wheeler & Woolsey as a comic duo, a partnership that lasted 21 feature films and nine years. Without “Rita”, the team of Wheeler & Woolsey would have never existed and RKO would have gone bankrupt before making “King Kong”, “Citizen Kane”, the Fred Astaire – Ginger Rogers movies, or anything else RKO released after 1930. Wheeler & Woolsey were RKO’s biggest moneymakers from 1929 to 1935 and kept the studio solvent through the worst days of the Great Depression.

Trailer for Rio Rita (1929):

Wheeler and Woolsey Movies on TV

ww — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:59:54 +0000

: Dixiana poster

There are no fewer than four Wheeler and Woolsey movies coming up in next six weeks, and one film starring Bert Wheeler.

On September 3, 2008, Turner Classic Movies will be celebrating the start of football season by showing Hold ‘Em Jail, the 1932 prison football romp co-starring Edna Mae Oliver (one of our all time favorites!) and a very young Betty Grable. You’ll have to get up early; showtime is 7:15AM Eastern time.

Still on September 3rd, check out The Cowboy Quarterback; starring Bert Wheeler and William Demarest. This movie will be shown at 7:00PM Eastern.

Then, on October 1st, 2008 TCM will show a triple feature of WW films: Rio Rita at 7:30AM, Dixiana at 10:30AM and Girl Crazy at 12:15PM. We’ll be posting more information about these films very soon!

Here’s a link to a trailer for The Cowboy Quarterback

Welcome to WheelerAndWoolsey.com!

ww — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:43:24 +0000

Hello! Welcome to the new and improved WheelerAndWoolsey.com!

We’ve just upgraded the site to Wordpress, in order to make it easier to edit, and also so that you can also participate! Please be patient while we work out a few of the kinks (we’re still somewhat new to the format). We hope to post more reviews, biographical information, and video clips in the very near future, and we welcome your comments on the site, Wheeler and Woolsey, or anything else you’d like to discuss. Feel free to comment; don’t be surprised if your comment doesn’t show up right away, we’re still testing various anti blog spam technologies.

We hope you enjoy your stay here, and please consider subscribing to our RSS feed, so you can be kept apprised of site and schedule updates.

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