"The Cuckoos"** 1\2 (out of ****)
There are certain comedy teams or comedians which have reach a certain patheon of American comedy. Of course on that list goes Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, W.C. Fields, Abbott and Costello and the Marx Brothers among others. But what about the comedians time forgot? Who among you have heard of "Fatty" Arbuckle? Joe E. Brown? The Ritz Brothers? Charley Chase? Olsen & Johnson? Or the stars of "The Cuckoos" (1930) the comedy team of Wheeler & Woosley? That is how we separate the film buffs from the casual viewers.
I've written about the comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey on here before. I reviewed two of their films; "Peach-O-Reno" (1931) and "Hook, Line and Sinker" (1930). I've strangely never been much of a fan of the team. Strange because I'm someone who has great affection for the classic comics and comedies from this time period. They appeared in 21 feature films and 1 comedy short, the majority of them being for RKO pictures (their comedy "So This Is Africa" (1933) was made for Columbia Pictures), where they were credited for saving the studio from bankruptcy. Of those 21 films I have now seen 19. "The Cuckoos" is one of their mid-range films. Not a disaster but not a triumph.
The team got their start on the stage appearing together in Florenz Ziegfeld's production of "Rio Rita", which was made into a film in 1929. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were the only original members of the play to appear in the film. "Rio Rita" became a pretty successful film which caused RKO to sign the team to a contract. I've never been much of a fan of that film however.
Hollywood has never been a place which was known for its originality. Once Hollywood finds a successful formula, it likes to duplicate it over and over again hoping lightening will strike 4 or 5 times. How many sequels and franchises have Hollywood given us over the years? Make one successful comic book adaptation and Hollywood has now given us close to 78,000 additional ones. But this is not an entirely new concept. It was even around in the good ol' days. Because "Rio Rita" was such a hit the next film to star Wheeler & Woosley would be a duplicate, and that is what "The Cuckoos" is.
Both films give us a south of the border locations, lavish production designs, ethnic stereotypes, plenty of song and dance and a cheesy love story with Wheeler & Woolsey in comedic supporting roles. In some ways "The Cuckoos" works ever so slightly better because Woolsey & Wheeler have better material.
Comedy fans may believe that the Marx Brothers' comedy "A Night at the Opera" (1935) was the first comedy to develop the movie formula of making a picture which had song and dance, a love story and comedy, often putting the comedy team in supporting roles, believing an audience would simply grow tired of a non-stop comedy. You need characters the audience can relate to. But as you see the formula has been around a while to the dismay of fans of various comedy teams. Look at what happened to Laurel & Hardy in the 1940s. Or even in their last years with Hal Roach ("Swiss Miss", 1938).
This formula never quite works. The love story is usually predictable and boring. The songs are rarely good and the best moments belong to the comedy team, which is why the audience decided to watch the film in the first place. So we have to sit through the songs and stale love story and wait for the good stuff. That, ladies and gentleman, is what was wrong with "The Cuckoos", "Rio Rita" and "Dixiana" (1930). These three films also happen to be the comedy team's longest pictures, averaging over 90 minutes.
For me the best films with Wheeler & Woolsey are the ones which put the plot second and give the team room to do their comedy. When you boggle them down with plot you are restricting them to follow a movie formula and establish guidelines. The best Wheeler & Woolsey comedies are "Diplomaniacs" (1933), which I promise to put in my "Masterpiece Film Series" one day, "Peach-O-Reno", "Hips, Hips, Hooray" (1934), "Half Shot at Sunrise" (1930), "Hook, Line and Sinker" and "Hold 'Em Jail" (1932). These films make no sense. The main emphasis is the comedy. They are fast moving and filled with plenty of one-liners and zingers. If one joke doesn't work, 5 more will be flying at you. One is bound to hit the target. You also have to admire their spirit and desire to please.
What I also dislike about the team is each man seems too similar to the other. In most comedy teams there is a straight man (the person who sets up the joke) and the comic (the one who delivers the punchline). Both Wheeler & Woolsey want to be the funny one. Each gets the chance to deliver one liners. I feel this is a bad idea. I also don't think it worked with the Ritz Brothers. There is no contradiction. I personally find both Laurel and Hardy funny. But Hardy was the straight man of the team. He'd set up the joke and could be funny at the same time. Wheeler and Woolsey both seem to be fighting for our attention. I think their comedy would have been better suited to two reelers.
In "The Cuckoos" Wheeler plays Sparrow and Woolsey Prof. Cunningham. Professor of what you ask? It doesn't matter. That is part of the joke, like a character W.C. Fields would play or Groucho. It is a self-imposed title of authority. Sparrow has fallen in love with a gypsy girl, Anita (Dorothy Lee, who appeared in many of the team's comedies). But the leader of the gypsies, Julius (Mitchell Lewis) has plans to marry her and doesn't want Sparrow to interfere with his plans. Meanwhile, Ruth (June Clyde) and her aunt Fannie (Jobyna Howland) have travelled to Mexico in hopes of getting her mind off a man Fannie finds unsuitable for Ruth, Billy Shannon (Hugh Trevor). Instead Fannie would like Ruth to associate with the Baron (Ivan Lebedeff). But, Billy, a pilot, has followed Ruth to Mexico. Now the Baron must get Billy out of the picture and employs the help of the gypsies.
When I hear a story involving gypsies I usually prepare for the worst. Nine out of ten times in Hollywood, when the gypsies are in a story they are presented as Hungarian, watch "Golden Earrings" (1947) as an example. It was nice this time to see the gypsies presented as something other than Hungarian, they are Spanish. Though it is sad that ethnic stereotypes were still employed turning the gypsies into thieves and kidnappers. Wheeler and Woolsey play dishonest fortune tellers but there is no stigma to it.
At first "The Cuckoos" seems to be a pretty enjoyable comedy, which wants to show off the talents of Wheeler & Woolsey. They have a funny musical routine done to the song "Oh! How We Love Our Alma Mater". Where can you find people capable of telling jokes, singing and dancing today? This kind of talent doesn't exist anymore. And that provides some pleasure watching the team. These opening moments also work because they focus more on the team instead of the romantic plot. Jobyna Howland, who is doing her Edna May Oliver best, has some good moments with the team and a good routine with Wheeler involving a duet. The best gag in the film might be one which I bet provided the inspiration for the classic Marx Brothers routine in "A Night at the Opera" where Groucho's suite is invaded by a large crowd. Here the boys are trying to go to sleep when someone keeps interrupting them with one strange request after another.
But as I said, the film is way too long. One useless moment deals with the musical number "Dancing the Devil Away". Since Anita has fallen in love with an American her punishment is to dance whenever she sees Sparrow. What on God's green Earth is the point of this? I think the movie would have gotten along fine without this sequence. The film could have also been edited down to 20 minutes shorter getting rid of a few more songs and giving us more comedy routines.
The film was directed by Paul Sloane, who also directed "Half Shot at Sunrise", as I said a much better film, and was based on a play "The Ramblers" with songs written by Bert Kalmer and Harry Ruby, who also did the songs for "Hips, Hips, Hooray" and some Marx Brothers comedies. Unfortunately the songs are not as memorable as some of their best work; "Three Little Words", "Nevertheless" or even "Everyone Says I Love You".
This is not the best introduction into the team's work. Watch this after you've seen the other films I have mentioned and if you are a fan of the comedy team. In some ways you'll admire the film as a piece of escapism, but, as a coherent comedy it fails. Too bad because it starts off so well.
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