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The Wacky Misadventures Of The Two Great Vaudeville Movie Stars Of Pre-Code Hollywood Wheeler & Woolsey As They Play World War I Ooh La La Doughboys A.W.O.L. "Over There", As Written (Uncredited!) By The Great Fatty' Arbuckle! Presented In The Highest DVD Quality MPG Video Format Of 9.1 MBPS As An MP4 Video Download Or Archival Quality All Regions Format DVD! (Black/White, 1930, 1 Hour 18 Minutes.)
*July 27, 2024: Updated And Upgraded: Updated With Video And Audio Newly Redigitized In High Quality 9 Mbps DVD Video For Improved Image And Audio Quality, And Upgraded From A Standard Format DVD To An Archival Quality Dual Layer Format DVD!
Tommy Turner and Gilbert Simpson just can't behave themselves in "Gay Par-ee"! Changing identities as often as opportunity and l'amour present themselves, the boys just can't shake what women of intention intend to do with them! Dorothy Lee plays a teenage girl with a taste for grown-up men and with the assistance of the grand dame Olga who's on the make herself, they put the hooks into boys with a plan that lands the ne'er-do-well doughboys in the front of the front lines! Utterly insane song and dance routines that were simultaneously of and ahead of their times make this witty film a necessary addition to any American comedy classic film library.
Direction:
Paul Sloane
Writing:
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (Uncredited ), Anne Caldwell & Ralph Spence (Dialogue), James Ashmore Creelman (Story)
Production:
William LeBaron
Myles Connolly & Henry Hobart (Associate Producers)
Cast:
Bert Wheeler .... Tommy Turner
Robert Woolsey .... Gilbert Simpson
Dorothy Lee .... Annette Marshall
George MacFarlane .... Col. Marshall
Edna May Oliver .... Mrs. Marshall
Leni Stengel .... Olga
Hugh Trevor .... Lt. Jim Reed
Roberta Robinson .... Eileen
Jack Rutherford .... MP sergeant
Wheeler & Woolsey were an American vaudeville comedy double act who performed together in comedy films from the late 1920s. The team comprised Bert Wheeler (1895-1968) of New Jersey and Robert Woolsey (1888-1938) of California. The Broadway theatre performers were initially teamed as the comedy relief for the 1927 Broadway musical Rio Rita, and came to Hollywood to reprise these roles for the film version. The film's success convinced them to become a permanent team, and they continued to make very popular comedy feature films from 1930 until 1937, all for RKO Radio Pictures-except the 1933 Columbia Pictures release So This Is Africa (which was made during a contract dispute with RKO). Curly-haired Bert Wheeler played an ever-smiling innocent, who was easily led and not very bright, but who would also sometimes display a stubborn streak of conscience. Bespectacled Robert Woolsey played a genially leering, cigar-smoking, fast-talking idea man who often got the pair in trouble. The vivacious Dorothy Lee usually played Bert's romantic interest. Double-entendre gags were a hallmark of early W&W comedies, although they were severely curtailed after the reconstitution of the Production Code in 1934. Dressing in drag and other forms of gender inversion were also staples of their films. By 1931 Wheeler & Woolsey were so popular that RKO attempted to generate twice the Wheeler & Woolsey income by making two solo pictures-one with Wheeler (Too Many Crooks) and one with Woolsey (Everything's Rosie). This experiment failed, and they returned to performing as a team. Among the team's features are The Cuckoos (based on Clark and McCullough's Broadway show The Ramblers), Caught Plastered, Peach O'Reno, Diplomaniacs, and Hips Hips Hooray and Cockeyed Cavaliers (both 1934, both co-starring Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee, and both directed by Mark Sandrich just before he was promoted to the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals). Sandrich was replaced by George Stevens. After Stevens left the series, the team faltered. In some of these later films Bert and Bob do not even appear as a team, but as strangers who encounter each other by chance. Woolsey's health deteriorated in 1936, and after struggling to complete High Flyers in 1937, he was no longer able to work; he died of kidney disease on October 31, 1938, ending the partnership. In the early 1940s, after Woolsey had died, Wheeler struggled to restart his career and asked Dorothy Lee to tour with him in vaudeville. She agreed to help her old friend. In 1945, Wheeler headlined briefly with Jackie Gleason at Slapsy Maxie's, and would later appear on Gleason's Cavalcade of Stars TV program. Wheeler continued to work off and on through the 1960s. His later appearances were mostly on television; his last theatrical films were two slapstick shorts for Columbia Pictures, filmed in 1950 and produced by Jules White. In 1955 Wheeler co-starred with Keith Larsen in the CBS western series Brave Eagle; Wheeler played the halfbreed Smokey Joe, known for his tall tales and tribal wisdom. Wheeler also starred with John Raitt and Anne Jeffreys in the Broadway musical Three Wishes for Jamie in 1952, and continued to perform in summer stock theater and in nightclubs, either alone or with a partner (first writer-comedian Hank Ladd, later comedian-singer Tom Dillon). The duo, although largely forgotten now, were at the peak of their careers in the 1930s and were the biggest inspiration to the British team of Morecambe and Wise.