The Cuckoos

Made during the early talkie era, this was only Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey's second movie after Rio Rita. Along with them is usual leading lady Dorothy Lee and Jobyna Howland who is hilariously mismatched with Woolsey as she towers over him! Many fine musical numbers and comedy routines abound including one about a keg of beer which W & W try to take from U.S. customs to Mexico during this Prohibition period. There's also a funny sequence of Wheeler in drag. And there are three two-strip Technicolor musical numbers that must have been awe-inspiring when first presented to 1930 audiences. So on that note, I recommend The Cuckoos

After their success in supporting comic roles in RIO RITA, Wheeler and Woolsey were given the leads in this stage musical, which comes to the screen pretty much as if it were a filmed stage show (most of these early adaptations look like this - witness RIO RITA, WHOOPEE! etc.).

Not much plot and what there is follows the musical comedy formula. The romantic leads are dull, but we're not watching this for them. W & W are as usual marvelous together, with one gag word play after another. It's a most enjoyable 97 minutes.

One smash hit song from the Bolton/Kalmar/Ruby score (which by the way is universally tuneful and quality)is I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Ten songs were retained from the stage show for the film.

There are three two-strip Technicolor inserts (reds, greens, browns) : a. the first act finale to the song GOODBYE, occurring from the 53 minute mark to 57:30 (4:30 minutes); b. the second act DANCE THE DEVIL AWAY number, occurring from 1 hour 21 minutes, 20 seconds to 1 hour, 23, minutes, 40 seconds (2:20 minutes); c. the Finale, occurring from 1 hour 34 minutes, 20 seconds to 1 hour, 36 minutes, 55 seconds (2:35).

Technicolor totals: 9:25 minutes.

In their follow-up to their hit film debut, Rio Rita (1929), with Bebe Daniels and John Boles, W&W star in another stage musical--this time with less success. The plot is stupid and some of the scenes seem to have no connection to whatever storyline is being played out. But W&W are fun, there are a couple good songs ("I Love You So Much"), and the comedy bits are dated but funny. Following the formula of the day, there are young lovers, Hugh Trevor and June Clyde, and a comedy foil--here the wonderful Jobyna Howland. At 6 feet tall and in heels, Howland towers over W&W and works especially well with Robert Woolsey. Some of the jokes are surprisingly risqué, Howland's character is named Fannie Furst (wrong in the IMDb listing as Hurst). As usual, pretty Dorothy Lee is on hand as Wheeler's girl friend. Two technicolor sequences, one featuring Lee in an elaborate production number in hell. Lee and Howland joined W&W in other films; Tall Hugh Trevor (not bad considering the cluck role he has) died a few years after this film following surgery. If you like W&W, you'll like The Cuckoos.

Wheeler and Woolsey had made one previous movie together, RIO RITA. RIO RITA was a musical extravaganza and in this film the standout performances were by Bebe Daniels and Wheeler and Woolsey. In fact, the audience response was so positive to the boys that RKO immediately signed them to star in THE CUCKOOS--another musical with comedy interludes. While similar to RIO RITA, it's very different from their later films because there is so much singing--and many of their later films had none. Now some singing might not have been a bad thing. The songs Wheeler and Woolsey sang were pretty cute and they were amazingly good dancers--showing their vaudeville heritage as song and dance men. Even Bert Wheeler's sweet "I Love You So Much" number was quite pleasant--even if it was without Woolsey and was a love song. Unfortunately, there were 2983 songs in the film (I counted them--trust me on this) and after a while it just became a distraction from the comedy--a MAJOR distraction. HUGE song and dance numbers like "Tap the Devil Away" were big, colorful (with two-color Technicolor for several dance numbers, such as this one) were particularly annoying and pointless. You really can't blame the boys for all this--this is what RKO wanted and musicals were hugely popular in 1930.

As for the comedy, Wheeler and Woolsey were better than normal--far less annoying than in some of their later outings and it's just a shame they didn't have more chance to do their stuff. I particularly liked the bedroom scene where EVERYONE seemed to keep interrupting their sleep. It was a bit reminiscent of the later stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers' A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. Also, although it's a big icky, the scene where Wheeler dresses in drag and seduces the gypsy men is funny as well.

The boys star as phony psychics who get into trouble just south of the border (in Mexico). They hang out in the world's weirdest casino, as it has huge Busby Berkeley-style song and dance numbers and the gambling seems almost unimportant! They bumble into a kidnapping plot and Wheeler also gets on the bad side of an evil Gypsy (a popular group to hate back in 1930). Why Gypsies were in Mexico and living right next to the casino is anyone's guess.

RKO in using Wheeler&Woolsey first put them in their big budget films where they were used as comic relief. They were in Rio Rita and then in the original operetta for the screen Dixiana. The Cuckoos is along those same lines, being based on the Kalmar-Ruby musical The Ramblers which ran for 289 performances in the 1926-1927 season on Broadway.

Oddly enough the boys took the place on Broadway of another comedy team that would soon be on the big screen, Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough. Seeing Wheeler&Woolsey in their respective roles I can see how Clark& McCullough could have done this on Broadway.

Like most of the musical comedies of the Twenties the plot was an airy bit of delightful nonsense. Wheeler&Woolsey are a pair of fortune tellers who run afoul of gypsies in Mexico led by Mitchell Lewis who don't like them chiseling in on their racket. At the same time Lewis develops a particular dislike for Wheeler chiseling in on his time with Dorothy Lee.

Lewis and the gypsies are hired by the mysterious Baron played by Ivan Lebedeff who wants heiress June Clyde kidnapped for himself. June likes aviator Hugh Trevor instead, who wouldn't, but her aunt Jobyna Howland and holder of the family purse strings thinks Trevor's the fortune hunter. This mind you with Woolsey panting after her like Groucho does with Margaret Dumont.

It's the team of Wheeler, Woolsey and Trevor that's off to rescue the heiress from the gypsies. The boys have some nice comic bits here, my favorite is them liberating a keg of real beer from customs inspectors as they go back to Mexico. Remember this is Prohibition and many jokes concerning the Volstead Act and its consequences abound in The Cuckoos.

By the way the title specifically refers to not just Wheeler&Woolsey, but to a pair of cuckoo clock birds who are quite inebriated who the film cuts to before one of the three color sequences.

For the most part The Cuckoos is just a photographed Broadway musical just like The Marx Brothers The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. Still that for me is an added attraction.

Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby got two hit songs from the score of The Ramblers that appeared here and later in the biographical film about the songwriting duo Three Little Words. All Alone Monday and I Love You So Much still retain an enduring popularity to this day.

Watching Wheeler&Woolsey try and imagine Eddie Cantor teamed with Groucho Marx is the best way to describe their comedy. Knowing that fans of Eddie and Groucho can appreciate Wheeler&Woolsey and might be tempted to see them.

If they do, I really suggest The Cuckoos as a good place to start.