Half Shot at Sunrise

Wheeler and Woolsey are two of my favorite comedians from this era. You just never know what to expect. This takes place in France during World War I, and while there is always an expected amount of sexual innuendo in their movies, (and in a lot of movies made before the codes) this one has the most I've seen yet. Ex. Cute innocent Dorothy Lee says to the boys she's about to turn in as A.W.O.L. for reward "I expect to make $500 from both of you tonight." to which Woolsey exclaims to Wheeler, "You're in Paris now boy"! Don't even get me started on Leni Stengel as the exotic Olga. I found this movie very enjoyable, even when things invariably get silly.

Tommy (Bert Wheeler) and Gilbert (Robert Woolsey) have gone AWOL from the army in Paris and are running around chasing girls. Col. Marshall (George MacFarlane) wants them arrested. However, his daughter Annette (Dorothy Lee) bumps into Tommy and they fall in love. Olga (Leni Stengel) meets with Gilbert and they also fall in love. Annette has a plan that will make heroes out of Tommy and Gilbert..............

Wheeler and Woolsey (the one with the glasses) act out various set-piece scenes, most of which are crammed with obvious one-liners and aren't very funny. Dorothy Lee is good in her scenes even if a little wooden at times - but she is not bad as the actors who play the military police. They are terrible! Mrs Marshall (Edna May Oliver) is the best of the cast.

There are 3 good bits in the film - the first dance with Wheeler and Lee (she is very good to watch); the 2nd dance with Wheeler, Wooster and Lee (watch her final landing and subsequent explanation as she jumps off a truck); and there is a funny moment at the restaurant where Tommy, disguised as a waiter, serves the food to the Colonel and his wife. That's your lot for entertainment - it's not a catastrophe but the film mostly drags.

A few years before Radio Pictures became RKO and started making big money with Fred and Ginger and King Kong, the studio churned out a series of outrageous Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, none sillier than this one made in 1930. The jokes come fast and furious, most terrible, but every once in awhile a good one lands. The delightful Dorothy Lee (who was to become a staple of many a W & W film in the future) sings and dances with Bert. The big surprise here is the performance of Berlin-born Leni Stengel as the French vamp Olga; she is not only sexy and vivacious but wonderfully funny. Why she never went on to a brilliant career as a comic actress is a mystery. The Paris street scenes designed by Max Ree and shot on the Hollywood backlot are particularly realistic, demonstrating how well-made even lesser Hollywood films were in the years when sound had just come in and everyone was experimenting. Wheeler and Woolsey are an acquired taste. Their bad jokes have a way of getting to you if you don't watch yourself.

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey play a couple of soldiers during the late World War who like to be permanently on holiday in Paris. It seems in Half Shot At Sunrise that the majority of Pershing's military police force are out chasing them. And the police seem to have been trained at the Keystone Academy.

But while all this is going on Wheeler has made the acquaintance of their perennial leading lady Dorothy Lee who is the daughter of their commanding officer George MacFarlane. In fact MacFarlane would like to dally with a Mam'selle or two. If you were married to Edna May Oliver that would be understandable.

I never understood why Wheeler who was always playing these schnook characters before Woody Allen perfected them was always getting the girl. I always thought the strong end of the team was Woolsey with those wisecracks and that ever present cigar which seem to have been implanted in his mouth.

Fans of the duo and others should like this amusing military comedy.

Always say "Dorothy Lee" in the same breath as "Wheeler and Woolsey". Here our favorite pert, loose-limbed ingénue has a grand time singing and dancing and trading quips with the two comedians who are on the loose in Paris in 1918. The script by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ralph ("Five Dollars-A-Word") Spence, James Ashmore Creelman (who will always be remembered for King Kong) and the famous Broadway librettist Anne Caldwell represents a deliciously zany parade of visual and verbal nonsense which the performers endeavor to keep moving at an admirably fast pace despite the well-meaning efforts of stodgy director Paul Sloane to slow it down. A special pat on the back (if "back" is the right word) for Leni Stengel who makes quite an impression in a whole crowd of lovely Parisians. Production values are remarkably extensive. RKO were obviously expecting to clean up on this one.