A couple of zany HIGH FLYERS find themselves involved in the hunt for missing stolen diamonds.
The wonderfully funny team of Wheeler & Woolsey (Bert Wheeler is the little guy with curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny fellow with glasses & cigar) provide lots of solid laughs in this fast moving comedy crime caper. Of course, crash-landing on a millionaire's estate inhabited by peppery Lupe Velez, lovely Marjorie Lord & the monumental Margaret Dumont might raise anyone's spirits.
Jack Carson is hanging around as a crooked reporter, while an exasperated Paul Harvey tries to figure out why his household is suddenly so topsy-turvy. Maybe it has something to do with the trio of gentlemanly criminals - Charles Judels, Lucien Prival & Herbert Evans - who have arrived, hot on the Boys' trail.
Lupe & Woolsey perform a wildly exuberant gaucho number, while a solo Velez gets to do devastating impressions of her Hollywood rivals Dolores Del Rio & Simone Simon. Not to be outdone, Wheeler is terrific mimicking Charlie Chaplin & Bill Robinson. Dumont, meanwhile, provides chuckles as a matron infatuated with crystal gazing.
Ultimately, though, HIGH FLYERS is rather bittersweet, as it was the last Wheeler & Woolsey film. First brought together by Flo Ziegfeld for Broadway's Rio Rita, the Boys had starred in 22 features from 1929 until 1937, carving out a unique niche in the history of movie comedy.
Tragically, however, even while filming for HIGH FLYERS was underway, Robert Woolsey was already stricken with kidney failure. After a year of horrible suffering, he died on October 31, 1938. He was only 50 years old.
Bert Wheeler continued on in films for awhile, making a handful of unremarkable movies. But the spark that came from his association with Robert Woolsey was gone. When, at the age of 72, Wheeler died on January 18, 1968 from emphysema, it was more than 30 years since the release of the final Wheeler & Woolsey film. The Boys - energetic, hilarious & ever so eager to please - had slipped into almost complete cinematic obscurity.
