Copyright 7 June 1935 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. No recorded New York opening. Australian release: 21 August 1935. 9 reels. 81 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Music publisher receives death threats from a blackmailer called "The Black Widow".
COMMENT: You'll laugh until it hurts! How often have I heard that advertising spiel for a movie that inspired a few mild chuckles at most. But here's a picture that really deserved that sort of promotion. I watched it on television, and was I sore! I ached all over and almost fell off my chair at least three or four times.
We all know that watching a comedy on TV can be a very disappointing experience. Most comics desperately need an audience to bounce their gags off. In movies the comebacks are scrupulously spaced out (by stop-watching audience reactions at preview screenings) to allow for the laughs. On TV, that timing often seems dead wrong — which is why some genius invented canned laughter. So it's a rare movie indeed that will have me in stitches. But after watching "The Nitwits" in action last night, my ribs are still sore a day later.
A host of hilarious gags (including three side-splitting run-ins with Arthur Treacher) are climaxed by a chase melee through an office building that fully deserves its reputation as one of the wildest, most inspiredly chaotic and hair-raisingly funny ever put on film.
Mind you, the idea of entangling comedians in a murder mystery is almost a sure-fire gimmick. The approach here, however, can only be described as highly original and inventive. It allows for some really funny bits of business which have never been equaled, let alone topped. The timing is absolutely perfect.
Although he made his name with romantic dramas like "A Place in the Sun" and "Giant", director George Stevens was also a master of comedy. Wheeler and Woolsey deliver their usual terrific impersonations of imbecility with ingratiating aplomb. Our comics receive wonderful support from Betty Grable (struggling with an unflattering hair style, alas, but singing and dancing a treat), Evelyn Brent (who serves up her straight characterization of repressed acidity in fine style), Willie Best (a stereotypical role, I know, but he handles it with amiable gusto), Arthur Treacher (three marvelous strikes and suddenly he's pitching), Fred Keating's double (what an acrobat! but notice that our Wheeler and Woolsey match him stride for stride), and last but not least, perennial cop, Edgar Dearing, in one of his biggest and certainly most harassed roles.
Production values and credits rate at least 100%. And did this masterwork of laughs figure in even so much as a nomination? Not on your life!
SYNOPSIS: Music publisher receives death threats from a blackmailer called "The Black Widow".
COMMENT: You'll laugh until it hurts! How often have I heard that advertising spiel for a movie that inspired a few mild chuckles at most. But here's a picture that really deserved that sort of promotion. I watched it on television, and was I sore! I ached all over and almost fell off my chair at least three or four times.
We all know that watching a comedy on TV can be a very disappointing experience. Most comics desperately need an audience to bounce their gags off. In movies the comebacks are scrupulously spaced out (by stop-watching audience reactions at preview screenings) to allow for the laughs. On TV, that timing often seems dead wrong — which is why some genius invented canned laughter. So it's a rare movie indeed that will have me in stitches. But after watching "The Nitwits" in action last night, my ribs are still sore a day later.
A host of hilarious gags (including three side-splitting run-ins with Arthur Treacher) are climaxed by a chase melee through an office building that fully deserves its reputation as one of the wildest, most inspiredly chaotic and hair-raisingly funny ever put on film.
Mind you, the idea of entangling comedians in a murder mystery is almost a sure-fire gimmick. The approach here, however, can only be described as highly original and inventive. It allows for some really funny bits of business which have never been equaled, let alone topped. The timing is absolutely perfect.
Although he made his name with romantic dramas like "A Place in the Sun" and "Giant", director George Stevens was also a master of comedy. Wheeler and Woolsey deliver their usual terrific impersonations of imbecility with ingratiating aplomb. Our comics receive wonderful support from Betty Grable (struggling with an unflattering hair style, alas, but singing and dancing a treat), Evelyn Brent (who serves up her straight characterization of repressed acidity in fine style), Willie Best (a stereotypical role, I know, but he handles it with amiable gusto), Arthur Treacher (three marvelous strikes and suddenly he's pitching), Fred Keating's double (what an acrobat! but notice that our Wheeler and Woolsey match him stride for stride), and last but not least, perennial cop, Edgar Dearing, in one of his biggest and certainly most harassed roles.
Production values and credits rate at least 100%. And did this masterwork of laughs figure in even so much as a nomination? Not on your life!