The Nitwits

It's got to be said that Wheeler and Woolsey are an acquired taste! Popular during the 30s, their brand of humour hasn't dated very well. I can see the camaraderie between the team but they aren't necessarily likeable. "The Nitwits" film is a typical example of this. The story is occasionally enlivened by a few good gags, effective cinematography and a fast-moving climax where everything is used - including the kitchen sink, literally! Murder is afoot and our hapless heroes are unwittingly caught up in it - naturally. But the slow pace, lack of background music and the film being restricted to a few sets are considerable handicaps. A running time of 81 minutes is too long for me. 60 to 65 minutes is plenty.

The humor in the films of Wheeler and Woolsey seemed to go steadily downhill from their early promise in "Rio Rita" to at least this one, made 6 years later. These two very funny guys try mightily to overcome some tepid material in "The Nitwits" and get a boost from the murder mystery back story, which at least challenges you to spot the murderer.

The familiar faces on hand are Betty Grable as Bert's girl friend, Erik Rhodes, best remembered with a foreign accent in some Astaire/Rogers musicals, and Willie Best who plays (what else?) the janitor. Also Arthur Treacher, who has some funny scenes as a hapless tennis instructor enroute to an appointment in the building where most of the story takes place.

There are two good songs in the picture which elevate the proceedings and my rating, "Music In My Heart" and "You Opened My Eyes", which is the better of the two. Wheeler and Grable dance together in that one in a pretty athletic and acrobatic number. It makes you wonder how much better this could have been with better screenwriters.

Nitwits, The (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Wheeler and Woolsey comedy has the boys playing cigar salesmen who get caught up in a murder mystery surrounding a killer known as "The Black Widow". This is a pretty good little gem that manages to be quite hilarious but it also has a good mystery surrounding it. There's also no doubt that this film influenced Abbott and Costello's Who Done It? not to mention there are other gags here later used by Abbott and Costello. The film has non-stop gags including a hilarious sequence that involves a chase towards the end of the film. Just about every type of gag gets thrown out there and the majority of them stick. There's also a very funny scene where Woolsey scares the future dead victim by singing a song about a black widow. Betty Grable play's Wheeler's girlfriend and the prime murder suspect and she's very good in her bit role. Black actor Willie Best has some of the funniest scenes, although most of them come in the form of racial jokes.

Johnnie (Bert Wheeler) and Newton (Robert Woolsey) are best friends who own a cigar shop. Newton invents a shocking lie detector. Johnnie has a crush on Mary Roberts (Betty Grable). Mary's sleazy boss Winfield Lake needs a 'murder song'. Wannabe songwriter Johnnie with Newton's help write a song about a murderous Black Widow. Unbeknownst to them, Winfield is actually being threatened by blackmailer Black Widow. His wife forces the cheapskate Winfield to hire private detective William Darrell.

Ok! I laughed hard at nothing rhyming with oranges. That's a great joke. They do keep bringing it back for the diminishing returns. Maybe they should have given it to Wheeler. This comedic pairing is not making me laugh a lot. They are mildly amusing at times. This movie is mildly amusing at times. Take the cop hat for example. It's a slow meandering joke that isn't all that funny until Johnnie comes back with it. It feels like a long walk to get to one good laugh. That's this movie.

The Nitwits puts Wheeler and Woolsey into a murder mystery and as you can imagine, they manage to cause havoc as usual. Betty Grable is on hand as Bert's love interest but she doesn't do much beyond one number they sing together early on. Most of the film is took up with daft murder and chase stuff, one or two set pieces working really well but the film isn't as snappy and fun as some of their earlier work.

The director, George Stevens, went on to direct the likes of A Place in the Sun and Woman of the Year, but this early effort shows what he was up to in the first 15 years of his long career.