Topic: Warner Archive Box Sets Starring Wheeler & Woolsey + Bowery Boys

[BeAStooge]

Warner Archive will soon release two box sets, "Wheeler & Woolsey: The RKO Comedy Classics Collection," a 9-film set, and "The Bowery Boys  Volume One," a 12-film set.  All 48 Bowery Boys films are planned thru the upcoming year, in four 12-film sets.

Warner Archive has a pre-order listings for Bowery Boys, with an availability date of November 20.  February 26 is the date for Wheel & Woolsey.

The Bowery Boys  Volume One

From Dead Ends to the East Side and finally landing in Louie's Sweet Shop in the heart of the Bowery (3rd and Canal, natch!), there was no stopping these Boys! When understudy Leo Gorcey joined the ensemble of teen thespians on stage for the Broadway hit "Dead End", Hollywood soon followed with William Wyler taking the troupe in toto for 1937's film version. Personifying the grit and heart of the kid gangs sprouting up in city slums, these little wise guys quickly stole the nation's heart. Ably anchored by the central pair of Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, the kids moved from "preachment" and crime pictures to straight up comedy as The Bowery Boys - and the rest is history as the boys capered through scores of pictures for over two decades!

Four Disc Collection includes:

LIVE WIRES (1946)
IN FAST COMPANY (1946)
BOWERY BOMBSHELL (1946)
NEWS HOUNDS (1947)
FIGHTING FOOLS (1949)
HOLD THAT BABY! (1949)
MASTER MINDS (1949)
BLONDE DYNAMITE (1950)
LUCKY LOSERS (1950)
BLUES BUSTERS (1950)
CRAZY OVER HORSES (1951)
NO HOLDS BARRED (1952)

Wheeler & Woolsey: The RKO Comedy Classics Collection

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey vie for a fictional kingdom's crown in the political satire "Cracked Nuts" (1931); Boris Karloff, Edna Mae Oliver co-star.  Bert and Bob are stranded vaudevillians who help a kind widow rescue her failing drugstore in "Caught Plastered" (1931). Framed and sent to prison, W&W are unwilling recruits for the warden's football team in "Hold 'Em Jail" (1932). The boys are cosmetic salesmen sent on the run when they mistakenly swap their wares for missing securities in "Hips, Hips, Hooray!" (1934). Thelma Todd co-stars. Cigar stand operators Bert and Bob are on the suspect list when their landlord turns up dead in "The Nitwits" (1935). Betty Grable co-stars. An archeologist charges W&W with returning artifacts to a tomb before a curse takes hold in "Mummy's Boys" (1936). And the team's final vehicle, "High Flyers" (1937), casts them as carny pilots conned into aiding a diamond-smuggling scheme. Lupe Velez co-stars. Four-disc set also includes "Half Shot At Sunrise" and "Hook, Line And Sinker" (1930). 10 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.

[metaldams]

Depending on the price, there's a chance I may buy both sets, and I'm not in buyer mode as of late.  I really enjoyed some of those Bowery movies a while back when TCM was airing them on Saturday mornings.

[shemps#1]

Depending on the price, there's a chance I may buy both sets, and I'm not in buyer mode as of late.  I really enjoyed some of those Bowery movies a while back when TCM was airing them on Saturday mornings.

I know what you mean, I haven't spent very much on entertainment this summer. The new Nintendo Wii U console is the first thing I'm getting in awhile and the only reason I'm getting that is I was able to trade in old systems and pay very little OOP. The economy is a bitch.

[metaldams]

I know what you mean, I haven't spent very much on entertainment this summer. The new Nintendo Wii U console is the first thing I'm getting in awhile and the only reason I'm getting that is I was able to trade in old systems and pay very little OOP. The economy is a bitch.

I've been holding back on a $15 Alice Cooper DVD, though I'll probably cave in soon.  Still.....

[BeAStooge]

On a related Bowery Boys note...

Warner Archive is also releasing a new Dead End Kids MOD next month, "The Dead End Kids Double Feature" with ON DRESS PARADE (1939) and HELL'S KITCHEN (1939).

Based on information so far, this'll initially be an exclusive product for Oldies.com, Alpha Home Entertainment's website.  Oldies.com is taking pre-orders for a Nov. 20 release.  Warner Archive itself will begin selling the DVD a couple months later.

[Kyle2012]

I'm thinking of buying the Bowery Boys sets since I like most of their films. I already have all 48 films that I got from a private collector and the films are in chronological order and the upcoming WA volumes aren't, but I'll buy them anyway since they'll be remastered.

[pipboytaylor]

I just saw that the Bowerys Boys Volume 1 has been released on the Warner Archive site. Does anyone know why the films have not been released in chronological order? The have the first 3 Bowery films then skip "Spookbusters", "Mr. Hex" & "Hard Boiled Mahoney". Seems pretty random. I hope they release the entire collection.

[metaldams]

That comment I made about not being in a buying mode back in October....I was unemployed at the time.  Now, with a combination of being employed and getting a nice tax refund, I think the buying mode is back on.  I will soon buy both Bowery sets and the Wheeler and Woolsey set, as this weekly Stooge thing has kick started my classic comedy love again.  I really liked the 5 or 6 Bowery films I watched on TCM when they were airing them a few years back and feel this makes perfect Saturday morning viewing.

[falsealarms]

I'm on a pretty big W&W kick and now I need to see their films. I recently bought the definitive book on them by Ed Watz, Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937. I can't recommend that book highly enough. It's a must for anyone interested in Wheeler & Woolsey. The meat of the book are film by film chapters loaded with everything you want to know about the films. Several of their contemporaries were interviewed, especially Dorothy Lee.

Here's a pretty fun number from DIPLOMANIACS... the fun really starts at 54 seconds in.

[falsealarms]

For the uninitiated, these are generally regarded as their best films:

PEACH-O-RENO (1931) - available via WA (in his book, Watz lists this film with a handful of other 30s comedies which transcend the genre of funny pictures peopled by clowns... ITS A GIFT, HORSE FEATHERS, WAY OUT WEST among the others.)
HOLD EM JAIL (1932) - available via WA (in his book, Watz compares the finale of HOLD EM JAIL to THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS as both finales have a "procession of crazy jokes that do not necessarily build to a powerhouse conclusion.")
DIPLOMANIACS (1933) - available via WA
HIPS HIPS HOORAY (1934) - available via WA
COCKEYED CAVALIERS (1934) - not yet available via WA

All those are pre-code. The code took a big bite out of their comedy and, according to Watz, the pair had to "completely overhaul" their approach. Neither Wheeler or Woolsey were happy about it with Woolsey griping "they are tougher on us than they are on the fascist newspapers in Spain."

They were probably the raciest of the comedy teams back then. The last couple films, especially HIGH FLYERS (1937), were also hampered by Woolsey's illness (he died in 1938). THE NITWITS (1935), a comedy-mystery with an 18 year old Betty Grable, is generally regarded as their best code-era film.

Racy scene from HIPS... this kind of stuff would be off limits later that year.

[metaldams]

I recently bought the definitive book on them by Ed Watz, Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937.

That is a pretty good book, I have a copy myself.

I do like Wheeler and Woolsey, though not quite as much as The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and The Marx. Bros.  Still a fun team when they're at their best.  I always think DIPLOMANIACS and DUCK SOUP would make a great public feature.  Similar films of th same year and they boh even have Louis Calhern in similar roles.

[metaldams]

OK, first thing I gotta ask is does anyone know when volume 3 of the Bowery Boys is coming out?  I have both volumes and I absolutely love what I've seen. I can't stress enough that all Shemp era fans MUST see the films Edward Bernds directed by these guys.  Absolute mandatory viewing.

Even the non Bernds films are fun. The worst are entertaining and the best, like BLUES BUSTERS and MASTER MINDS, are classics.  No sappy romantic couples, no unwanted musical numbers, just one hour plus no BS comedy with some of the earlier films having a pleasant b grade gangster/noir thing thrown in.  Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Bernard Gorcey rule, and I have 10 films to go, but after that, I hope they at least have a release date announced for volume 3.

[Kopfy2013]

Never heard of W & W until now.  Watching these clips and other ones on You Tube have wet my appetite.

[locoboymakesgood]

OK, first thing I gotta ask is does anyone know when volume 3 of the Bowery Boys is coming out?  I have both volumes and I absolutely love what I've seen. I can't stress enough that all Shemp era fans MUST see the films Edward Bernds directed by these guys.  Absolute mandatory viewing.

Even the non Bernds films are fun. The worst are entertaining and the best, like BLUES BUSTERS and MASTER MINDS, are classics.  No sappy romantic couples, no unwanted musical numbers, just one hour plus no BS comedy with some of the earlier films having a pleasant b grade gangster/noir thing thrown in.  Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Bernard Gorcey rule, and I have 10 films to go, but after that, I hope they at least have a release date announced for volume 3.

Volume 2 hadn't come out that along ago. I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the Fall.