Watch SO THIS IS AFRICA in the link above.
Wheeler and Woolsey spent the majority of their career at RKO studios. Of the 21 films they made together, only the subject of this review, SO THIS IS AFRICA, was made outside of RKO, the studio being Columbia. After their RKO contract expired, Harry Cohn convinced Bert and Bob to sign a one picture deal with Columbia where the team shares in the profits. Before the picture even finished filming, Bert and Bob resigned with RKO and legend has it, never saw any of the profits.
Speaking of legend, this barely over one hour film was about ninety minutes in its original cut but had to go through severe editing to get past the censor board. Yes, even in the pre code days there was some level of censorship. SO THIS IS AFRICA was considered, in its original cut, about the most risqué film of its time. It would be fascinating if a ninety minute version of this film ever surfaced, but as it stands now, there are plenty of pre code moments to savor. This movie ultimately plays like a sex comedy for 1933 standards.
Before getting to that, the basic plot of the film is Bert and Bob win some tamed lions in a raffle and are out of a job, so they spend the beginning of the film half heartedly convincing themselves to jump off the ledge of a building. The view down to the ground should be familiar to every Stooge fan, it’s been recycled in a zillion Stooge shorts. Makes me wonder how long that shot has been in existence.
Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson Martini (Esther Muir) is an expert on Africa who has failed to bring back a jungle film for the film company she works for because she’s afraid of lions. Eventually the studio hears of the tame lions Bert and Bob have, meet up and they’re convinced to go to Africa to make a film. In between all of this, we are treated to a falling elevator gag, Bert and Bob trying to transport a donkey into the hotel to feed the lions and a musical number with a bunch of tribesman whether they should or shouldn’t go to Africa. All very entertaining stuff that helps moves the plot and comedy nicely.
Once the film is in Africa, the sex comedy begins. Esther Muir and Robert Woolsey have an onscreen romance. That leads to some wonderful dialogue exchanges like:
Bob: What a lovely gown. That certainly is pretty.
Martini: You think it becoming?
Bob: It’ll be coming off any minute now.
Yup! It’s a pre code comedy alright. Bert has to get in on the fun as well. Since this is a Columbia film, his regular leading lady, Dorothy Lee was not available. This time, he gets Raquel Torres, much more famous for her role in The Marx Brothers film DUCK SOUP. She plays a native girl wearing a skimpy outfit she’s practically falling out of at times. She has a lot of dialogue in terms of how often she speaks, but her lines are limited to the words, “more” and “nuts.” The first word concerning kissing and sex and the last word concerning food - I think.
The final quarter of the film they all meet the local tribe of sexy Amazon women. All of them tame by day but by night, they’ll love the men to death. One of them even killed three husbands through her lovemaking prowess. We get treated to more pre code dialogue in this sequence. When Bert and Bob are captured, Bob gets hung upside down on a stake. While hanging upside down and looking at the Amazon women’s back sides, he says, “Bottoms up.” He makes another crack about being interested in studying their backgrounds. Makes me wonder what actually got censored from the film!
So yeah, a quick, brisk, one hour pre code comedy that was pretty risqué for its time - though by today’s standards pretty tame. Most Bert and Bob films have romance and music combined with the comedy. Here it’s straight forward comedy with two musical numbers that are comic in nature - like an early Marx Brothers film would have. Overall a very fun movie to watch and one of the better Wheeler and Woolsey comedies. Check it out.
