Topic: Oh! Oh! Cleopatra (1931) - Wheeler and Woolsey

[HomokHarcos]

https://imdb.com/title/tt0022217/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I initially was going to skip this one for two reasons: II thought it was unavailable, and assumed it must be an ensemble short and not really their film. Turns out I was wrong on both!

One of the complaints I had about their films up to this point is that I think they would have been better starting in two reelers; I had no idea there actually was a two reel film starring the duo. The results are quite good, and they can easily fit their style with a shorter runtime.

The plot is goofy enough, but in a fun way for a short comedy: turns out they have an ancestral connection to to Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. There have been a few film versions of Cleopatra’s life featuring Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert and Elizabeth Taylor, but this one is decidedly pre-Code with Dorothy Burgess playing Cleopatra.

My favorite lines in this movie are “to hail with Caesar” instead of “to hell” and “the lions now are more dangerous than the lions den”. There is also a bit of surreal comedy when a cameraman says “hold still”, and the everybody stops for a moment.

Though I think they could have used better material for this film, I absolutely believe they accommodate quite well to short subjects.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I know that W & W were successful Broadway comedians, but nowadays they more resemble a couple of cheapo Burlesque comics, especially in the pre-code stuff like this one.  It seems like a warmup to a striptease, with Woolsey's cigar puffing and the checkered suits, and well, just everything.  There's a tackiness to the routines, and it's the same on everything of theirs that I've seen to date, especially So This Is Africa.  They're like lame dirty jokes which just kind of peter out, no pun intended.  I actually enjoy the musical numbers they do, they nail those, but I'm not a fan of the verbal routines at all.