WasAnnon
Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
MartinHafer
This is an odd outing for Wheeler and Woolsey. The first half of the movie is excellent--very funny, well-paced and clever. However, towards the end, the film falters very badly. The plot just disappears and it's a rather goofy free for all that just seemed rushed--like the film was taking too long to complete so they just hastily tossed together a not especially enjoyable but very goofy finale.The film begins with the boys actually a success. In most of their films they are out of work and without a penny to their names. Here, they are both lawyers(!) and making a killing in Reno handling divorces. The problems are that their ethics are a tad suspect and the other divorce lawyers are mad because the boys are stealing all their business--and they want revenge.During this first half of the film, there are two major plots. First, an older man and woman have decided to divorce--much to the consternation of their grown daughters. The couple really do love each other and the daughters are working to reunite them--while Wheeler represents the father and Woolsey represents the mother and the boys both have a vested interest in keeping them apart. The other plot is far from cerebral but is also very, very funny. A crazy guy (Mr. Crosby) has vowed to kill Wheeler because of the divorce that took away the man's wife (Wheeler was the attorney for the wife). So, Wheeler goes in drag to avoid being killed (and for other reasons which aren't worth exploring here) for a very long but well played scene. I've seen him play women in other films but he was amazingly good at playing a woman--even singing like one. It got really funny when Crosby himself fell for her/him!! The way this all ended was also pretty funny--with a great punchline. Sure, it ain't sophisticated but it is pretty good--one of the best drag sequences in comedy history.So far, so good. But when the feuding couple go to court the plot just falls apart. The judge is one of the very same lawyers who hates Wheeler and Woolsey and he has vowed throughout the film that IF he becomes a judge, he'll never grant any of their clients a divorce and will make their lives miserable. However, when the case comes up, the new judge seems to have completely forgotten this. Then, the trial becomes even crazier and more nonsensical than if the Marx Brothers had done it. While this MIGHT have worked, it did not fit in with the first half of the film and this team just could not pull it off--it just was way outside their range. Plus, the writing really, really sucked (a term I don't often use--but it is appropriate here). It was like the boys were just winging it.Despite this bad ending, the film still has a lot to recommend it. Funny and different, had the film not crumbled apart late, it would have clearly been one of the team's best.
Ron Oliver
A pair of shady Nevada lawyers become involved in the uproarious divorce proceedings of a strident PEACH-O-RENO.Comics Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey, who starred in a string of popular comedies from 1929 to 1937, return with a funny look at the peculiar goings on--divorces & casinos--in the Nevada city of Reno. The Boys (Wheeler is the little fellow with curly hair; Woolsey is the skinny guy with cigar and glasses) toss out one wisecrack after another in this Pre-Code concoction. The film's hilarity reaches its zenith (or nadir, depending on the viewer's sensibilities) during Wheeler's extended drag sequence, which includes an uproarious dance number with Woolsey. Disguised as a very merry widow, Wheeler challenges Charles Ruggles in CHARLEY'S AUNT (1930) as the best female impersonator of the early talkies.Young Dorothy Lee, Wheeler's very frequent cinematic love interest, is Kewpie Doll cute as always, but she's really given very little to do until quite late in the film when she perches on a grand piano for her requisite song with Bert. Getting better lines is Zelma O'Neal as Lee's blunt talking sister.The girls' divorce-seeking parents are nicely played by Joseph Cawthorn & Cora Witherspoon. Other performances of note are given by Arthur Hoyt as the Boys' nervous Nellie secretary; Mitchell Harris as a gun-happy gambler intent on plugging Wheeler; and Sam Hardy as the conniving judge who presides over the chaotic courtroom scene which ends the film.Movie mavens will recognize corpulent Harry Holman in an uncredited role as Witherspoon's outmaneuvered divorce lawyer.
didi-5
Into the third year of the Wheeler-Woolsey partnership with RKO, this little gem, running at just over an hour, gives us Wattles and Swift, the divorce lawyers (with a bus laid on to ferry likely divorces from the railway) who just happen to run a casino by night (!).To get himself out of a scrape with a vengeful gun totin' husband, Bert Wheeler dolls up as the silliest drag act you'll ever see (Mae West had nothing on this blonde broad!); little Dorothy Lee gets to join him in another great song n' tap routine; and Robert Woolsey chomps cigars and makes his usual line of lecherous wisecracks. Watch out for a wonderful number mid-way where the boys dance together with Bert still dragged up; and a useful way to store those casino chips! Really funny...
yogi-22
Just as sure as you can tell your left sock from the right after you wear them for a week, I'm sure you will like this movie, which is filled with laughs and song and dance numbers. The court room scene is a blast and the high light of the film is the song Niagara Falls To Reno performed by Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee.