Executive producer: Merian C. Cooper. Copyright 28 April 1933 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Roxy: 28 April 1933. U.S. release: 29 April 1933. U.K. release: 11 November 1933. 7 reels. 76 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Seeking to escape from competitors as well as customers, two starving barbers open a shop on an Indian reservation. The Indians are miffed that they were not invited to participate in the Geneva Peace Conference. They dispatch the barbers as delegates. Aboard ship they encounter the agents of a manufacturer of new explosive bullets who are anxious to thwart peace at all costs.
NOTES: Placed second to "Go Into Your Dance" as a top priority item in a 1992 survey of film collectors and enthusiasts, a 16 mm print of "Diplomaniacs" fetched almost $1,500 at a recent well-advertised film auction. On the other hand, for the video cassette in my collection, I paid $7.95.
COMMENT: One of the few films that thoroughly deserves its cult reputation, "Diplomaniacs" is an outrageously funny, stylistically inventive musical filled with happily outlandish characters, merrily ridiculous situations, still pertinently effective ironies, and loads of nonsensical running gags, hilarious visual and verbal conceits, and mockingly madcap humor. The songs are all likewise thoroughly enjoyable, both as parodies of Busby Berkeley, and as tunefully comic recitatives in themselves.
Led by those wonderfully goony comedians, Wheeler and Woolsey, most of the players turn in delightfully comic portraits. Calhern is a bit stiff, but it suits the part, and his rendition of "Annie Laurie" is one of the movie's many highlights. Irving, Edwards, Bletcher and Hart make up a laughably zany foursome. The girls, headlined by White and Barry, are just too scintillating to fully appreciate on a single viewing.
I ran my tape four times in as many days and I just can't wait to get it back into the machine. Wheeler and Woolsey are each twice as funny as the four Marx Brothers put together.
The Director: Regarded as a very genial man to work for, Seiter's career extended from 1922 to 1954. His popular successes include Girl Crazy (1932), Sons of the Desert (1933), Roberta (1935), The Moon's Our Home (1936), Dimples (1936), Room Service (1938), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), One Touch of Venus (1948).
SYNOPSIS: Seeking to escape from competitors as well as customers, two starving barbers open a shop on an Indian reservation. The Indians are miffed that they were not invited to participate in the Geneva Peace Conference. They dispatch the barbers as delegates. Aboard ship they encounter the agents of a manufacturer of new explosive bullets who are anxious to thwart peace at all costs.
NOTES: Placed second to "Go Into Your Dance" as a top priority item in a 1992 survey of film collectors and enthusiasts, a 16 mm print of "Diplomaniacs" fetched almost $1,500 at a recent well-advertised film auction. On the other hand, for the video cassette in my collection, I paid $7.95.
COMMENT: One of the few films that thoroughly deserves its cult reputation, "Diplomaniacs" is an outrageously funny, stylistically inventive musical filled with happily outlandish characters, merrily ridiculous situations, still pertinently effective ironies, and loads of nonsensical running gags, hilarious visual and verbal conceits, and mockingly madcap humor. The songs are all likewise thoroughly enjoyable, both as parodies of Busby Berkeley, and as tunefully comic recitatives in themselves.
Led by those wonderfully goony comedians, Wheeler and Woolsey, most of the players turn in delightfully comic portraits. Calhern is a bit stiff, but it suits the part, and his rendition of "Annie Laurie" is one of the movie's many highlights. Irving, Edwards, Bletcher and Hart make up a laughably zany foursome. The girls, headlined by White and Barry, are just too scintillating to fully appreciate on a single viewing.
I ran my tape four times in as many days and I just can't wait to get it back into the machine. Wheeler and Woolsey are each twice as funny as the four Marx Brothers put together.
The Director: Regarded as a very genial man to work for, Seiter's career extended from 1922 to 1954. His popular successes include Girl Crazy (1932), Sons of the Desert (1933), Roberta (1935), The Moon's Our Home (1936), Dimples (1936), Room Service (1938), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), One Touch of Venus (1948).