Wheeler and Woolsey made a ton of these silly, ridiculous films in the early 1930s. SOoooo many one liners... two liners. typical wheeler and woolsey puns and jokes. They have set up shop near an indian reservation, and get caught up in the politics -- the tribe wants to be part of the Geneva convention, so they get Willy and Hercules (Wheeler and Woolsey) to help them out. There are a bunch of (very okay) song and dance numbers in here, and some special effects as well. This was a typical Wheeler and Woolsey film, with quick comedy bits, and all over in about an hour. Vaudeville funny guy Hugh Herbert is also in here as "the chinaman". Fast talkin, jokes and slapstick falls. Fun, light fluffy stuff, if you don't take it too seriously. Woolsey died quite young, but Wheeler carried on. warning -- right near the end, there's a minstrel show, where everyone wears blackface, but it was a real part of entertainment history, so i guess that's why we don't see this film too often. and there actually WAS a Geneva convention discussion on war and treatment of prisoners in 1929. Directed by William Seiter, and written by Joseph Mankowicz. Pretty good. some fun jokes, and a tidbit of actual history.
18 Reviews
One of the team's better and darker comedies.
planktonrules5 May 2020
"Diplomaniacs" is a funny, uneven and very politically incorrect film. It also happens to be one of Wheeler & Woolsey's better movies. It's also very, very unusual in many ways. There's even more singing than usual, cute Dorothy Lee (who is in nearly every one of the boys' films) isn't in this one, and it has a very, very dark ending...surprisingly dark for a comedy.
The story begins with the pair lamenting their opening up a barber shop on American Indian land. The natives don't have beards and don't need their services...but they do, for some inexplicable reason, want Willy and Hercules (Wheeler & Woolsey) to represent them at the Geneva peace conference. After all, they wonder why the Indian nation isn't being represented and they want peace. However, a baddie (Louis Calhern) is bent on preventing the pair from addressing the conference, as he wants war...though they never really say why!
The film is, like "Duck Soup" from the Marx Brothers (which debuted a few months later), a film that is actually deadly serious. It makes fun of the peace conferences of the day because they pointed out that these conferences really achieved nothing to protect mankind...and the film even ends on a very, very dark note. In many ways, it's very intelligent in addressing this YET it also is very dopey and filled with tons of jokes...many of which fall a bit bit flat. It's also very unusual in that the film's dialog is often sung. Overall, a good film that occasionally misses the mark...but also often succeeds.
By the way, I need to address the proverbial elephant in the room with this film. It is filled with politically incorrect stuff that will horrify some viewers. Hugh Herbert plays a Chinese man, the American Indian tribesmen are walking stereotypes and are ridiculous...and the final scene at the peace conference is a giant black-face number!! It is offensive....a product of its times, of course! But, all in all, I still enjoyed it in spite of everything....but you should be forewarned.
The story begins with the pair lamenting their opening up a barber shop on American Indian land. The natives don't have beards and don't need their services...but they do, for some inexplicable reason, want Willy and Hercules (Wheeler & Woolsey) to represent them at the Geneva peace conference. After all, they wonder why the Indian nation isn't being represented and they want peace. However, a baddie (Louis Calhern) is bent on preventing the pair from addressing the conference, as he wants war...though they never really say why!
The film is, like "Duck Soup" from the Marx Brothers (which debuted a few months later), a film that is actually deadly serious. It makes fun of the peace conferences of the day because they pointed out that these conferences really achieved nothing to protect mankind...and the film even ends on a very, very dark note. In many ways, it's very intelligent in addressing this YET it also is very dopey and filled with tons of jokes...many of which fall a bit bit flat. It's also very unusual in that the film's dialog is often sung. Overall, a good film that occasionally misses the mark...but also often succeeds.
By the way, I need to address the proverbial elephant in the room with this film. It is filled with politically incorrect stuff that will horrify some viewers. Hugh Herbert plays a Chinese man, the American Indian tribesmen are walking stereotypes and are ridiculous...and the final scene at the peace conference is a giant black-face number!! It is offensive....a product of its times, of course! But, all in all, I still enjoyed it in spite of everything....but you should be forewarned.
Wheeler & Woolsey and their own "Duck Soup" style film.
planktonrules4 May 2020
"Diplomaniacs" is a funny, uneven and very politically incorrect film. It also happens to be one of Wheeler & Woolsey's better movies. It's also very, very unusual in many ways. There's even more singing than usual, cute Dorothy Lee (who is in nearly every one of the boys' films) isn't in this one, and it has a very, very dark ending...surprisingly dark for a comedy.
The story begins with the pair lamenting their opening up a barber shop on American Indian land. The natives don't have beards and don't need their services...but they do, for some inexplicable reason, want Willy and Hercules (Wheeler & Woolsey) to represent them at the Geneva peace conference. After all, they wonder why the Indian nation isn't being represented and they want peace. However, a baddie (Louis Calhern) is bent on preventing the pair from addressing the conference, as he wants war...though they never really say why!
The film is, like "Duck Soup" from the Marx Brothers (which debuted a few months later), a film that is actually deadly serious. It makes fun of the peace conferences of the day because they pointed out that these conferences really achieved nothing to protect mankind...and the film even ends on a very, very dark note. In many ways, it's very intelligent in addressing this YET it also is very dopey and filled with tons of jokes...many of which fall a bit bit flat. It's also very unusual in that the film's dialog is often sung. Overall, a good film that occasionally misses the mark...but also often succeeds.
By the way, I need to address the proverbial elephant in the room with this film. It is filled with politically incorrect stuff that will horrify some viewers. Hugh Herbert plays a Chinese man, the American Indian tribesmen and sexy tribeswomen are ridiculous and the final scene at the peace conference is a giant black-face number!! It is offensive....a product of its times, of course! But, all in all, I still enjoyed it in spite of everything.
Also, do NOT freak out at the swastikas in the opening credits. American Indians (as well as Asians) used the symbol for many, many, many years before the Nazis ever began in Germany....and it's not meant as a Nazi reference.
The story begins with the pair lamenting their opening up a barber shop on American Indian land. The natives don't have beards and don't need their services...but they do, for some inexplicable reason, want Willy and Hercules (Wheeler & Woolsey) to represent them at the Geneva peace conference. After all, they wonder why the Indian nation isn't being represented and they want peace. However, a baddie (Louis Calhern) is bent on preventing the pair from addressing the conference, as he wants war...though they never really say why!
The film is, like "Duck Soup" from the Marx Brothers (which debuted a few months later), a film that is actually deadly serious. It makes fun of the peace conferences of the day because they pointed out that these conferences really achieved nothing to protect mankind...and the film even ends on a very, very dark note. In many ways, it's very intelligent in addressing this YET it also is very dopey and filled with tons of jokes...many of which fall a bit bit flat. It's also very unusual in that the film's dialog is often sung. Overall, a good film that occasionally misses the mark...but also often succeeds.
By the way, I need to address the proverbial elephant in the room with this film. It is filled with politically incorrect stuff that will horrify some viewers. Hugh Herbert plays a Chinese man, the American Indian tribesmen and sexy tribeswomen are ridiculous and the final scene at the peace conference is a giant black-face number!! It is offensive....a product of its times, of course! But, all in all, I still enjoyed it in spite of everything.
Also, do NOT freak out at the swastikas in the opening credits. American Indians (as well as Asians) used the symbol for many, many, many years before the Nazis ever began in Germany....and it's not meant as a Nazi reference.
truly, truly, silly
didi-519 January 2004
"Diplomaniacs" certainly lives up to its daft title and this movie probably was one of the silliest of the Wheeler and Woolsey collaborations in the 1930s. The boys find themselves this time uprooted from their Indian reservation barber's shop (where the Indians don't need shaving and only ever seem to say 'oompah', that is, except the Chief who went to Oxford), and sent to stop all wars at the Geneva Peace Conference.
Cue a swipe at every possible stereotype concerning the various peoples and countries of the world, from the Chinaman who wants to return to his wife, who he hates; to the Swiss national costume (don't ask), and even a number, 'No More War', in blackface! And Robert Woolsey even surfaces from sleep with a cigar; the guy must have gone through hundreds of them...
The songs, more of them than usual for one of their movies, are high points amongst the bizarre plot (including one sequence where Bert Wheeler recreates his old vaudeville act with 'Annie Laurie'). In support, Phyllis Barry is a hoot as smoke-breathing siren Fifi, while Marjorie White sizzles as Bert's violent love interest (brilliant number for them in 'Sing to Me'). Louis Calhern and Hugh Herbert also appear.
I know that this movie in particular annoys some commentators who see it as politically incorrect, but viewed in the context of the time, and accepting its mischevious spirit, it has enough good points to keep it watchable today. An excellent comedy classic!
Cue a swipe at every possible stereotype concerning the various peoples and countries of the world, from the Chinaman who wants to return to his wife, who he hates; to the Swiss national costume (don't ask), and even a number, 'No More War', in blackface! And Robert Woolsey even surfaces from sleep with a cigar; the guy must have gone through hundreds of them...
The songs, more of them than usual for one of their movies, are high points amongst the bizarre plot (including one sequence where Bert Wheeler recreates his old vaudeville act with 'Annie Laurie'). In support, Phyllis Barry is a hoot as smoke-breathing siren Fifi, while Marjorie White sizzles as Bert's violent love interest (brilliant number for them in 'Sing to Me'). Louis Calhern and Hugh Herbert also appear.
I know that this movie in particular annoys some commentators who see it as politically incorrect, but viewed in the context of the time, and accepting its mischevious spirit, it has enough good points to keep it watchable today. An excellent comedy classic!
The Quest for Peace
bkoganbing29 June 2012
Diplomaniacs finds Wheeler&Woolsey as a pair of barbers who open up a shop on an Indian reservation where the residents don't grow beards and also do their own haircuts on themselves and others. Business ain't good but their gift for gab has them chosen as delegates to a world peace conference.
The Twenties and early Thirties abounded in conferences and treaties and pacts all in the hope of avoiding another World War. It was a great subject for satire as was shown over at Paramount the same year with the Marx Brothers Duck Soup. Seeing Diplomaniacs the comparisons are obvious.
No one goes to war here, but munitions manufacturer Louis Calhern wants to make sure the option is kept open. Bert and Bob have their instructions and he's going to stop them, aided and abetted by the 'Chinaman' as played by Hugh Herbert.
I did love the casting of Edgar Kennedy as the chair of the Peace Conference in Geneva. The most notoriously inpatient man in the history of the cinema, Kennedy strikes the right note here
The minstrel number at the end was offensive and if it weren't for that Diplomaniacs might rank as high and be as well known as Duck Soup. Still it's a great showcase for Wheeler&Woolsey and those who want to get acquainted with their comedy stylings can do no better than to check this out.
The Twenties and early Thirties abounded in conferences and treaties and pacts all in the hope of avoiding another World War. It was a great subject for satire as was shown over at Paramount the same year with the Marx Brothers Duck Soup. Seeing Diplomaniacs the comparisons are obvious.
No one goes to war here, but munitions manufacturer Louis Calhern wants to make sure the option is kept open. Bert and Bob have their instructions and he's going to stop them, aided and abetted by the 'Chinaman' as played by Hugh Herbert.
I did love the casting of Edgar Kennedy as the chair of the Peace Conference in Geneva. The most notoriously inpatient man in the history of the cinema, Kennedy strikes the right note here
The minstrel number at the end was offensive and if it weren't for that Diplomaniacs might rank as high and be as well known as Duck Soup. Still it's a great showcase for Wheeler&Woolsey and those who want to get acquainted with their comedy stylings can do no better than to check this out.
Shades of "Duck Soup"
Matt-11023 May 1999
This riotous, politically incorrect classic has a lot in common with the Marx Brother's film "Duck Soup". Consider: (1) Both films were released in 1933. (2) Both films had a strong anti-war message to them. (3) Both films starred Louis Calhern and Edgar Kennedy. (4) Both films had hilarious musical numbers in them. A film that is unjustly forgotten today, it has a lot of bizarre, but wonderful moments in it. The film opens with Wheeler & Woolsey as barbers on an Indian reservation. The Indians recruit the boys to attend the Geneva Peace Conference and convince all of the other countries to pledge to end war. However, the owners of an ammunition company sets out to stop them. A delight!
My candidate for Worst Hollywood Musical of All Time
sbowell-130 May 2008
I first saw Diplomaniacs on TV when I was about 10 or 11. I couldn't believe that grownups were capable of making anything that bad. There's bad and there's BAD: there's the kind of bad that after a few seconds makes you snap off the set in disgust, and then there's the kind of BAD where you can't turn away, so BAD it's fascinating: you're transfixed by the utter BADness of it. And that's the effect Diplomaniacs had on me.
Years later, when I was past 50, I came across a VHS cassette of it for a couple of bucks in a video store liquidation sale. I couldn't resist: I bought it and played it to see if it matched my 40-year-old memories of it. It did: I'd love to enter it in a contest for Worst Hollywood Musical of All Time. If Hollywood ever made anything worse (although The Great Gabbo comes close), I hope I never see it.
Had I been a film critic when it came out, I would have written "They were trying for Duck Soup, and came up with Dog's Breakfast." Racist as hell, in terrible taste, and the songs... oh, my God!
But dig who wrote it: Joseph Mankiewicz, who went on to write All About Eve. Shows there's hope for us all.
Years later, when I was past 50, I came across a VHS cassette of it for a couple of bucks in a video store liquidation sale. I couldn't resist: I bought it and played it to see if it matched my 40-year-old memories of it. It did: I'd love to enter it in a contest for Worst Hollywood Musical of All Time. If Hollywood ever made anything worse (although The Great Gabbo comes close), I hope I never see it.
Had I been a film critic when it came out, I would have written "They were trying for Duck Soup, and came up with Dog's Breakfast." Racist as hell, in terrible taste, and the songs... oh, my God!
But dig who wrote it: Joseph Mankiewicz, who went on to write All About Eve. Shows there's hope for us all.
truly hilarious!
ptb-813 May 2006
DIPLOMANIACS is a really really funny 1933 film drawing happy comparison to Marx Bros and Euro-operetta farces of the Depression era. Deliberately as silly as possible with every race stereotype copping a hilarious racist pre code raspberry... even the squadron of French maids who un dress W&W out of their nighties and into hideous check streetwear and stovepipe hats. Everyone cops it and every character is playing unrestrained lunacy to the hilt. Instead of me carrying on about it, make sure you read the 'moviediva' link in the external comments panel along with the very informative other comments here. There is a wealth of information and insight into this forgotten but genuinely hilarious comedy team who seemed to toss very camp humor, cross dressing, insults, demented songs and skirt chasing into every conceivable mix in all their films. I have managed to see about 7 of their films and this so far is the best, fastest and outrageous. They often screen on late night TV in Australia where one channel seems to have almost every RKO pic from 1929-1946. DIPLOMANIACS has a terrific cast and a strong music score. I also love the Monogram pic of 1934 KING KELLY OF THE USA which joins this and DUCK SOUP with MILLION DOLLAR LEGS which you can read all about in other comments and the moviediva link. Enjoy!
An Equal Opportunity Offender.
mark.waltz16 February 2013
Warning: Spoilers
When Wheeler and Woolsey set their sights on spoofing "Duck Soup", they end up with "Ham Chowder". What the result turns out to be is a farce that parodies practically every nationality they can insult: Native Americans, blacks, the Chinese, various Europeans and even homosexuals. It all surrounds their journey to the Geneva Peace convention to demand peace as representatives of the collected Native American tribes now living on reservations. You know immediately this isn't a serious film when the scantily feathered Indian chief shows up in a Rolls Royce sporting a British accent. In Geneva, Wheeler and Woolsey wake up in bed together (looking very much like a married couple, much like they did in "Kentucky Kernels") with a stereotypical gay valet and a chorus girl alarm clock to give them their morning beauty treatments.
In Geneva, Wheeler and Woolsey become the targets of two femme fatals set upon them by the villainous Louis Calhern to get their hands on secret convention documents. Hugh Herbert plays a Fu Manchu like Chineseman (sporting ridiculous wisdoms) while Calhern has four evil rhythmic singing associates who toss a bomb into the convention which results in a black face musical number after it blows up like black smoke in their face. Marjorie White and Phyllis Barry are the two vixens, one a Winnie Lightner like loud mouth, the other a Theda Bara type vamp who knocks men out with her smoke-filled kisses, that is until she encounters the cigar chomping Woolsey.
All of this happens in just an hour, probably Wheeler and Woolsey's shortest film. There are similarities with their earlier farces, but some of the material here reminded me of Olsen and Johnson's not yet produced spoof "Hellzapoppin'" and the "Road" movies with Hope & Crosby. More musical numbers than normal here, the most memorable one is the kaleidoscopic "We're Saying Goodbye" production number at the Indian reservation with the boys being tossed around on a giant Indian blanket that ends with them whirling up towards the moon. If you can get past the blatant stereotypes, you'll find yourself laughing, reminding yourself as one of the boys quips, "A secret is something you tell practically everybody, confidentially!".
In Geneva, Wheeler and Woolsey become the targets of two femme fatals set upon them by the villainous Louis Calhern to get their hands on secret convention documents. Hugh Herbert plays a Fu Manchu like Chineseman (sporting ridiculous wisdoms) while Calhern has four evil rhythmic singing associates who toss a bomb into the convention which results in a black face musical number after it blows up like black smoke in their face. Marjorie White and Phyllis Barry are the two vixens, one a Winnie Lightner like loud mouth, the other a Theda Bara type vamp who knocks men out with her smoke-filled kisses, that is until she encounters the cigar chomping Woolsey.
All of this happens in just an hour, probably Wheeler and Woolsey's shortest film. There are similarities with their earlier farces, but some of the material here reminded me of Olsen and Johnson's not yet produced spoof "Hellzapoppin'" and the "Road" movies with Hope & Crosby. More musical numbers than normal here, the most memorable one is the kaleidoscopic "We're Saying Goodbye" production number at the Indian reservation with the boys being tossed around on a giant Indian blanket that ends with them whirling up towards the moon. If you can get past the blatant stereotypes, you'll find yourself laughing, reminding yourself as one of the boys quips, "A secret is something you tell practically everybody, confidentially!".
Wheeler & Woolsey Journey Into A State Of Confusion
Ron Oliver4 September 2000
A pacifistic Indian tribe sends two zany barbers to be its envoys at the Peace Conference in Geneva. The DIPLOMANIACS soon find themselves up against the machinations of spies working for a powerful munitions company who have a vested interest in seeing that war continues the demand for their explosive bullets.
Wheeler & Woolsey take a plot ridiculous even by their standards and manage to get some solid laughs out of it. The Boys (Bert Wheeler is the little fellow with the curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny guy with the cigar & glasses) are always tremendous fun to watch, but the viewer who tries to find anything meaningful or coherent in this film would be wasting their time. However, in its own goofy way, DIPLOMANIACS holds its own against DUCK SOUP & MILLION DOLLAR LEGS, two contemporary films with which it shares an hysterical point of view.
The Boys are given a fine supporting cast, each of whom get to shine for a few moments, as they are given no chance for any real character development: Louis Calhern as the suave master spy; Edgar Kennedy as the harried head of the Peace Conference; elderly Richard Carle as an inebriated ship's captain; spunky little Marjorie White as Wheeler's violent love interest, choking him into submission (a very funny comedienne nearly forgotten today, a tragic car wreck would claim her life two years after the release of this film); and Hugh Herbert as an inscrutable proverb-spouting Oriental. Movie mavens will spot Charlie Hall as an eager beaver valet.
Wheeler & White fight their way through `Sing To Me' - while the Boys vocalize with `On The Boulevard' and `No More War.'
Wheeler & Woolsey take a plot ridiculous even by their standards and manage to get some solid laughs out of it. The Boys (Bert Wheeler is the little fellow with the curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny guy with the cigar & glasses) are always tremendous fun to watch, but the viewer who tries to find anything meaningful or coherent in this film would be wasting their time. However, in its own goofy way, DIPLOMANIACS holds its own against DUCK SOUP & MILLION DOLLAR LEGS, two contemporary films with which it shares an hysterical point of view.
The Boys are given a fine supporting cast, each of whom get to shine for a few moments, as they are given no chance for any real character development: Louis Calhern as the suave master spy; Edgar Kennedy as the harried head of the Peace Conference; elderly Richard Carle as an inebriated ship's captain; spunky little Marjorie White as Wheeler's violent love interest, choking him into submission (a very funny comedienne nearly forgotten today, a tragic car wreck would claim her life two years after the release of this film); and Hugh Herbert as an inscrutable proverb-spouting Oriental. Movie mavens will spot Charlie Hall as an eager beaver valet.
Wheeler & White fight their way through `Sing To Me' - while the Boys vocalize with `On The Boulevard' and `No More War.'
This isn't to my taste.
alexanderdavies-9938231 July 2017
After seeing this film from comedy team Wheeler and Woosley, I find it nothing short of astounding that the critics at the time found this team to be better or funnier than Laurel and Hardy!! To put it simply: Stan and Ollie are funny, highly creative, inventive and very good actors. They gave their characters much depth. Wheeler and Woosley are positively cringeworthy and their routines in "Diplomaniacs" are tired and long past their prime. The story I shalln't bother to describe but those annoying song and dance numbers are most intrusive in the film. I'm not just saying that because of Wheeler and Woosley, I speak for comedy films in general. There are familiar faces Charlie Hall and Edgar Kennedy (they provided excellent support for Laurel and Hardy) but they are wasted. Hall only makes a one scene appearance and that lasts for all of about 50 seconds. Kennedy appears at the end but has little to do. Wheeler and Woosley irritate me and they are a poor comedy team.
remember the maniacs
tork003015 February 2001
Wheeler & Woolsey have been about as ill-used & forgotten as Shakespeare's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern from the play Hamlet. In the abyss of the Great Depression our country turned to its clowns for solace and distraction from calamity. They did not disappoint us, keeping us howling with mirth lest we howl with despair. In return a grateful nation has given most of them an icon sheen, reviving their films, putting their visage on posters & t-shirts, and encouraging savants, pedants, and just plain journalists, to turn their histories into myths, and their myths into history. All of them, it seems, but Wheeler & Woolsey. These two fine cuckoos have been relegated to the basement of the Museum of Comedy. Their movie Diplomaniacs shows them to be sassy, musical and self-aware comics of the first water. So why is their memory as dead as the Firestone tire? Because the American public and its media minions insist on a simplistic & single view of our great clowns. No ambiguity need apply, seems to be the sign posted on the windows of our souls. Con man & boozer? Why that's W.C. Fields, only. Wisecracker? Groucho! Silly silent girl chaser? Harpo! Wistful vagabond? Only Chaplin. We have forgotten, or never knew, that there is a common gene pool for all great clowns and their comedy. Stan Laurel chased girls in early L & H ventures. Harold Lloyd portrayed a homeless stumblebum before inventing his glass character. And so it goes. Wheeler & Woolsey practised well and wisely the common foibles of the great-hearted boobies -- they drank to excess, warbled irreverent ditties, ogled the girls, and cracked wise at the drop of a pun. But they never got a RESERVED spot in the Hollywood parking lot. Groucho, Buster, each of you can make a little room for 'em, can't you? Your brother fools? Maybe Hollywood can even make amends by filming THE WHEELER & WOOLSEY STORY, with Jim Carrey & Steve Martin. I'd pony up the bucks for that!
My favorite Wheeler and Woolsey!
JohnHowardReid12 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
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).
An Anti-War Comedy
zardoz-1329 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The best of the Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedies is significant because it skewers the naive Kellogg-Briand Pact, an agreement designed to outlaw war signed on August 27, 1928. Our hapless heroes are barbers with a shop on an Indian Reservation when they are sent to Europe as ambassadors to negotiate on behalf of the Oopadoop nation at the Peace conference in Geneva. This comedy is almost as good as the Marx Brothers "Duck Soup." The gags are fast and furious.
From my brief introduction of the film at the Library Of Congress in 2012.
Larry41OnEbay-230 April 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey (Woolsey is the one wearing glasses) were highly successful in Vaudeville before making it big on Broadway which lead to their going Hollywood. The opening Barbershop scene was an old Vaudeville routine, but once you get past that it starts to take off, and I'm not just talking girls clothing
They made 24 films together before Woolsey died at the age of 50 only five years after tonight's film was made. Some of their titles are: HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE; Cracked Nuts; CAUGHT PLASTERED; Hips, Hips, Hooray!; NITWITS & Silly Billies. O yeah, they also saved the RKO studio from going bankrupt during the Great Depression! Critics and film buffs often call them the poor man's Marx Brothers since they share a certain zany comedy and were successful during the same era. In fact tonight's movie which opened in May of 1933 was written by Joseph Mankiewicz who later redeemed himself by writing & directing ALL ABOUT EVE and his brother Herman Mankiewicz so liked this anti-war comedy that six months later he made one of his own with the Marx Bros. called DUCK SOUP which has many similarities including the same bad guy in both played by Louis Calhern as a war profiteer. Herman Mankiewicz later redeemed himself by co-writing CITIZEN KANE, which this soitenley ain't! And here's why you won't see it on TV
it's not politically correct. In fact it may be offensive to some who are put off by bad Chinese stereotypes made by Jewish actors, the objectification and gift wrapping of pretty girls and blackface minstrel numbers. This film has it all, and I apologize but sometimes while examining film history you uncover a stinker, and well folks --- I hope you can enjoy this Pre-Code film made to take Depression era audiences minds of their troubles in a print pulled from the garbage aka DIPLOMANIACS.
Probably the best Wheeler & Woolsey film
vandino131 July 2006
Not that I've seen them all, but considering the sorry comic quality of the many W&W films that I have seen, I'm personally delighted with this one and consider it their best. And most likely the scripting from Mankiewicz and Myers is the reason. They'd written the wacky insanity known as "Million Dollar Legs" (W.C. Fields) just before and kept up the same level of lunacy when they put this one together. A good thing because the loopy script provides W & W with plenty of funny moments removed from their usual stale vaudeville banter. The story itself is, like 'Million Dollar Legs,' almost indescribable. It's basically W&W as barbers on an Indian reservation(!) who end up going to the Geneva peace conference on behalf of the Indian tribe, with all manner of insane nonsense happening along the way. This nonsense includes: an Indian who speaks with an Oxford accent; arrows that fly in and out of the action from nowhere; a valet who exits out of a porthole instead of the door; Hugh Herbert playing a Chinese conspirator(!); people speaking and singing in pig Latin; Woolsey kissing a woman who swallows his smoking cigar; Edgar Kennedy playing the leader at the peace conference but wielding a tommygun; and a bomb exploding that transforms the cast into black-faced minstrels. Compared to their usual routinely handled and written comedies, this one is from another planet. It's a welcome place, and full of laughs.
Low rent MILLION DOLLAR LEGS?
bensonj7 December 2004
Chiefly because of Joseph L. Mankiewicz' free-association punning dialogue and his gags based on literal interpretations of clichés (not to mention the presence of Hugh Herbert), this comes across as a low-rent MILLION DOLLAR LEGS, Mankiewicz's manic comedy of the previous year. But Wheeler, Woolsey and White are no substitute for Fields, Oakie and Roberti! Unlike the earlier film, this follows a simple stage structure, with conventionally placed songs and musical numbers. The pre-Code elements--scanty costumes and the occasional off-color line ("They didn't want to sign, but we made 'em. The women were tough at first, but we...")--haven't got any freshness. There's a certain interesting tension between the cerebral Mankiewicz word-play dialogue and its absolutely mindless delivery by these journeymen comics, and it has what would be described as a "breezy" pace, so it's enjoyable to watch. But to say that it may be of the best Wheeler-Woolsey films doesn't take it very far.
****** Funny Guys
GManfred18 September 2018
"Diplomaniacs" is not one of their best movies, but it still has one of the best comedy teams of early Hollywood. As always, the plot is not the main focus of the film; just wait for the boys to throw off one-liners and to work out some wacky situations.
Now, this was 1933 and some of their gags and jokes are old and have been done over and over, but it's special for their fans when it comes from these two. And some of the material would have to be reworked for modern audiences. Some would find some of the situations dated or offensive, this being 2018. But fans of Wheeler and Woolsey will not be disappointed - they're still funny.
6/10 - Website no longer prints my star ratings.
Now, this was 1933 and some of their gags and jokes are old and have been done over and over, but it's special for their fans when it comes from these two. And some of the material would have to be reworked for modern audiences. Some would find some of the situations dated or offensive, this being 2018. But fans of Wheeler and Woolsey will not be disappointed - they're still funny.
6/10 - Website no longer prints my star ratings.
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