User Reviews

I can almost guarantee that 9 out of 10 "modern" viewers will have little to no patience with "The Cuckoos". This is definitely a movie made to appeal to a different generation of moviegoers. But if they shut it off quickly it's their loss, because this archaic musical comedy has its pleasures too: a terrific, carefree tap dance duet with Wheeler and Woolsey, Woolsey courting the wonderfully large Jobyna Howland in a sequence that is strongly reminiscent of Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont ("Will you love me until I die?" - "Well, that depends on how long you'll live!"), and three segments unexpectedly done in color (most uncommon for 1930!). One of those segments is the bizarre "Dancing The Devil Away" production number. It's a shame, though, that the comic premise of the two fake fortune tellers is exploited in only one scene. It was funnier than seeing Wheeler in drag. **1/2 out of 4.

Composers Kalmar and Ruby had their biggest Broadway success yet with "The Ramblers" which ran for 300 performances in the 1926-27 season. The show starred Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough as a pair of traveling fortune tellers, whose vaudeville lunacy overcame mixed reviews. For the movie version RKO cast Wheeler and Woolsey, a hot comedy team who had wowed audiences on Broadway in "Rio Rita" and later in the movie version. They were re-united with pert Dorothy Lee, who had also starred in "Rio Rita". She became so closely associated with the team that when the public grew tired of them (and they definitely were an acquired taste) she found herself out of favour as well.

The movie changed the locale from a movie set (the play) to a gypsy camp just over the border from a Mexican casino (who knows why??) where Professor Cunningham (Woolsey) and Sparrow (Wheeler) are stranded. Anita (sweet Dorothy Lee), an American girl, who has been bought up by the gypsies, falls for Sparrow - "the little fellow". It doesn't take long for the songs to start. A chorus line perform "Caballero Number", followed by Wheeler and Woolsey's comic skit "Oh How We Love Our Alma Mater", a song that tells of their carousing college days. Ruth is then introduced - she is an heiress (of course) and is being romanced by the Baron (Ivan Lebedeff) but is really in love with Billy Shannon, a young aviator. June Clyde is just lovely and actually lifts Hugh Trevor's colourless performance. Together they sing "All Alone Monday", which describes the state of Billy's love life on every day of the week, and do a sweet dance - to say Hugh's heart isn't in it is an understatement.

Jobyna Howland puts everything into her performance and her sequences are standouts - firstly with Sparrow as she tries to match her singing with his flute playing and in another part where the Professor sings "I'm a Gypsy" to her. Howland was an Amazonian woman who used her size to get a lot of laughs. She and Woolsey's scenes of wisecracking repartee reminded me of Groucho and Margaret Dumont. Ruth and Billy decide to become secretly engaged until Billy becomes famous and can impress her Aunt Fanny (Howland). Together they sing "Wherever You Are" (my favourite song of the film). June Clyde is vibrant and bright eyed and I can't understand why she is not more well known.

Suddenly Ruth is kidnapped by the Baron (who is really the head of the Gypsies) and our three heroes make their way to Tiajuana. Sparrow finds Anita under an apple tree - she is awaiting Gypsy justice, having confessed to kissing him. Together they sing the charming "I Love You So Much" (it became the song hit of the movie) - which involves lots of kissing and eating a barrelful of apples. The film has a couple of two strip Technicolor sequences - one that uses it to advantage is the jazzy "Dancing the Devil Away". Marguerita Padula sings, then in a puff of smoke the screen becomes a riot of colour (well red and green) as Lee and chorus girls dance and posture to ward off evil spirits (the song was taken from "Lucky", a short lived Kalmar and Ruby show from 1927).

Another color sequence was at the very end as Ruth, Billy, the Professor, Sparrow and Anita are heading for a crash landing in their plane - the screen erupts in colour as the plane crashes (yes, you guessed it) right in the casino. The song "I Love You So Much" is reprised as people escape the wreckage, ending in a clinch by Anita and Sparrow, instead of Ruth and Billy. Well, Dorothy Lee was billed third (after Wheeler and Woolsey) and up until that time, she had only had one scene and sung two songs. Hugh Trevor may have seemed like a fish out of water in this movie, but the same year he was in a pretty good crime movie, "The Pay-Off" where he played a vicious gangster, Rocky and he was very good in it.

Highly Recommended.

The team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby are only known through their still popular catalog of songs. A movie on their life, "Three Little Words", has kept their songs alive. In this lavish musical comedy, Wheeler and Woolsey had their first leads, and are an absolute riot. Like "Rio Rita", this is set in Mexico but deals with gypsies, not bandits. Dorothy Lee is back too, still in love with Wheeler yet in violation of her father's refusal to marry him.

The setting is a posh hotel where the gypsies sell their wares and provide entertainment, although Lee's father is a thief. Woolsey gets the admiration of wealthy American widow Jobyna Howland by identifying the man who stole her purse, resulting in humorous attempts by the boys to escape his wrath. A romantic subplot involves Howland's daughter (June Clyde) who becomes the victim of a kidnapping plot while trying to get her wacky but snobbish mother to get her to accept the man she loves. Along with Clyde, Billy Shannon sings the Kalmar and Ruby standard, "All Alone Sunday", while Wheeler and Lee sing "I Love You So Much". The other musical highlights are Wheeler and Woolsey's tribute to their college (Vassar!), "Oh How We Love Our Alma Matter".

Howland and Woolsey have their own romantic number which adds humor of having Woolsey unable to lift up the hefty Howland. Their pairing reminded me of Groucho and Margaret Dumont, though the dialog here has much more suggestive ideas behind it. Lavish dance numbers add to e entertainment value of this, making it the best of Wheeler and Woolsey's three big musicals (also including "Dixiana").