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The Warner Archives have
brought movie buffs of all kinds together to bear
witness to the immortal Red Skelton and his "Whistling"
trilogy, the 1941 comedy series that brought Skelton
together with co-stars like Eve Arden and Virginia Grey.
Restored and featured in three separate discs, the
"Whistling" collection is ultimately a mixed bag of
Skelton comedies that are all fairly flawed with some
dated zingers that fall flat on numerous occasions, but
when they shine, they manage to draw some genuine laughs
thanks to Skelton who is sometimes too goofy to enjoy,
and other times seem too funny for the material he's
handed. Taking the page from Abbot and Costello, we see
Red Skelton and co. in peril with WHISTLING IN THE
DARK (1941), a horror themed short adventure where
Skelton plays victim to a peace loving cult who want to
inherit a million dollars their follower left behind for
her nephew. Now to get the money, they decide to kill
the nephew and make it look natural. So they enlist the
talents of "The Fox" radio show creator Wally Benton.
Skelton plays Benton the inept but brilliant murder
mystery writer who is tricked in to going along with the
group who then kidnap him when he catches on. Refusing
to engage in the plot, the group captures Wally's fiance
and his boss's daughter, and the rest of the film
involves Wally and his friends trying to outwit the
group.
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With a hilarious gag
involving a female servant who looks like a man, and a
classic characters sneaking through a dark room cue
sight gags and spooky misdirection, "Whistling in the
Dark is uneven in the sense that Skelton is constantly
shifting back and forth from straight man to goofball
throughout the narrative. Sometimes he's this cowardly
simpleton who'd put his girlfriends' life in danger
before his own, then the next he's begging for his life.
In spite of that "Whistling in the Dark" is a short but
sweet time killer with some pretty sharp mishaps and
subtle physical humor that Skelton delivers quite well
particularly the opening where Arden and Skelton are
arguing back and forth through a three door walk-in
closet. Even at almost eighty minutes the film feels
slightly too long, but closes on a funny note when Wally
is able to rig a radio to become a receiver and gets the
help of his loyal listeners pretending to do a radio
play. "Whistling in the Dark" is entertaining comedic
fodder that finishes with typical madcap, just don't
expect raucous laughs. WHISTLING IN DIXIE (1942)
features the return of the brilliant clown Wally Benton
as he and fiancé Carol are called upon by an old friend
from Dixie after a wealthy benefactor is killed in cold
blood by a mysterious figure whose MO is whistling Dixie
to signal their presence.
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As is typical of
poor Benton, he's called in to engage in
this mystery with his long suffering fiancé
and mayhem ensues. Now that he foiled the
conspiracy of the cult in the former film,
Benton is considered an unofficial criminal
sleuth, and he has to deal with that title
whether he likes it or not. Skelton bring
aboard a new gag where if someone mutters
the word "Murder" he goes in to comedic
spasms thanks to his trauma with the cult in
the previous story. Carol is summoned by her
ex-sorority sister begging her and Wally to
figure out who killed the benefactor and
their motives. Diana Lewis joins the fray as
Carol's long lost friend Ellamae who engages
in the love triangle between the couple that
keeps Wally running back and forth between
the two while dodging imminent death. Like
most of the vehicles for comedy teams and
the like, the narrative is just a guideline
for a series of gags and skits that ensue
and boy howdy do the gags ensue from the get
go. |
Aside from Skelton's spasms,
there's also a surprisingly funny but goofy gag where
the murderous chauffeur from "Dark" appears again but
this time as his twin brother Chester which results in a
fight and "Rags" Ragsland explaining that he and
Sylvester are brothers and he gets the punishment for
Sylvester being a crook, ending in spinning heads and
belly laughs. There's also yet another scene of Wally
and his two women sneaking in to a dark corridor cue gag
involving the darkness, "Cat and the Canary" plot
devices involving a shadowy hand shooting at the group.
But there are some pretty good moments including a tense
sequence where Wally nearly chops his own head off
thanks to a misplaced cigarette, and a series of mix-ups
that ensue when Chester's brother Sylvester comes in to
town. This isn't very much of a sequel with its murder
mystery remaining ultimately underwhelming and lacking
in any actual interest. All of the mystery boils down to
Wally having to think his way out of a tight situation
being held hostage with compatriots yet again leading to
another madcap finale.
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WHISTLING IN
BROOKLYN (1943) bears the question: will
Wally and Carol ever get hitched? The third and
final film in the "Whistling" trilogy featuring
amateur detective Wally Benton and his long
suffering fiancé Carol drops down on to Brooklyn
where a serial killer is knocking off
authorities across the city and leaving their
bodies for the police to find taunting them with
mysterious letters. Now that Benton is still
known for being a master detective who happened
in to his trade, he's being blamed for
committing these murders because who else can
give police the run around but "The Fox"? Anne
Rutherford is as radiant as ever as the straight
man and only shred of sanity left in her
relationship with Skelton's character Wally, and
the gags come full circle with an entry that
ends on laugh out loud moments. While the first
film was feeling the waters, and the second one
treading water, the third film really dives in
to the comedy (had enough water analogies yet?)
with some raucous set pieces including Wally and
trusty chauffeur Chester trying to close a
suitcase, and the hysteria that follows when the
newspaper reports Wally as a suspect in the
serial killings. |
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Wally, once the put upon
genius, is now on the lam and must clear his name and
hopefully marry Carol before the picture ends. The
lovely Jean Rogers joins in on the gags as aspiring
reporter Jean Pringle anxious to get a story out of
Wally and his accused misdeeds and will do anything
including stuffing herself in his trunk and popping up
in odd places. The fun of the "Whistling" movies is
Skelton's interaction with his straight women, all of
whom are either victims to his goofiness, or play off of
him grounding him as a human character. Rutherford is
the heart of this trilogy lending a tension, chemistry,
and tenderness that's found in films like the "Thin Man"
series. When Wally missteps, she helps put him on the
right track to save their lives. For this final entry
the writers put Wally in Carol in more harrowing
situations than the former films including a rather
intense shoot out, and a long sequence involving an
elevator that is bound to crush them if they don't act
quick. Rags Ragland is as funny as ever as Chester, the
assistant to Wally who means well, but doesn't have a
lick of common sense or brains. Like the previous
farces, the story follows the formula of wacky mix-ups
and high pace madcap that brings Skelton in to the
spotlight. As the rest of the final film, "Brooklyn"
becomes ever more deadly as Benton and Carol discover
the identity of the killer and struggle to reach the
inspector to notify him, which ends in a stand off
involving kitchen ware, and a hilarious water pun
sealing the deal for these characters. It's a superior
finisher in an otherwise passable little trilogy. |
