{"id":44005,"date":"2024-05-31T16:58:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44005"},"modified":"2024-05-31T16:58:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:58:10","slug":"the-bootleg-files-innocently-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/31\/the-bootleg-files-innocently-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Innocently Guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 868: <\/strong>\u201cInnocently Guilty\u201d (1950 comedy short starring Bert Wheeler).
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\nLAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube. <\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> It fell through the proverbial cracks.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Unlikely, unless it is part of an anthology of miscellaneous Columbia Pictures shorts.<\/p>\n

Bert Wheeler is remembered today as one-half of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy team that starred in a series of comedy films beginning in 1929 with \u201cRio Rita\u201d and ending with \u201cHigh Flyers\u201d in 1937. After the death of his on-screen partner Robert Woolsey in 1938, Wheeler struggled to maintain a solo career \u2013 he starred in the forgettable films \u201cThe Cowboy Quarterback\u201d (1938) and \u201cLas Vegas Nights\u201d (1941) and then disappeared from the big screen to find work in nightclubs, on radio and on stage. Wheeler found a larger audience in 1950 when Jackie Gleason invited him to appear on his \u201cCavalcade of Stars\u201d television show on the Dumont Television Network.
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Wheeler\u2019s return to wider visibility via television spurred Columbia Pictures to sign him to a two-picture deal where he would headline short comedies. Unfortunately, he was dumped into \u201cInnocently Guilty,\u201d a remake of the 1935 Andy Clyde short \u201cIt Always Happens\u201d that turned out to be one of the least entertaining films churned out by the studio in 1950.<\/p>\n

In this film, Wheeler plays the bumbling Hodkinson G. Pogglebrewer, the owner of a hardware store. Wheeler\u2019s character leaves his wife to run the store while he goes on an overnight trip to Los Angeles for a business meeting with the owner of a tractor company, played by Vernon Dent. Both men are staying in the same hotel, where Dent has a suite with his beautiful French wife.<\/p>\n

Wheeler\u2019s trip is anything but serene \u2013 he briefly winds up in jail for kicking a police officer in the rear, gets his foot stuck in a janitor\u2019s water bucket, and tears the dress off Dent\u2019s wife \u2013 just as Wheeler\u2019s wife and her belligerent sister-in-law show up. There is also a crazy car trip through the city, a surplus number of slamming doors as the characters evade and pursue each other, and assorted anvil-level slapstick including the sister-in-law getting a wet mop in her face and Dent shooting bullets into Wheeler\u2019s derriere.<\/p>\n

As a Columbia short, \u201cInnocently Guilty\u201d is packed with talent that will be easily recognized by Three Stooges fans. In addition to the burly Vernon Dent as the exasperated brunt of the slapstick situations, Christine McIntyre turns up as Wheeler\u2019s wife, Quebec cutie Nanette Bordeaux is the French wife caught without most of her clothing, Margie Liszt is the sister-in-law, former Keystone Kop Heinie Conklin is the janitor and Joe \u201cFake Shemp\u201d Palma is the cop who gets kicked in the rear by Wheeler. Jules White is the director and his brother Jack White co-wrote the screenplay.<\/p>\n

So, what went wrong? Part of the problem was how the film positioned Wheeler. As a solo performer after the death of Robert Woolsey, he never created an easily identifiable persona that audiences would immediately recognize. As a result, Wheeler\u2019s character was molded into a generic and unappealing ninny who gets stuck in ridiculous situations but never realizes that anything is amiss in his topsy-turvy world. Also, the actor was 55 years old when he made \u201cInnocently Guilty\u201d and, to be cruel, he was too old for the frenetic knockabout he was required to perform.<\/p>\n

In watching Wheeler in \u201cInnocently Guilty,\u201d it is difficult not to recall an interview that Joe DeRita gave when he spoke about his brief period as the star of his own shorts series at Columbia: \u201cMy comedy in those scripts was limited to getting hit on the head with something, then going over to my screen wife to say, ‘Honey, don’t leave me!’ For this kind of comedy material, you could have gotten a busboy to do it and it would have been just as funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInnocently Guilty\u201d made zero impression on audiences, and Wheeler\u2019s follow-up Columbia short \u201cThe Awful Sleuth\u201d (1951) was also a dud. The studio opted not to pursue further films with Wheeler, which ended his big screen career. The actor turned up in 1955 on the TV western \u201cBrave Eagle\u201d as a \u201chalf-breed\u201d Indian and made a few isolated guest shots on the small screen before passing away in 1968.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnocently Guilty\u201d disappeared from view after its release. Since Wheeler only made two unappreciated shorts for Columbia, there was no reissue value. I don\u2019t believe this film is in the public domain, otherwise it would have been more widely available. A collector\u2019s print of the film with a British Board of Film Censors opening title was uploaded to YouTube last month, thus saving \u201cInnocently Guilty\u201d from total oblivion. <\/p>\n