This is How Movies Should Be Made

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Easy. First you remove most of the songs, and then you give one of the most popular comedy teams of the day nothing to work with. All downhill from there. I really don't understand why the producers removed songs and inserted a couple of tuneless ones in their place. The new ones sounded like Gershwin rejects they had stashed in a trunk somewhere. "I Got Rhythm" could have been a show-stopper but it took place in a night club, in one of the most bizarre, surreal musical numbers ever committed to film. I think jaw-dropping is an apt term.In the early 30's, Wheeler and Woolsey were one of the best comedy teams extant. They had made "Hook,Line and Sinker", and "Half Shot At Sunrise", both in 1930. Now, those were funny pictures with good, funny material. "Girl Crazy" was reissued with "Peach-O-Reno" by Warner Archives collection, and there is hardly an unforced laugh in either one. Dreadfully unfunny movies.I could go on and on but why bother. My rating is more a reflection of disappointment than anything else. But The Gershwins and Wheeler and Woolsey deserved better.

Unless you are a Wheeler & Woolsey enthusiast, you'll find this a complete waste of popcorn. Ostensibly a Gershwin musical (and would legitimately be remade as such), it has the numbers grafted onto a proto-screwball comedy. Nearly everything is turned toward setting up the standard jokes of the pair.The one exception is Mitzi Green, the thirteen year old "sister." Her moments are golden. I'd never seen her before. She's not a performer in the mold of Shirley and Judy who charm you with their portrayals. You get the impression that this really is how she is, basically. She does some impressions that lack power today because the targets are mostly forgotten. But she does a dance with two others and continuously gets bumped off. If you've ever done any serious dancing you'll know that what she does is much harder than it seems. This girl shines; wonder whatever happened?Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

It is not easy to turn GIRL CRAZY into a disaster, given the Gershwin score and a somewhat serviceable plot - but the creators of this version have succeeded in doing just that. There were six writers given screen credit for this scenario: perhaps that was the problem, or maybe the screenplay was even worse until that number was reached.The gags (can I call them that if they are not funny?) are so forced, so weak, so juvenile as to make an audience squirm. Wheeler and Woolsey were never worse; at their best (it says here) they were second-raters, with a very limited assortment of poses, gestures, and facial expressions. No one in this cast offers demonstrable talent. An amateur cast (and director) could have done more with the material (I've seen it happen). And let us not overlook totally mindless rendering of "I Got Rhythm" in the film's big production number.Why did you tell me to watch this?

A rich, GIRL CRAZY young playboy decides to transform an old family ranch in Arizona into a fancy entertainment hot spot. He turns to a gambler buddy to come West & operate the games of chance. Together, they trick a witless cabby into running for sheriff in nearby Custerville, a town notorious for the low life expectancy of its lawmen...Wheeler & Woolsey (Bert Wheeler is the little fellow with the curly hair; Robert Woolsey has the glasses & cigar) have fun in this transmogrified Gershwin musical. With their one-liners & physical comedy, they were always able to transcend their material, even in an excessively silly story such as this. It is a shame that the Boys are all but forgotten today...Eddie Quillan, as the playboy, provides his usual peppy puppy support; Dorothy Lee, Wheeler's perpetual flame, appears but is given little to do, probably as she must share plot time with 3 other young ladies: Kitty Kelly, Mitzi Green & Arline Judge. Stanley Fields makes a fine buffonish bad guy. That's Nat Pendleton, unbilled, as the motorcycle cop.With songs by the Gershwin Brothers, the Boys are in very fine musical company. Kelly sings a rousing `I Got Rhythm' - while Quillan & Judge deliver `But Not For Me'. Wheeler & Lee get to warble `You've Got What Gets Me'. Movie mavens will want to pay attention to the very end of this song; the female who gets throttled by Wheeler is none other than the monumental Margaret Dumont, apparently escaped from the Marx Bros., appearing here in an uncredited cameo.