Beautiful, moving film.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

An Absurdist comedy with Wheeler, Woolsey and Natalie Moorhead, it has all the luridness of a farce, funny dialog and a lavish shootout, made in an age when the right idea of humor didn't even seem extraordinary, but usual, customary. From a sociological standpoint, this defines a healthier society. Shows like this are as characteristic and as endearing as 18th century stage plays.The two entrepreneurs, Mary, the Duchess offer fun to every scene they play. Likewise, the blasé receptionist, and the detective is a running gag.The comedy's sense of fun is endearing: always harmless, without ever being tasteless or offensive.Music hall, variety, vaudeville, revue, these are the school of this knowledge of how to be keen and gentle in an unassuming craft. I cherish this comedy. And maybe so do others.It was a good idea to top a comedy with an extravaganza: efficient, here (the machine-gun and the shootout), less so, in a comedy with O'Brien (the boxing match).

The downside of this movie, one of the early collaborations of Bert Wheeler (the sweet curly-haired guy) and Robert Woolsey (the cigar-chomping wise guy), has one major failing for me: no musical numbers! I think this is the only one of the their nine-year series at RKO not to have even one song, and I missed that.Anyway, the film is pretty much on-form. The boys play insurance agents who go into the hotel business after meeting heiress Dorothy Lee (I think this is her weakest performance, far too stilted to make any kind of good impression on the viewer). The hotel she has inherited is a wreck but they soon make it good (how we don't see) and attract the attentions of some jewel thieves. Dorothy's mother (the large and booming-voiced Jobyna Howland) and her intended (the urbane Ralf Harolde who played a similar role in the earlier 'Dixiana') also arrive to thwart the plans made so far. In support are Stanley Fields, George Marion (as the oldest bellhop in the world), and Hugh Herbert (the sleepy house detective), and all are watchable.There are a few highlights amongst the set pieces, the noirish shootout at the end, Natalie Moorhead as the fake Duchess vamping the boys for the safe code, Howland's tales to Woolsey about her numerous previous marriages, and more. Good stuff, but that scene with Bert and Dorothy planning their future by the hotel till really needs a song!

This comedy starts out very well with a promising set-up, and although it cannot maintain the same standard throughout, it's mostly entertaining, if rather silly. Wheeler and Woolsey make a pretty good comic team, and the complicated, deliberately implausible plot provides them with some good moments. Director Eddie Cline, better known for the comedies he made with Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields, keeps things on track.We are first introduced to the two leads in a funny scene where they try to talk a policeman out of giving them a ticket. Shortly afterwards, they are involved in all kinds of complications at a run-down hotel, involving a large cast of dubious characters. While the pace is a little uneven, it keeps your attention, and there are also a couple of clever lines of dialogue. While it doesn't quite fulfill its early promise, this is definitely worth a look if you enjoy comedies from the 30's.

This is another in the long series of wacky slapstick comedies made by this pair of comic geniuses.