Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

earlytalkie This Wheeler and Woolsey comedy manages to be one of their best and funniest. I watched this with a friend who normally doesn't laugh too much during early-talkie films, but he was roaring with laughter while watching this. This may be the only one of their films without any musical numbers, but the non-stop comedy makes up for it. Jobynna Howland is hysterical as cute Dorothy Lee' s imposing mother. Ralf Harolde is his usual villainous self, and Natalie Moorehead is very funny as a fake countess. I understand that this film was one of RKO's biggest profit-makers, released in December, 1930. The backlash against musicals was in full-force here, and even the opening credits have no music, a roaring motorcycle and blaring siren underscoring them. There is a brief bit of music during a party scene, played by an orchestra seen on-screen, and a brief fanfare over the end credit, and that's it. Again, I have to say, even though I am pre-disposed to musicals, this is so funny that I rank it over some of W&W's more musical efforts. If you want a good laugh, check this out.

MartinHafer Wheeler and Woolsey have been mostly forgotten today even if they were the first comedians successful in full-length sound movies. While Laurel and Hardy were making their wonderful shorts, Wheeler and Woolsey were both making a lot of longer films--and they churned them out in huge numbers in 1930 and 1931--they made four and then five respectively. This was because the team was very popular and RKO wanted to capitalize on them. Unfortunately, because of that, their films are often very uneven. While a few are classics that hold up today, such as CAUGHT PLASTERED and PEACH-A-RENO, many others are tired duds that lack laughs--a serious problem when it's supposed to be a comedy!! When it comes to duds, films like HIGH FLIERS and THE RAINMAKERS come to mind, though HOOK, LINE AND SINKER isn't a whole lot better. It just ain't funny, though the story is pretty agreeable AND the boys don't waste time singing--a problem in some of their early films.The film opens with the boys selling insurance. Along the way, they meet up with their perennial leading lady, Dorothy Lee, and she's in trouble. The boys being gallant, they offer to help. It seems that she's just inherited an old hotel, but the place is a run-down mess. With Bert Wheeler's and Bob Woolsey's help, the place becomes a haven for the rich who want to be seen. As for the boys, a familiar pattern emerges--Bert woos sweet Dorothy and Bob looks for the richest old lady he can find and does the same! If you are a huge Wheeler and Woolsey fan, then by all means see this film. If not, I suggest you see one of the better films I mentioned above instead. Oh, and if you do want to see this or HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE, they are both in the public domain and can be downloaded for free at archive.org--and there's a link to this on IMDb.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 'Hook, Line and Sinker' is the very generic title of this very generic comedy, starring Wheeler & Woolsey, who are very nearly the most generic comedy team of all time. (That dubious honour goes to the Ritz Brothers.) I consistently enjoy watching Wheeler & Woolsey, yet I frankly find them neither very good nor very original. Whenever Robert Woolsey pitches woo to some rich dowager (as he does here, to Jobyna Howland), it's impossible to avoid thinking of Groucho Marx flirting with Margaret Dumont ... and Woolsey suffers by comparison to the great Groucho. Wheeler & Woolsey are very similar to the much later British comedy team Morecambe & Wise ... but I doubt that Eric and Ernie deliberately imitated Bob and Bert. Wheeler & Woolsey also remind me of their contemporaries Clark & McCullough, with Robert Woolsey sometimes seeming to do an outright imitation of Bobby Clark.In 'Hook, Line and Sinker', Wheeler & Woolsey make their entrance riding a two-seat tandem bike; this immediately reminded me of the British comedians the Goodies, who rode a three-seat tridem (which is funnier). More importantly, the Goodies got a large number of gags from their trademark tridem, whereas Wheeler & Woolsey abandon the tandem after its initial appearance. This seems to be the biggest problem with Wheeler & Woolsey: their inability to milk and develop a gag. In one of their films, W&W did a routine very similar to Abbott & Costello's 'Who's on First' (BEFORE Bud and Lou did it), yet they failed to develop this premise as richly as Bud and Lou would use it later. In fairness to Wheeler & Woolsey, part of their problem was their gag writers: most of the scripters who wrote material for W&W were concurrently also writing gags for the Marx Brothers, and the Marxes got first pick of all the best material ... lumbering W&W with literally the leavings. At one point in 'Hook, Line and Sinker', the soundtrack plays Kalmar and Ruby's hit song 'Three Little Words', reminding me that Kalmar and Ruby (who worked closely with the Marx Brothers) wrote the best gags for 'Hips, Hips, Hooray!', which is almost certainly Wheeler and Woolsey's funniest film: it features two delightful songs as well as some ingenious sight gags.'Hook, Line and Stinker' ... sorry, 'Sinker' ... seems to borrow half its plot from the Marx Brothers' previous film 'The Cocoanuts' and its other half from the Marx Brothers' 'Monkey Business', which actually hadn't been written yet when this movie was made. Bert and Bob are briefly insurance salesmen who chuck it to help Dorothy Lee run her hotel. As luck would have it, the hotel is also the secret hideout of some bootleggers, who check into the hotel with some luggage from the Acme Machine Gun Company (a name you can trust).Dorothy Lee was Bert Wheeler's perennial love interest in these movies. Here, she's more annoying than usual, speaking her dialogue in a high-pitched squeal that (unfortunately) matches the annoying voice that Wheeler normally uses for his own gormless character. Their dialogue scenes in this movie sound like chalk on a slate. Bert and Dorothy do have one very amusing scene in which they flirt by pressing keys on a cash register; unfortunately, the photography is too dim for us to see that Dorothy is pressing the "NO SALE" key. (Or is this just down to a badly-processed nitrate print?) Throughout this film, the photography features undercranking at oddly-chosen moments.Amazingly, the funniest performance in this film (as a precognitive bellhop) is given by George Marion Snr, whom I usually find unbearable. I was also impressed by Hugh Herbert, who made this film before he developed the annoying "woo-woo" finger-patting routine that would ruin his performances in so many later films. Natalie Moorhead is amusing as an ersatz duchess whose Continental accent keeps coming and going, while William B Davidson plays a counterfeit duke who doesn't even bother attempting a phony accent.A few decades after this film was made, Jerry Lewis recycled the title 'Hook, Line & Sinker' (he preferred an ampersand) for one of HIS worst comedies, which at least had the tiny merit of (very) vaguely having something to do with fishing. In this Wheeler & Woolsey film, the title's utterly irrelevant. (Yes, I know that it's an American figure of speech roughly equivalent to 'the full monty'.)'Hook, Line and Sinker' is one of the weakest Wheeler & Woolsey films, and not a good introduction to Bert & Bob for audiences who have never seen this team before. Your introduction to W&W should be 'Hips, Hips Hooray!' or 'So This Is Africa', or even 'Rio Rita' or 'Dixiana'. I'll rate 'Hook' just 4 points out of 10.

borsch While this comedy falls off a little towards the end, it's still a great repository for the Funny Stuff that W and W did best. You might call Bert and Bob "Dumb and Smarter", with Wheeler's sweet-natured shlub a perfect match for Woolsey's sly, Groucho-esque wisecracker. The story shell is pure silliness, and the double-entendres come fast and furious. This certainly isn't their best vehicle, but anytime you see these guys in the cable schedule(which, alas, is not often), WATCH 'EM!!