The Nitwits

1935

Comedy / Crime / Music / Mystery

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 25%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 25% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 5.8/10 10 505 505

murder songwriter

Plot summary

A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.

Director

George Stevens Photo
George Stevens

Top cast

Charles C. Wilson Photo
Charles C. Wilson as Police Captain Jennings
Edgar Dearing Photo
Edgar Dearing as Police Officer Barney Riley
Willie Best Photo
Willie Best as Sleepy
Arthur Treacher Photo
Arthur Treacher as Man with Tennis Equipment
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
750.36 MB
1280*936
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 21 min
Seeds 3
1.36 GB
1478*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 21 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by tr-83495 7 / 10

This Little-Known Comedy Team (Today) Were Kings of Slapstick, Tomfoolery

Little-known team (today) of Wheeler and Woolsey were the first comedy team of film at this time, having made almost a dozen movies by 1935. Betty Grable makes a lengthy appearance here. The movie is not bad for 1935 tomfoolery, although it could benefit from some intelligent editing.The film definitely goes on the "watchable" pile simply for the sake of its early slapstick continuity and the fact that this comedy team was so prolific in the early days.Whether or not this type of comedy tickled your funny bone is entirely another matter (I don't think it's funny, for example, but many people will.)
Reviewed by bkoganbing 6 / 10

Could They Use Woolsey's Machine At Guantanamo?

The Nitwits are of course Wheeler&Woolsey and in this film they own a cigar stand in the building where music publisher Hale Hamilton has an office. Hamilton's got a secretary played by Betty Grable that Bert is stuck on. Hamilton's married to Evelyn Brent, but never lets that stand in the way of a little nookie.Anyway, a notorious criminal called the Black Widow is known for sending out letters of extortion demanding money or the victim would be killed. Hamilton decides not to give in and does wind up dead as a result.Unlike Abbott&Costello's Who Done It which has a lot of the same plot premise, The Nitwits is better edited and the perpetrator doesn't come out of nowhere as in Bud&Lou's film. Unfortunately due to one of the gags which involves Woolsey inventing a chair in which a charge of electricity passes through you so you blurt the truth out, we learn a little prematurely in my opinion who the culprit is.Anyway because Betty is a prime suspect, Wheeler&Woolsey get themselves involved in the investigation. They prove as much help to the cops as Abbott&Costello did, but like them they do stumble on to the perpetrator.One reason this film is not revived too often is the climax also involves a bunch of black people being allowed by one of their peers who works as a janitor to use the basement for a quiet crap game. Their fright reactions in the climatic chase of the culprit plays into a lot of racial stereotyping. Anyway I did like Woolsey's Rube Goldberg contraption as a gag. Maybe they could use a real one of those at Guantanamo.
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