Half Shot at Sunrise (1930) User Reviews

Pert and Peppy Dorothy Lee!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 13 October 2009]

That's how Photoplay described her. Wheeler and Woolsey were hugely popular in 1930. Photoplay couldn't sing their praises highly enough for this film - "some of the funniest lines and situations ever devised", "Wheeler and Woolsey gobble up all the acting honors". Unfortunately, time has proved Photoplay wrong. Now they don't occupy such a lofty position and are almost forgotten. Dorothy Lee, who was so important a part of their team (the movies they made without her were not as good), found her career on the wane when Wheeler and Woolsey's popularity slowed down. She was definitely an asset and a major element in their appeal. Having a small part as a cute flapper in "Syncopation" (1929)(she toured with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians), Bert Wheeler saw her and thought she would be perfect for "Rio Rita' and the rest is history.

Tommy Simpson (Bert Wheeler) and Gilbert (Robert Woolsey) are a pair of privates AWOL in Paris in 1918. Catching them is the army's top priority as they are cutting up the town - impersonating officers and flirting with pretty girls. They have badges for every rank - Captain, Major, Rear Admiral - until Tommy meets Annette (Dorothy Lee) and falls for her hook, line and sinker - the only trouble - she is the general's daughter!!!

Wheeler and Lee have such a wonderful rapport - it was clear they must have been great friends in real life. "Are you married? - No, I just naturally look worried!!", "I think it's a shame to send cute little fellas like you to the front - That's what I told them, but they wouldn't listen"!!! They soon go into a cute song and dance "Whistling the Blues Away". The three of them then drive to the country where they continue the song as a comic ballet send up (ballet pieces were very popular in musicals at that time). Dorothy Lee is just unbelievably adorable - especially when she is mad at Tommy for being a ladie's man. Leni Stengel plays Olga, the vamp, who is trying to romance Annette's father, but settles for Gilbert instead. Annette says "I may be able to pick up a few pointers from this baby!!!". The song is reprised again in a nightclub as a precision tap dance. There is a funny sequence when the boys disguise themselves as waiters. Annette then steals some orders so Tommy can deliver them and prove to her dad that he is a true hero. There is another song,the quite unmemorable "Nothing But Love" sung by Gilbert and Olga - Stengel had originally trained for the Opera. Again another funny balletic dance that Wheeler and Woolsey movies were noted for.

Dorothy Lee is the real reason to watch this film. Her athleticism is very apparent - especially in "Whistling the Blues Away" where she leaps and bounds and jumps from the roof of a car, only to land on the ground when the boys run off. Hugh Trevor had a small role as a soldier in love with Annette's sister. I think he was definitely an up and coming star - he stands out in this film. He was handsome, could sing and also act - it was a pity he retired early from films.

Recommended.

Dated but Fun

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 24 April 2004]

Wheeler and Woolsey play two service men during the First World War and go AWOL in Paris changing identities as they go to avoid being captured. How good they are at not being caught is best summed up early in the film when the steal their image off a photograph. Its lunacy from an earlier era and at times its quite funny. The duo made numerous film through the mid 1930's stopping only when Woolsey died of kidney failure.

This is a film thats not quite on par with the duos later films. Thats not to say its not funny, it is; its just that films were still feeling their way around sound and so the cameras often had limited motion and set ups which make them feel stiff. If you can get past that feeling and want to see an under appreciated comedy duo then rent this or any of the other Wheeler and Woolsey films.

A genuine piece of history.

[TOMASBBloodhound · 6/10 · 30 April 2011]

Sure it seems more than a bit stale in this day and age, but consider the state of film when this was made. The audio is a bit weak, but sound in films was still a cutting edge concept. Much of the dialog regarding these two soldiers attempting to pick up women seems sanitized, but this was made a decade before Clark Gable uttered the word damn and caused an uproar. When you look back at it, Half Shot at Sunrise was probably well ahead of its time.

The thin plot involves two US army privates stationed in Paris during WWI who are constantly AWOL and looking to score with any and all ladies they encounter. One of the most pointless and destructive conflicts in history was happening all around them, but these two only care about scoring with women! At least they have their priorities straight! On their trail are a couple tough-talking MPs, a two-timing Colonel, his amorous daughter, and..... well there just isn't a lot of plot here. Some of the dialog is just too parsed to be taken seriously. "These men make love to every woman they meet," an MP warns the colonel's pretty young daughter after he learns she may be smitten by one of these two. Some of the jokes provide more than a few chuckles. In one scene, Woolsey and Wheeler are disguising themselves as officers to impress a table of French ladies. "Why don't you want to play a general?" one asks the other. "Because then there's no chance of promotion!" the other replies. Probably the biggest laugh I had was after one of them whispers a proposition into the ear of a French girl. She replies with a long angry response in her native language. "What did she say?" asks one of our heroes. "She said no," the other replies. Ha! If you want to see one of the earliest and tamest sex comedies imaginable, then check this film out. I think youtube has the entire thing available. See where some of our more contemporary filmmakers may have gotten some inspiration. One of these two main characters is named Tommy Turner. Just like the most raunchy member of the gang in Porkys! 6 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

much fun in Paris

[didi-5 · 4 April 2004]

RKO gave the vaudeville comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey a second starring feature with this fairly funny piece set in Paris during the Great War. The boys are AWOL from their lowly ranks in the army and running amok amongst the girls in the wicked city. Meanwhile the colonel (former singer George MacFarlane) is juggling a romance with the sparky Olga (scene-stealing Leni Stengel) and the suspicion of his wife (Edna May Oliver's film debut), while his youngest daughter (the team's resident cutie, Dorothy Lee, fixing on curly-haired Wheeler as usual) is on the prowl for someone to ‘be nice' to her.

The movie has a watchable mix of pure comedy (the roller skating waiter, the scented letter, the café scene), songs (the usual duet for Wheeler and Lee; plus a fun bit for Woolsey and Stengal where he ends up dancing in a fountain in his underwear), and romance – with the obligatory happy endings after all the mayhem. What does jar though is the attempt to signpost the war by sending the boys to the Front – this section just doesn't fit somehow.

The Keystone Academy for Military Police

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 9 November 2015]

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey play a couple of soldiers during the late World War who like to be permanently on holiday in Paris. It seems in Half Shot At Sunrise that the majority of Pershing's military police force are out chasing them. And the police seem to have been trained at the Keystone Academy.

But while all this is going on Wheeler has made the acquaintance of their perennial leading lady Dorothy Lee who is the daughter of their commanding officer George MacFarlane. In fact MacFarlane would like to dally with a Mam'selle or two. If you were married to Edna May Oliver that would be understandable.

I never understood why Wheeler who was always playing these schnook characters before Woody Allen perfected them was always getting the girl. I always thought the strong end of the team was Woolsey with those wisecracks and that ever present cigar which seem to have been implanted in his mouth.

Fans of the duo and others should like this amusing military comedy.

Reasonably watchable but with a paper-thin plot.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 29 October 2009]

I must admit up front that although I have seen quite a few Wheeler and Woolsey films, I am not a huge fan. Most of this is because the quality of their films varied tremendously. A few were exceptional but too many were sub-par messes that just weren't all that funny. The quality of HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE is about average for the duo. It does have a few decent moments and is more likable than some of their later films (which tended to be duds) but the film also suffered from having too little plot. It consists of the boys being WWI soldiers and being AWOL. Much of their time is spent avoiding the MPs as well as Wheeler trying to make time with the Colonel's younger daughter. Towards the end of the film, the boys think that by doing an act of heroism that they'll be able to weasel out of being AWOL for so long and the film does have a clever ending that tied everything together well. Believe it or not, there really isn't any more to the film than this...other than a few songs thrown into the mix for good measure.

Pleasant but not one of the funnier comedies the team has made. Worth a look but not a must-see. And, since it's in the public domain, it may be downloaded at sites such at archive.org.

Shoot them whenever you want

[AAdaSC · 4/10 · 15 August 2009]

Tommy (Bert Wheeler) and Gilbert (Robert Woolsey) have gone AWOL from the army in Paris and are running around chasing girls. Col. Marshall (George MacFarlane) wants them arrested. However, his daughter Annette (Dorothy Lee) bumps into Tommy and they fall in love. Olga (Leni Stengel) meets with Gilbert and they also fall in love. Annette has a plan that will make heroes out of Tommy and Gilbert..............

Wheeler and Woolsey (the one with the glasses) act out various set-piece scenes, most of which are crammed with obvious one-liners and aren't very funny. Dorothy Lee is good in her scenes even if a little wooden at times - but she is not bad as the actors who play the military police. They are terrible! Mrs Marshall (Edna May Oliver) is the best of the cast.

There are 3 good bits in the film - the first dance with Wheeler and Lee (she is very good to watch); the 2nd dance with Wheeler, Wooster and Lee (watch her final landing and subsequent explanation as she jumps off a truck); and there is a funny moment at the restaurant where Tommy, disguised as a waiter, serves the food to the Colonel and his wife. That's your lot for entertainment - it's not a catastrophe but the film mostly drags.

fun wheeler and woolsey thang

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 23 March 2018]

Comedy team Wheeler and Woolsey are soldiers in WW I who go AWOL, impersonate military police, flirt with the locals, and cause havoc where-ever they go. Edna May Oliver is in here as the Colonel's wife, with her usual disapproving glances and sarcasm. The Tiller Girls perform a bit in the cafe. The boys pretend to speak french in a terrible, insulting fashion. and everyone pretends not to notice. This was one of their earlier films, and could use a restoration -- the version I saw had some rough spots in both sound and picture quality. It's a fun, light film. The usual sight and banter gags as all their other films, but it's fun to watch the vaudeville bits taped together into a film. Moves pretty slowly, as they try to stay one step ahead of the real MPs. Directed by Paul Sloane, who also directed them in "Cuckoos". I caught this one on Epix channel. It's entertaining.

Oh, what a wacky war!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 7 January 2016]

Delightfully irreverent and deliciously un-P.C., this war comedy is unashamedly tacky on its depiction of two AWOL soldiers in Paris getting into all sorts of trouble. Wheeler and Woolsey song, dance, clown and scheme their way out of the trenches. Wheeler falls in love with a bumbling major's daughter (the perky Dorothy Lee) while Woolsey goes out of his way to make time with the French vamp (Leni Stengel) out to blackmail the general.

With sniffy Edna May Oliver as the major's imperious wife and Lee's domineering mother, this ends up being a riotous farce with hysterically funny sketches with the two boys and some very funny musical sequences. "Whistle For Me, Dear" is pretty catchy. Originally sung as a duet between Wheeler and Lee, it is hysterically repeated when Woolsey cuts in on the fun. Poor Lee is tossed around like a sack of potatoes, and ends up with a landing on her rump that appears oh so painful but will cause your heart to pound with the laughter that ensues.

Woolsey also scores when he attempts to hide from two m.p.'s by pretending to be a waiter. Dated if you are not familiar with Wheeler and Woolsey's work, it gets funnier on repeat viewings. Oliver is a classic version of the roles Maggie Smith played in her maturity, and even though she's as Yankee as you can get, I can see her as the matriarch Violette that Smith played on "Downton Abbey". George MacFarlane is delightfully droll as the perplexed major. Pretty decent for a vaudeville style musical comedy that is proof that Wheeler and Woolsey deserve more recognition than they've gotten.

Comedy Set During WWI

[craig-378 · 5/10 · 5 March 2005]

I originally watched this movie when it was included in a set of 6 war movies on a combination disc of war classics. Given that the other movies on the disc were more war dramas I was expecting something similar even while reading the introductory paragraph on the box. While the movie is set during WWI in Paris (which in that war was NOT occupied by the Germans) that is about all of the war you will get. What this movie is is a Charlie Chaplin-esquire farce of two guys who go AWOL and have a good time. Obviously these two officers are of lesser caliber in the Army. The movie is typical of the slapstick comedy in the 20s and 30s, hence the Charlie Chaplin reference, but this is a talking movie but it does not rely on dialogue for the laughs. Not quite as classic as a Chaplin movie but decently funny none the less.

The old masters,

[waspswatter · 8/10 · 1 May 2006]

Wheeler and Woolsey are two of my favorite comedians from this era. You just never know what to expect. This takes place in France during World War I, and while there is always an expected amount of sexual innuendo in their movies, (and in a lot of movies made before the codes) this one has the most I've seen yet. Ex. Cute innocent Dorothy Lee says to the boys she's about to turn in as A.W.O.L. for reward "I expect to make $500 from both of you tonight." to which Woolsey exclaims to Wheeler, "You're in Paris now boy"! Don't even get me started on Leni Stengel as the exotic Olga. I found this movie very enjoyable, even when things invariably get silly.

Delightful Comedy

[sbibb1 · 13 January 2004]

Two soldiers go AWOL in Paris during World War 1. An enjoyable comedy made by RKO. Dorothy Lee, a favorite of Wheeler and Woolsey is delightful in this film, especially the musical number "Whistling the Blues Away." Edna Mae Oliver has a small but effective role as the snooty wife of a general. Leni Stengel is also very effective as the beautifully dressed and elusive Olga.

No sunrise and very little shooting, but who cares?

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 28 January 2007]

Always say "Dorothy Lee" in the same breath as "Wheeler and Woolsey". Here our favorite pert, loose-limbed ingénue has a grand time singing and dancing and trading quips with the two comedians who are on the loose in Paris in 1918. The script by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ralph ("Five Dollars-A-Word") Spence, James Ashmore Creelman (who will always be remembered for King Kong) and the famous Broadway librettist Anne Caldwell represents a deliciously zany parade of visual and verbal nonsense which the performers endeavor to keep moving at an admirably fast pace despite the well-meaning efforts of stodgy director Paul Sloane to slow it down. A special pat on the back (if "back" is the right word) for Leni Stengel who makes quite an impression in a whole crowd of lovely Parisians. Production values are remarkably extensive. RKO were obviously expecting to clean up on this one.

Wheeler & Woolsey Go AWOL For Laughs

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 19 February 2000]

Paris - 1918. Two zany American doughboys are AWOL and on the run from the Army MP's. When one of them falls in love with the youngest daughter of a philandering colonel, lunacy really erupts. If they're not careful, the Boys may find themselves HALF SHOT AT SUNRISE.

This was Wheeler & Woolsey's fourth film teaming, but actually the first in which they are the solo stars. (Bert Wheeler is the short, curly-haired one; Robert Woolsey is the skinny one with the glasses.) They are always fun to watch and know how to give a gag its full worth. Dorothy Lee, their frequent co-star, is still kewpie doll cute. The inimitable Edna May Oliver, generally so excellent, is given little more to do here than give an occasional disapproving sniff.

The Boys were unusually fortunate in having good musical numbers in their films - their songs & dances are always a highlight. This movie is no exception. Besides the Wheeler & Lee duet (`Whistling the Blues Away'), Woolsey gets to spoof Nijinsky (`Nothing But Love'), while dancing in his underwear. A bit bizarre, but effective.

Couldn't be Sillier

[ilprofessore-1 · 8/10 · 12 May 2019]

A few years before Radio Pictures became RKO and started making big money with Fred and Ginger and King Kong, the studio churned out a series of outrageous Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, none sillier than this one made in 1930. The jokes come fast and furious, most terrible, but every once in awhile a good one lands. The delightful Dorothy Lee (who was to become a staple of many a W & W film in the future) sings and dances with Bert. The big surprise here is the performance of Berlin-born Leni Stengel as the French vamp Olga; she is not only sexy and vivacious but wonderfully funny. Why she never went on to a brilliant career as a comic actress is a mystery. The Paris street scenes designed by Max Ree and shot on the Hollywood backlot are particularly realistic, demonstrating how well-made even lesser Hollywood films were in the years when sound had just come in and everyone was experimenting. Wheeler and Woolsey are an acquired taste. Their bad jokes have a way of getting to you if you don't watch yourself.