Wreckety Wrecks (1933) User Reviews

Not bad...it's just going to make you forget Laurel & Hardy.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 21 January 2011]

The Hal Roach Studio had several series of shorts in the early 1930s--the most famous of which, clearly, was Laurel & Hardy. But they also had Charley Chase, Our Gang, The Boy Friends, Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts/Patsy Kelly...this very, very obscure team called 'The Taxi Boys'. The Boys never really caught on as a series--much of which might explain the frequent cast changes. Franklin Pangborn and Clyde Cook played leads in one, Clyde Cook and Billy Bevan in another and Ben Blue and Billy Gilbert played leads in most of the later ones.

While these films weren't bad, it's pretty clear that the scripts were ones you could have just as soon seen Stan and Ollie doing...and doing better. Here we have skinny and stupid Ben and tubby and Oliver Hardy-like Billy. The only big difference is that although the plot looks a lot like a Laurel & Hardy one, these two guys just aren't up to the high standard set by this famous team. Ben is just annoying at times with his bizarre and rather effeminate mannerisms. And Billy, though a fine supporting character, as a lead doesn't have a lot of charisma.

The film finds the two (naturally) playing cab drivers. The beat cop is mad as he's always having run-ins with the Boys (especially Ben) and threatens to put them in jail if their stupid antics continue. Soon afterwords, the Boys think they've run over and killed someone--actually it's a mannequin. So, they panic and try to dispose of the body--and accidentally pick up a drunk in its place. As the drunk walks about, the Boys run and hide. This plot is familiar, as it was redone a year later as "The Live Ghost" with Laurel & Hardy.

The bottom line is that this is a decent film--but not a great one. A few more mediocre ones later and the series would be discontinued.

Good Hal Roach comedy has the taxi boys in trouble again...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 19 January 2011]

BILLY GILBERT and BEN BLUE by now were a team in these very amusing Hal Roach comedies where Gilbert is always telling Blue to stop and think a minute: which Blue does, to the off screen whirring of busy motors.

Again, they're taxi drivers who mistakenly believe that they've run over a man (it's a dummy), and then make a desperate attempt to bury him in a cemetery. They mistake a seminary for a cemetery and the gags continue to erupt one after another as they make false assumptions about the "seminary" and mistake a girl's dorm for a morgue.

Along the way, there are further plot complications involving a woman in their taxi who reports their killing of a pedestrian to the police. And when they try to explain things before a judge, things get really wild when the taxi "Exhibit A" runs amok.

Funny stuff. Both do their best to wring every laugh out of the foolish situations.

Let's Compare Ben and Billy to Stan and Oliver

[lzf0 · 21 January 2011]

Although Laurel and Hardy do not appear in this short, it shows what a unique and brilliant comedy team they were. The whole short seems tailor made for them. Even the macabre plot, which has Ben Blue and Billy Gilbert believing that they killed a man with their taxi is right up Laurel's alley. Much has been written about Laurel's genius as a gagman and the delicacy and depth of his screen character. Hardy seems to often get pushed to the background, and I must admit that I have often done this. But Oliver Hardy created a character who is human and lovable. We feel for him whenever Stan gets him into "a nice mess". (Stan and Oliver are so real and lovable that their characters sometimes counteract some of the more violent and surreal comedy.) I am not trying to imply that Blue and Gilbert are not fine comedians. Blue just reeks of Vaudeville experience and his specialty as an eccentric dancer makes him a graceful slapstick player. He is described in the short as goofy, and he plays this beautifully. Just the way he moves is hysterical. But his vocalizations are cartoonish when compared to Laurel's cry. Gilbert was an extremely versatile character comic who could play a bully, a villain, an idiot, or the unfortunate everyman. He was also adept at dialects. It's nice to see him playing a regular Joe in this short. He is likable, but does not milk the same kind of sympathy we would feel for Oliver Hardy in the same situation. Del Lord keeps the short moving fast. The only thing missing is the LeRoy Shield background music.

Hilarious Short

[Michael_Elliott · 22 January 2011]

Wreckety Wrecks (1933)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Taxi Boys entry has Ben Blue and Billy Gilbert playing (of course) taxi drivers who think they've ran over a man and killed him. They're too stupid to realize they just hit a dummy so they try to find a place to hide the "body" and think they've found a cemetery but it's actually a seminary. The more non-L&H shorts I see from Hal Roach the more comfortable I become in saying that none of the "other" shorts ever came close to the legends. When I first read the plot to this thing I thought it sounded quite interested and it turned out to be a downright hilarious entry that had me laughing from start to finish. I think this is one example where the "other" guys managed to do something that even Laurel and Hardy would find funny. I thought Blue and Gilbert were perfect together and they really sold the aspect of how stupid they were. If you ever felt they were just acting then it would ruin the entire story but the actors make you believe they're this stupid and you can't help but laugh as they get into one mess after another while trying to get rid of this body, which isn't a body at all. One of the highlights in the film is when they try to bury the body only to then find that another body has taken its place. The film is 100% slapstick as the two are constantly running into obstacles that prevent them from getting the job done. This includes cops as well as a woman who was at the wreck when the dummy was first hit. There's even a funny bit at the start when a drunk gets all of this going because the dummy was actually his "friend". WRECKETY WRECKS is without question the best non-L&H short I've seen from Hal Roach.