Hook, Line and Sinker

1930 "Riding a Cyclone of Laughs Through a Broadway Hotel"
5.9| 1h15m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 26 December 1930 Released
Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Two fast-talking insurance salesmen meet Mary, who is running away from her wealthy mother, and they agree to help her run a hotel that she owns. When they find out that the hotel is run down and nearly abandoned, they launch a phony PR campaign that presents the hotel as a resort favored by the rich. Their advertising succeeds too well, and many complications soon arise.

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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Director

Edward F. Cline

Production Companies

RKO Radio Pictures

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Hook, Line and Sinker Audience Reviews

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
ksf-2 ONE of the earlier of the 26 films Wheeler and Woolsey made together in the 1930s. and FIVE of those were directed by director Ed Cline. Cline was certainly a comedy director... he had worked with Keystone in the silents, and W.C. Fields several times. Picture, sound and editing are all pretty rough, but we're lucky to still have this one around in any condition. Pretty corny but funny gags, some verbal, some sight-gags. It DOES move a little slowly, but if you stick with it, it works out. They DO keep pausing for audience laughter, which slows it way down when we see it on a tv today. The guys, Boswell and Ganzy, meet up with Mary, who has decided to go run her family's old, run-down decrepit hotel. When she doesn't know is that people are already scheming against her, so there's the conflict to be overcome. "Mary" is Dorothy Lee, who worked with Wheeler and Woolsey in about half the films they made. Did women really speak in those high-pitched, baby voices back then? and did the men fall for it? It's kind of fun, albeit a tad slow and dated by today's standards. Like watching an old vaudeville bit. Currently showing on Moonlight Movies channel. If you're a fan of Wheeler and Woolsey, you'll dig it.
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.
dbborroughs This is a very funny film starring Wheeler and Woolsey, a comedy team that is all but forgotten these days. Their brand of humor tended to be verbal and punny, but they were also adept physical comedians as well.Here the pair end up helping, and romancing, a runaway fom a rich family. She's inherited a hotel and the boys decide to help her turn it into THE hot spot. Using their way with words they manage to have newspapers write the place up---mentioning how safe their safe is. This of course brings a steady stream of crooks all of which want to be the one to crack the safe.Extremely well written, the film suffers from a few slow spots where the fast and furious dialog stop for a silent shot or moment. Normally it wouldn't be bad, but here it off sets the pacing of the film, which for the most part is fast moving, even if it seems not to have a direction.If you want to see a good comedy you haven't seen before, by all means pick this up, its 75 minutes well spent.
Ron Oliver A couple of scam artists go legit to help a young lady run the dilapidated hotel she's inherited. Over time they turn the place into a swanky high-society hot spot. But when mobsters, a crooked lawyer & a phony countess arrive, the Boys find themselves in trouble HOOK, LINE AND SINKER.This slight comedy features the always watchable team of Wheeler & Woolsey. (Bert Wheeler is the one with curly hair; Robert Woolsey is the skinny fellow with glasses.) Their one-liners fly faster than the bullets which climax the movie. Dorothy Lee, their frequent co-star & Wheeler's perpetual love interest, is still kewpie-doll cute. The massive Jobyna Howland is great as Woolsey's lady love - a ferocious female not to be fooled with. Hugh Herbert, usually so much fun, is given little to do as the ineffectual hotel detective.