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Hook, Line and Sinker

(1930 b 75')

En: 5 Ed: 4

In this comedy two insurance salesmen run an old hotel for a young woman running away from marriage to an attorney, who is involved with gangsters.

A motorcycle cop stops Wilbur Boswell (Bert Wheeler) and Addington Ganzy (Robert Woolsey) for a ticket, but they pitch insurance. Boswell tries to sell Mary Marsh (Dorothy Lee), who takes it as a proposal. She is running away to her hotel. They find it run down with a night man and a house detective (Hugh Herbert). Ganzy calls a newspaper for publicity. Mary's fiancé John Blackwell (Ralf Harolde) and her mother (Jobyna Howland) plan to go to the hotel; Blackwell's gang uses the basement as a hideout. Duke calls the Duchess (Natalie Moorhead), who takes a room. Ganzy shows her the safe. McKay (Stanley Fields) registers, also looks at the safe, and has a machine gun. Blackwell and Mrs. Marsh arrive, and Ganzy flirts with her. Boswell tells Ganzy he loves Mary, and Ganzy plans to marry Mrs. Marsh. The Duke checks in, and Boswell notes that he is wanted for crimes.

The Duchess pulls a gun on Boswell and tells him to make love to her. Mary and her mother see them. The Duchess asks Boswell for the safe combination; but he takes her gun when she kisses him. Mary won't talk to Boswell; but he uses the gun to make her embrace him. Then the Duchess takes the gun back, and Boswell tells Mary to go. Gangsters plot to kill Boswell and Ganzy, and Blackwell will pay them. Ganzy woos the Duchess, who learns the safe combination.

At a party Mrs. Marsh tells Ganzy how her husbands died, and he proposes. Blackwell tells Mary that Ganzy and Boswell are con men. Ganzy tells Mary he is marrying her mother and has her sit on his lap. Mary apologizes to Boswell, and they agree on three children. In a storm the lights go out. Boswell and Ganzy put people's jewels in the safe with a burglar's gun. Ganzy tells the detective to watch the safe. As he sleeps, the Duchess removes the box. A gangster brings dynamite and drills the safe. Gangsters shoot at each other while Boswell and Ganzy look around. Mary tells her mother that Blackwell is going to kill Boswell and Ganzy, and the two women drop a chair on Blackwell. At the safe Boswell and Ganzy light dynamite as a candle. The lights go on, and the police arrive, bringing in the Duchess with a box containing a lunch. Blackwell is arrested for smuggling, and Mrs. Marsh and Ganzy let Mary marry Boswell.

This amusing satire makes fun of gangsters while stretching the vocabulary of the witty comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey.

Copyright © 2000 by Sanderson Beck

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