KENTUCKY KERNELS - Blu-ray (RKO, 1934) Warner Archive
The joyful and smarmy antics of Bert Wheeler and
Robert Woolsey is an acquired taste. That said, it’s fairly easy to acquire, what
with the perpetually nebbish Wheeler at the constant beck-and-call of his more
caustic counterpart. The New Jersey-born, Wheeler paired with Woolsey on
Broadway, their first picture together – 1929’s Rio Rita, immediately
establishing their preeminence in the movies. The uniqueness of this comedic fop
meets ‘straight man’ charm is not immediately apparent, and, in some ways, the
duo’s reputation has been misrepresented today as ‘lessers’ in the pantheon of
great ‘acts’ from Hollywood’s golden age. But actually, these boys were a
smashing success right out of the gate, in their time – and prime – and remained
fairly ebullient sophisticates of the yuk-yuk class. When Woolsey tragically
died in 1938, after a year-long battle with kidney failure, Wheeler struggled
to re-imagine his career, turning to friend and former co-star, Dorothy Lee to
create a semi-lucrative Vaudeville act, and later, appearing on the radio and
TV as a ‘guest’, opposite such luminaries as Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. Wheeler,
whose popularity eroded over the last decades of his life, as Woolsey, would be
quietly forgotten thereafter – the team’s legacy, dormant until a few of their
most popular movies began resurfacing as ‘filler’ on late-night television.
And now, at least some of their lovable nonsense is on
full display again in director, George Stevens’ Kentucky Kernels (1934),
a deliciously obtuse, if slickly packaged programmer from the RKO stables,
whose thimble of a plot is cobbled together by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Fred
Guiol. If familiar within the plug-and-play formula of their cinematic outings,
then it will come as virtually no surprise to discover herein that, at barely
75 minutes, there is no time for plot. Not that it matters, as the bulk of the
picture is effectively eaten up by the razor-sharp badinage between Messer’s Wheeler
and Woolsey doing what they do best, with the added attraction of enjoying a
young George ‘Spanky’ McFarland, thinly rechristened Spanky Milfor; an orphan/heir-apparent
to a Southern dynasty. But before the war comes a bit of ingeniously scripted
misdirection to kick everything off. Snubbed by his gal/pal, swell Jerry
Bronson (Paul Page) decides there is no point to life and elects to end it all
by leaping off a tall bridge into the river. Unhappy chance, Jer’ does not look
before he leaps, falling into the fishing nets of Willie Doyle (Bert Wheeler)
and Elmer Dugan (Robert Woolsey); a pair of barely sustainable hobos, living in
a glass-house shanty just under the bridge. After rescuing this fallen (literally and figuratively) man, and convincing him
to get on with the business of living, Doyle and Dugan reason the best way to
provide Jerry with that necessary stability is to adopt an orphan.
So, Doyle and Dugan engage the services of kindly Mrs.
Baxter (Margaret Dumont) who slyly pawns off young Spanky Milfor on this
unsuspecting pair. The cherub-esque Spanky turns out to be a holy terror with a
penchant for smashing anything made of glass. This, predictably, leads to all
sorts of misadventures, including a silly little confrontation with the police.
Meanwhile, Jerry informs his friends his
ex has decided to take him back. Joyful Jerry departs for an extended elopement
and honeymoon, leaving Spanky in Doyle and Dugan’s care. Not long thereafter,
Mrs. Baxter informs them Spanky has come into a major inheritance in the South.
Packing up and crossing the Mason/Dixon line, this triumvirate is thrust in the
middle of an old-fashioned Southern war between the Milfors and the Wakefields,
overseen by a caustic and curmudgeonly Colonel (Noah Beery), and fronted, on
the Milfor side, by the Wagnerian-built, Aunt Hannah (Lucille LaVerne). Seems
Hannah and the Colonel were hot-and-heavy once upon a time. As those embers were
prematurely extinguished by Hannah’s marriage, now that her husband is
deceased, a burgeoning romance get stirred after Doyle and Dugan take dead aim
to bury the hatchet between these two families once and for all – primarily, so
Doyle can pursue the Wakefield’s comely daughter, Gloria (Mary Carlisle).
Hosting a grand gala on the Milfor plantation, Doyle
and Dugan’s master plan for reconciliation appears to be going smoothly until
Spanky lets it be known certain prejudices endure between the Milfors and the
Wakefields. It does not take much to set Colonel Wakefield off, engaging his
sons, Jeff (Frank McGlynn Jr.), Hank (Richard Alexander), and John (William
Pawley) to go after Doyle and Dugan. Meanwhile, Doyle has sneaked into the
Wakefield’s manor to pledge his love for Gloria. This leads to a hilarious
vignette in which Doyle is inadvertently discovered by the Colonel and his boys
in Gloria’s bed and Dugan has to do some fast back-peddling to convince the
staunchly conservative ‘gentlemen’ nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Rather
predictably, after a few more counts of misdirection, the families are
reconciled with Doyle permitted to pursue his honorable intentions towards
Gloria.
Kentucky Kernels may not be ‘high art’ but it is
highly amusing nonetheless; its chief assets, undoubtedly Wheeler and Woolsey,
plus the added attraction of indulging the mischievous Spanky McFarland (whose
inheritance serves as the MacGuffin of this fluff piece), and, who crops up at
the most inopportune moments to throw a proverbial wrench into Doyle and Dugan’s
carefully contrived strategies for armistice between the two families. Smack in
the middle of this tightly written – and even more stringently executed –
comedy of errors, director, Stevens and his on-camera cohorts bring the shenanigans
to a screeching halt with an elaborate production number, ‘One Little Kiss’
– a song, breezy but incapable of sustaining such a dynamic presentation, for
which virtually every cast member is required to warble the same verse and chorus
over and over again until even its slight lyrics have decidedly worn out their
welcome.
Otherwise, we get a lot of enjoyable byplay between
Wheeler and Woolsey; the best of their ‘skits’ coming early when Woolsey – as Dugan
– at ease in their dilapidated hovel beneath the bridge, incongruously sheathed
in a rather ritzy smoking jacket, slippers and reading the paper, listens, with
some annoyance, as Doyle, in an apron and up to his elbow sleeves in dirty
dishes at the sink, laments as a dutiful drudge might, how his efforts to
maintain good housekeeping have gone quietly unnoticed and his ‘dish-pan’ hands
are something his mother forewarned. With today’s more laissez faire attitudes
towards homosexuality, this scene now lacks the distinct whiff of naughtiness
it likely carried in 1934, teasing the audience with the prospects Doyle and
Dugan just might be ‘a couple’ in every sense of the word. Regardless, the scene is very – ‘very’ –
funny.
Lamentable from today’s more ‘progressive’
perspective, in its cardboard cutout representation of the simple-minded ‘darkie’,
exemplified by Willy Best’s bug-eyed servant, Buckshot (billed in the credits
as ‘Sleep n’ Eat’), and, given the current climate of civil unrest in America,
I would have never thought Kentucky Kernels would ever see the light of
day again, primarily because of this flawed depiction of these ‘emancipated’
but very much slavery-esque blacks, still schlepping it with bowed head and
curved shoulders for the stout-hearted white folk on the plantation, circa,
1934! Overlooking this judgement call
(as one must, since mores and attitudes of the thirties have absolutely no bearing
on how far race relations in America have (d)evolved since), RKO, a studio best
known then for lavishly appointed Astaire/Rogers’ musicals, running
concurrently with Wheeler and Woolsey’s cycle of B-grade/C-budgeted quota
quickies, get maximum mileage from this deft and delicious little outing. The
secondary players are all ‘old hams’ cured to perfection and perfectly to augment
‘the stars.’ While some movies are noted for production value ‘quality’, while
others for their ‘very fine performances or excellent screenplays’, Kentucky
Kernels falls into that rare niche, possessing neither luxury in spades,
and yet, somehow, effortlessly to delight us to distraction with its
quaintness, long-since to have acquired a ‘vintage’ quality. A really fun movie
of the ‘little gem’ class that holds up – mostly – under repeat viewing!
It can safely be said no one outside of the Warner Archive
(WAC) saw this one coming. The hi-def release of Kentucky Kernels
continues to speak to the studio’s commitment in bringing ‘rare’ and ‘niche’
catalog to the forefront of the public’s attention in pristine quality, which
has always been a hallmark of WAC releases. In some ways, it is boring to review
most WAC Blu-rays, as quality is never an issue. After all, it’s hard to mess
with perfection. For inculcating such tedium in the ‘reviewer class’, my only
response to Mr. George Feltenstein and his minions toiling diligently is, ‘Bless
you.’ Kentucky Kernels sports
a superb-looking B&W transfer that will surely not disappoint. Gray scale
is excellent, and fine details pop with a resilience that belies the movie is
now 86-yrs.-old. Wow and thank you! Film grain is properly placed, and
contrast is superb. Blacks are velvety rich and whites, sparkling and pristine.
You are going to LOVE this presentation. The 1.0 DTS mono is marvelous too,
with no hiss or pop. Regrettably, there are no extras. But WAC has put its
money where it counts – on creating a stunning 1080p presentation of this ‘hard-to-find’
title. Kentucky Kernels ought to be on everyone’s shelf this Christmas,
if, for no other reason, than to support the studio in its fine remastering
efforts. Outside of Sony (who do stunningly handsome work, albeit with a much
smaller catalog of classic movies at their disposal), Warner Bros. (whose
archives include the stored riches, not only of their own studio, but also MGM
and RKO) continues to lead the pack. This disc is no exception to what has been
a very steadfast rule since the Warner Archive debuted. Wonderful stuff! Please
support it with your dollars. Highly recommended!
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
3
VIDEO/AUDIO
5+
EXTRAS
0
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