Diplomaniacs

1933 film

April 29, 1933 (1933-04-29)^[1]

Running time

61 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$242,000^[2]Box office$461,000^[2]

Diplomaniacs is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film starring Wheeler and Woolsey. The film in noted for its absurdist political satire, somewhat in the manner of Million Dollar Legs or Duck Soup, both of which were released within a year of Diplomaniacs.

Plot

Willy Nilly (Bert Wheeler) and Hercules Glub (Robert Woolsey) are barbers with almost no customers: their shop is on an Indian reservation. The tribe pays them to represent the Indian Nation at a peace conference in Switzerland. Unbeknownst to them, several armaments manufacturers want to ensure that the peace conference is a failure, and do everything they can to sabotage it. Ringleader Winkelreid (Louis Calhern) hires Dolores and Fifi (Marjorie White and Phyllis Barry) to distract Willy and Hercules, and steal their secret documents. Willy and Hercules, unaware of the intrigue surrounding them, persist in carrying out their mission.

Cast

Bert Wheeler as Willy Nilly
Robert Woolsey as Hercules Glub
Marjorie White as Dolores
Phyllis Barry as Fifi
Louis Calhern as Winkelreid
Hugh Herbert as Wise Gai Chow-Chow, the Chinaman
Edgar Kennedy as Chairman of the Peace Conference
Richard Carle as Ship's Captain
William Irving as Schmerzenpuppen
Neely Edwards as Puppenschmerzen
Billy Bletcher as Schmerzenschmerzen
Teddy Hart as Puppenpuppen
Edward Cooper as Indian Chief
Dewey Robinson as Luke the Hermit
Charles Coleman as Marie, Parisian butler
Grace Hayle as Countess
Charlie Hall as Shaffner, Winkelreid's valet
Richard Alexander as Peace Conference Sergeant-at-Arms

Box office

Diplomaniacs was the first Wheeler & Woolsey comedy under the supervision of studio head Merian C. Cooper, who resolved to cut costs during the troubled Depression era. The team's recent comedies Hold 'Em Jail and Girl Crazy had cost $408,000 and $502,000, respectively, under previous studio head David O. Selznick; Cooper slashed the budget for Diplomaniacs to $242,000.^[3] According to studio records, the film made a profit of $65,000.^[2]

References

^ "Diplomaniacs: Technical Details". theiapolis.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c Richard B. Jewell, "RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1994, p. 56.
^ Richard B. Jewell with Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story, New York: Arlington House/Crown, 1982, pp. 60, 62.