Half Shot at Sunrise (1930)

Half Shot at Sunrise
Directed by Paul Sloane
Written by James Ashmore Creelman
1930/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Annette Marshall: Are you married?
Tommy Turner: No, I just naturally look worried.

Another fun film from my favorite pre-Code comedy team.

Doughboys Tommy Turner (Bert Wheeler) and his inseparable buddy Gilbert Simpson (Robert Woolsey) cannot resist the charms of WWI Paris and go AWOL.  Colonel Marshall isn’t having any of this and sends the world’s most incompetent MPs on their trail.  The boys get away over and over again using the slightest of disguises.

The Colonel’s sweet sassy 16-year-old daughter Annette shows up in time to instantly fall in love with Tommy and do a fun song and dance act.  The Colonel is being relentlessly pursued by a Russian vamp to the great displeasure of his jealous wife (Edna Mae Oliver).  When the authorities finally do catch up with the boys, Annette hatches a plan to make them heros by sending them to the front lines to deliver some secret plans.

All of the story is in service of the formula which is rapid-fire jokes, some pretty racy, a couple of musical numbers, and the traditional Wheeler-Lee romance.  The film does exactly what it set out to do — provide an hour and change of fun.

There’s usually an opportunity for one or more chorus girl number in a Wheeler and Woolsey film.