The Rainmakers (1935) User Reviews (8)

Roscoe the Rainmaker comes to town

[didi-5 · 7/10 · 18 June 2006]

This film, coming late in the Wheeler and Woolsey cycle, is often dismissed as poorly written and executed, although it is actually very enjoyable, fast-paced, memorably written, and sees the two boys on good form as ever.

Dorothy Lee (in her last appearance with the team I think) is as sweet as ever, in her usual role as ingénue and love interest for Bert Wheeler. They have a song, as ever, this time set around an orange tree which drops its fruit whenever someone tells a lie. Lee said it was her favourite of their numbers, and it is certainly one of the best.

A long set-piece with out of control locomotives seems a bit misplaced in the second half of the film, but is still funny. The double entendres and quips of earlier films in the series have been irradicated by the Hays code and the move towards family decency, but this film remains sharp and funny.

Some decent stunts make up for the film's deficiencies

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 18 January 2007]

Okay, I have got to admit that I think Wheeler and Woolsey were among the least funny comedy teams ever--and you might want to keep this in mind when reading the review. I've seen about eight of their films (since I'll watch almost ANY movie if it was made in the 1930s) and I keep waiting for them to be anything other than mediocre. Oh well, at least they were funnier than the Ritz Brothers and a few of their films were even funnier than some of Abbott and Costello's worst films.

The boys are professional rain makers called to a dusty town because the farmers will be ruined if they don't get some rain. I really liked the scene just after this where they are caught up in the tornado--it's underplayed well and the special effects are really good. However, once they make their way to the town that is featured in the film, things slow down considerably. There is a decent train chase sequence near the end (though in a serious continuity mistake, the one train that was only a few yards behind the other suddenly is a mile or two behind once Wheeler and Woolsey disembark). Not a bad film, but lacking magic and staying power.

It's Wheeler and Woolsey.

[mkilmer · 7/10 · 16 February 2007]

If you've not seen a picture with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, this is as good a place to start as any. They were Broadway stars who moved to the Big Screen at a time when people would go to the movies to be entertained, not to take a flimsy message from simpleton screenwriters. What I mean, I missed this era, but it's available to me and to you on DVD or TCM or anywhere you can find it.

Yes, it's worth a look, I think. In the Rainmakers (1935), Wheeler and Woolsey... well, they save the day despite the best efforts of the Bad Guy Who Owns the Town. And it's nice to see Bert romantically paired with Dorothy Lee, as she plays a delightfully unconstrained character in these films, and she does it so well.

The musical number was a bit long for my wife's taste, and I thought the train scene at the end could have been pared down a little, but this was a fun movie!

Dusting off some old vaudeville jokes of comics who long to get wet.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 4 May 2015]

There's a more serious subtext here in this Wheeler and Woolsey comedy than most of their other series, focusing on a drought and Robert Woolsey's rainmaking machine which utilizes a powerful magnet to create rain from the energy which it produces in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, his attempts to fix one rain-free town was ruined by a windstorm which got him thrown out of town, and this leads him to Bert Wheeler who becomes his partner after giving him sanctuary during a sudden tornado. When he arrives with Bert at his next town, hoping for better results, he finds himself up against wealthy landowner Berton Churchill who has co-erced other less well-off landowners to pay him for the use of water he's building a stream from a local reservoir to come out of the local mountains. This of course pits him against the rain machine, and with the help of a local banker's daughter (Dorothy Lee), the boys plot to outwit Churchill who plots to keep the rain machine from working.

Better than average Wheeler & Woolsey comedy (coming during their last years together) has two sequences which are straight out of the classic silent comedies, particularly those of Buster Keaton. The tornado sequence where Woolsey keeps getting conked on the head in Wheeler's storm center is very funny, and the train sequence in the last reel is downright hysterical, almost acrobatic. Wheeler and Ms. Lee have one cute little musical number, but of course, Woolsey gets the funniest lines. Some of the stunts in the final film are too realistic looking as both Wheeler and Woolsey travel from one moving train engine to the other, threatened by the presence of dynamite on the front engine which happens to be running backwards! This is the style of comedy that leads to major stomach pains, so be forewarned. Classic movie fans who don't like Wheeler and Woolsey all that much might re-consider after seeing this as it is not like anything else that they did at RKO.

another corny but fun Wheeler Woolsey

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 5 November 2015]

Another chapter in the Wheeler and Woolsey collection of oldie but goody comedies. The local farmers are standing around wondering what to do about the lack of rain for their crops. Of course, if that many people are going to suffer, there might be someone who will GAIN from the lack of water. There's usually a pretty strong, coherent story under all the vaudeville gags we get from them, and this one is no different. (My favorite is Peach O Reno! ) Lots of visual, slapstick gags, as well as clever one, two, and three liners. Of course, Rainmakers has the required runaway train. With a love story thrown in too. Costars Berton Churchill and George Meeker. It's also interesting, in that it works in the history of the dry, dustbowl years, where there was just no water for the farmers. A fun 78 minutes, if you're watching the Turner Classics version. Directed by Fred Guiol, who had directed a whole bunch of the Wheeler & Woolsey films.

Wheeler & Woolsey wide the twain

[ofumalow · 6/10 · 13 April 2018]

This is a polished and entertaining W&W vehicle that is nothing remarkable but proves that their mostly forgotten films hold up more or less as well as that of most other screen comedy teams' from the era. Woolsey (who doesn't do a lot for me) is a supposed rainmaker called in desperation to a drought-plagued agricultural town; en route he picks up Dust Bowl farmer Wheeler, whose naif act is still pretty amusing.

The complications are ordinary but diverting enough (the highlight being the only song, a drolly staged duet for Wheeler and their usual leading lady Dorothy Lee) until we get to a long, elaborate runaway train climax that's good if not great--it's Buster Keaton-esque, with the big diff that Keaton would have avoided back-projection in favor of visibly real, risky stuntwork. Anyway, this is no forgotten classic but a fun outing for a team that shouldn't be so entirely neglected today.

There must have been some magic in that old magnet they found

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 20 May 2017]

The Rainmakers have Wheeler&Woolsey in the title roles of this film. They've got a Rube Goldberg like contraption that actually works with a magnet. They conduct a successful indoor experiment with their machine.

There's been a drought in this area of southern California and these two have been hired to make it rain. One guy is opposed to it and that's skinflint Berton Churchill who actually has an irrigation project in mind, but also wants to pick up a lot of cheap real estate.

There's one long extended gag at the end as the boys get one each on a pair of locomotives which are to crash and provide a show for the locals. Of course much goes wrong with the idea. Most likely inspired by Buster Keaton's classic The General.

The indoor shower is pretty funny as well and Berton Churchill is at his pompous best. All in all a good Wheeler&Woolsey film.

Another Enjoyable Comedy From Mr. Wheeler & Mr. Woolsey

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 6 July 2000]

The farming community of Lima Junction, California, is in big trouble. A devastating drought is threatening to destroy the livelihood of many of the local small farmers. A crooked landowner schemes to find a way to profit from the others' misery, but before he can implement his nefarious schemes, an honest banker sends for THE RAINMAKERS...

This is a very enjoyable comedy from the always reliable team of Wheeler & Woolsey (Bert Wheeler is the little curly-headed one; Robert Woolsey is the guy with the cigar & spectacles.) The Boys are at the top of their form here; it's a shame that these very funny fellows are almost forgotten today.

Berton Churchill makes a fine, blustery villain - from his first encounter with the Boys he begins to get exactly the comeuppance he deserves. Kewpie-doll-cute Dorothy Lee, a frequent co-star of W & W, teams with Wheeler in one of their most whimsical duets - `Isn't Love The Grandest Thing?'

Movie mavens will recognize old Clarence Wilson, in an uncredited role, as the railroad manager. The climax, featuring two runaway, dynamite-laden trains, is very comical.