On Again-Off Again

I watched On Again Off Again in its entirety the next to last film that the team of Wheeler&Woolsey did for RKO in the Thirties before realizing that we never did find out what the pill these two were marketing was all about. Just what did it do for what ails you?

Whatever it did these two partners are constantly quarreling. Woolsey invented it, but all he could do with it was sell it in a medicine show with wife Esther Muir doing a cooch dance. Along comes Wheeler he gives it a pink color and as Mary Poppins says a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Now the pill sells and these two found their own drug company.

But they quarrel every day and it drives their attorney on retainer Russell Hicks nuts. In the end they come up with wacky scheme to dissolve the partnership which I won't go into. Also rival Paul Harvey who's own drug company is going bankrupt seeks to merge with one or both of them to save his assets.

Can't go much further, the schemes that Bert and Bob come up with as well as the other principals in the cast will drive one wild and it ends as one wild picture, especially the last 20 minutes or so.

On Again Off Again is a good introduction the comedy of Wheeler&Woolsey.