The Whoopee Boys

I miss the days of the video store. Taking a chance on a movie you've never heard of, but the box made it look like you could be in for a fun evening. One of those movies for me is 1986's The Whoopee Boys.

Jake Bateman, Michael O'Keefe, and Barney Benar, Paul Rodriguez, are two street hustlers in New York. When they run into some trouble with the law, they decide to skip town. They head for Palm Beach, hoping to con their way in with the rich and famous. Jake falls for a socialite named Olivia, Lucinda Jenney. Olivia runs a orphanage that is about to be foreclosed on. She stands to gain an inheritance that will save her shelter, but she first must marry a high society man that her uncle, Dan O'Herlihy will approve of. Jake knows that her uncle would never approve of hm, so Barney suggests that they enroll in a charm school.

Barney finds a charm school in the swamp lands ran by the Phelps', Denholm Elliott and Carole Shelley, two big time con artists' themselves. With the help of the Phelps' and the misfit crew they meet at charm school, Jake hustles his way into high society.

This movie makes me laugh every time I see it. O'Keefe is basically the straight man to Rodriguez, and they play well off one another. The supporting cast is mostly made up of stand up comics, who are all really funny. Marsha Warfield, Eddie Deezen, Andy Bumatai, and Elizabeth Arlen make up the charm school classmates. Stephen Davis, Taylor Negron, and Gregg Germann are the upper class snobs. And seeing classy actors Elliott and O'Herlihy in such a lowbrow comedy is kind of fun too.

It's basically the snobs vs. slobs premise that was so big in the 80's, but it is really funny. It's available on dvd.