VividSimon Simply Perfect

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

mark.waltz Laurel and Hardy strive to help little old lady Mary Carr whom they believe is about to be put out on the street. Little do they realize that the jokes on them. Starting off with them camping in the woods, for them it looks like everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it was a nice though anyway. James Finlayson plays an important part, but this time he's not their foil, and they don't even share scenes with him. Carr is a sweet delight, obviously being an expert in these type of roles. In one of the few times that Laurel is allowed to show some temper, he actually gets to give Oliver a taste of his own medicine, that is until the final shot.

JoeytheBrit As others have pointed out, this Laurel and Hardy short is mainly memorable for an uncharacteristic - and truly hilarious - worm-turning sequence when Stan, outraged at being wrongly accused of stealing from an old lady by Ollie, terrorises his friend with righteous anger and a boot up the backside. Although this is a highlight, the film is consistently funny throughout, even though there isn't much of a story to speak of. The film also starts strongly with Stan trying to put out a burning tent with cups of water fetched from a nearby river much to the puzzlement of Ollie who is washing their smalls at the time. All you see is Ollie's reactions as Stan's legs run back and forth in front of him, but the timing and Ollie's expression are spot on. Be sure to catch this one.

Michael_Elliott One Good Turn (1931) ** 1/2 (out of 4)L&H set out to raise $100 when they overhear an elderly woman say she's going to be evicted. Not too many laughs in this one outside the opening sequence in the woods. Leave 'Em Laughing (1928) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel is suffering from a toothache so Hardy takes him to the dentist who accidentally fills them with laughing gas. The early gags of Hardy trying to pull the tooth are funny but the ending with the cars goes on a bit too long and gets rather tiresome.They Go Boom! (1929) *** (out of 4) Hardy has a cold so it's up to Laurel to try and find a cure so that they can get a good night's sleep. Highlights include the mustard bath and the exploding mattress.Thicker Than Water (1935) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Laurel and Hardy waste $300 on a grandfather clock so Hardy's wife hits him with a frying pan and sends him to the hospital. Again, not too funny and the worst part is the ending where the two change personalities. This here should have been a lot funnier than it turned out.

knsevy ****SPOILERS****YOU WERE WARNED****Another great from Stan and Ollie's salad days.We find the boys, as usual, down on their luck. Of course, this was filmed during the Great Depression, when it wasn't uncommon for able-bodied men to beg meals. One of the qualities I've always respected about The Boys is that, no matter how depressing their circumstances, they never played it for maudlin sympathy. A movie about two men with no homes, no jobs and nothing to eat is kind of hard to envision as a comedy, on the surface, but The Boys pull it off grandly. Most of the great comedians of this era at least occasionally portrayed characters in dire straits - Chaplin did it almost constantly. I find it interesting to look at their disparate approaches to the same type of character.For instance, Chaplin, 'The Little Tramp', WAS a tramp. He could be sneaky, and would even steal if need be. Harold Lloyd could always be counted on to rise from poverty by his own brashness and go-getter personality. Keaton's character was half-sleepwalker, often stumbling into what he needed through a combination of bluff and sheer luck. I wonder how each of these characters would have faced the situation the boys find themselves in, when they discover that the nice old woman is apparently about to be put out on the street.Laurel and Hardy, they of the sincere, childlike ways, resolve to help the lady by selling their car, their last possession on earth. This, also could have been played up for schmaltz and sympathy, but instead the film takes this touching gesture and uses it as the springboard for the farce to follow.The film contains some of The Boys' trademark physical comedy, not slapstick or pantomime, but a dialogue of sight gags without a single word spoken. Two that come to mind are the sandwich-eating scene in the kitchen, and right after Stan manages to set their tent on fire. For me, the biggest laugh in the film was seeing a more and more-concerned Ollie watch Stan rush out of the bushes, grab a teacup full of water and rush back, again and again, until finally the tragedy is revealed.A real gem.