December 1997
Stan and Ollie Aboard the Prickley Heat
Wrong Again
(1929)
December 1997
Stan and Ollie Aboard the Prickley Heat
Wrong Again
(1929)
Stan and Ollie work at a stable when they find out that "Blue Boy" is missing and that there is a large reward coming to whoever finds it. Mistaking "Blue Boy" the horse for "Blue Boy" the painting, they bring the horse to the millionare (Del Henderson) who lost the painting. He orders them to bring "Blue Boy" in and put it on the piano. The boys try their hardest to get the horse on the piano and, after some mishaps, they succeed. The real "Blue Boy" is found by some police officers and returned to the owner. When the millionare finds out that Stan and Ollie brought over a horse, and the boys realize their mistake, Laurel & Hardy run out of the house.
One of the boys' wackiest shorts, Wrong Again benefits from not only the zany premise of the plot, but by Stan and Babe's pantomime. In one famed Laurel & Hardy scene, a statue is knocked down and Ollie tries to put it back together, but it is back-to-front. When Ollie tells Stan that the millionare told them to put "Blue Boy" on the piano because all millionares are a little crazy, he makes a twist of the hand motion. When Stan passes the strange statue, he pauses, thinks, observes again, and finally makes the same gesture Ollie used. Incidentally, the working title of the film was Just the Reverse.
(1936), Starring Our Gang
In this Our Gang short, Spanky and the gang stage a parade and a show in order to help Scotty and his grandpa's lemonade stand.
A delightful short that makes use of a not too innovative premise, The Lucky Corner benefits from some nice gag sequences. One such scene is when Buckwheat slides on a cube of ice causing some disruption in the street. The highlight is, of course, the parade the gang stages in which Alfalfa gets to sing a song. A wonderful film all the way through.
(1940)
The boys are working at a horn factory, and suddenly all the noise of the horns gets to Ollie. Ollie asks Stan if the noise bothers him and Stan replies, "no, it goes through one ear and out the other." Ollie finds the noise unbearable and has a nervous breakdown and is sent home with Stan. Dr. Finlayson (none other than James Finlayson) comes to visit his patient and tells him that all he needs is some fresh sea air. He orders Ollie to go out to the ocean with Stan. After the doctor leaves, Ollie tells Stan that he is afraid of water and doesn't want to go out to the ocean, but Stan has an idea. He tells Ollie that they don't need to go out into the ocean -- they could just stay in the boat and tie it to the dock without leaving. Ollie agrees and they rent a boat of modest size (with Stan bringing his trombone along to practice his music), the Prickley Heat, and sleep there for the night tied to the dock. Meanwhile, Nick Granger, international spy and an all around bad guy, escapes from prison and hides out on the boys' boat. Narcissus starts eating the rope that is tied to the dock and break it, sending the boys and Granger off into the ocean. When they wake up, Stan and Ollie find themselves shanghaied by Nick. He orders them to make food for him, and they have an idea to make a synthetic meal for him (using string for spaghetti and red paint for tomato sauce). Granger finds out about their plan and when the "food" is ready, tells them to eat it. Stan then has an idea -- he takes his trombone and plays it, sending Ollie into fits of "hornophobia". Ollie clobbers Nick while the Sea Patrol finds the Prickley Heat drifting aimlessly into the ocean. They climb aboard and capture Nick Granger, promising Laurel & Hardy a reward. The captain (Harry Bernard) asks how they managed to subdue the criminal and Stan shows him -- he starts playing the trombone, Ollie goes into fits of "hornophobia" again, and hits the captain. The film ends with the captain sending Stan and Ollie to jail and placing them in Nick Granger's cell.
Saps At Sea is Laurel & Hardy's last film for Hal Roach and is their last good film. It is in many ways more like a couple of shorts than one complete feature, with the scenes in their apartment and the scenes aboard the Prickley Heat being like two different films. Emphasis in this film is more on the "white magic" type of gags rather than physical stunts as both performers have gotten older (Stan is 49 in this film, Babe is 48). The reputation of this film being a weaker L&H feature isn't totally justified as Saps At Sea is a very funny film with some inventive gags, such as Stan peeling a banana to find no banana.