(Review originally written at 4 December 2006)

Maybe not as hilarious as the current rating on here would suggest but this movie is pretty hilarious.

This movie is what Laurel & Hardy is all about. A simple premise, a single setting and plenty of room for the boys alone to show their slapstick- and silly antics.
Of course the movie and everything that happens in it is absolutely predictable. But then again Laurel & Hardy movies never have been about its surprises. It's all about the timing and the execution of it all, that makes the jokes and slapstick work and make the movie hilarious to watch.

Some of the comical moments are stretched out a bit too long in the movie but some other hilarious moments and the ending, surely compensates for this. It also isn't their most original movie (although the ending surely is) and many comical moments were already used in previous Laurel & Hardy. Not the first time they did this as well but as always it doesn't really matter, since it works just as powerful, fun and hilarious, no matter how predictable or unoriginal it ever gets. Leave it up to Laurel & Hardy to make a movie like this one work as an hilarious and fun one.

I consider this to be one of the Laurel & Hardy must-sees, since this is one of their most generic movies and shows what Laurel & Hardy movies in their essence are all about.

7/10

(Review originally written at 2 November 2006)

This is a very simple movie that relies on just one comical premise; a couple of grownups get fascinated at putting a puzzle together, while Oliver actually has a wedding to attend to. His own wedding!

At first this doesn't look like the most fun Laurel & Hardy short around but as the movie progresses it gets better and better. The more people show up putting the puzzle together, the more fun the movie gets. It's simple but it's still fun to see all those characters (Laurel & Hardy, a taxi driver, the butler, a policeman and a messenger boy) trying to put a puzzle together. It's simple childish humor but it works fun and effective. Also from the moment James Finlayson appears in the story, the movie begins to take a more slapstick form and the movie begins to features some fun slapstick moments, which of course eventually results in an huge brawl at the end of movie, between all of the characters.

Its simple comical premise works better than you at first sight would expect.

This really isn't the best written, most interesting or original Laurel & Hardy short but it's a perfectly fun, innocent movie to kill some time with.

7/10

(Review originally written at 12 September 2006)

Amazing how they did it. This movie features war sequences, the lost of a friend who leaves a young daughter behind. All some serious heavy dramatic stuff but yet the boys manages to make this movie a perfectly entertaining one with some good slapstick humor and comical situations.

The movie at times is a sappy one that goes definitely over-the-top but yet for most part the story and its drama works effective. Stan and Ollie taking care of the young daughter of Eddie and their quest for her grandparents is quite heartwarming. Especially since the boys in this movie have an amazingly good chemistry Jackie Lyn Dufton, who plays the young girl. Especially Stan Laurel has a good chemistry with her. Dufton refers to Stan and Ollie as her uncle's in this movie and that special feeling is brought amazingly effective and believable to the screen.

Yet the movie is also one of their most fun ones, despite the dramatic undertone. The slapstick humor is especially top-class and the boys manage once more to get themselves into some silly and hilarious situations.

The movie its supporting cast is also good. The movie features lots of different actors in a variety of roles. Of course this movie also has the regular Laurel & Hardy actors in it, such as James Finlayson, Charlie Hall and Paulette Goddard. But it's the supporting cast as a whole that delivers a good and impressive performance.

A delightful and well made comedy that also works effective with its more dramatic moments.

8/10

Watch trailer