With Love and Hisses

In this short, Stan Laurel is an Army private, Oliver Hardy is the bombastic sergeant, and James Finlayson is the flustered captain. Stan and Ollie aren't quite the friends they would be in later films but there's still some funny scenes when they're together as well as when either are against Fin, that's for sure! The version I watched on YouTube used the music scores usually heard in their talkies as well as sound effects and their voices from those subsequent films. I liked most of the results especially when those sound effects went into play on many of the physical gags. Also appearing was Anita Garvin as one of Fin's girls though she didn't do anything that would be considered funny here. So I say, give With Love and Hisses a look if you're an L & H fan.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

Their previous short films were variable in quality, a couple decent and most average or just above, only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired. 'With Love and Hisses' is not a step backwards but not a return in the right direction either. It is nice and entertaining, more than watchable in an inoffensive way, but later offerings make far better use of Laurel and Hardy and their partnership and are much funnier, including its remake as mentioned by a few here. 'With Love and Hisses' felt like they were not yet fully formed and yet to properly find their feet.

'With Love and Hisses' looks quite good and hardly the work of an amateur. James Finlayson is amusing and even better is Laurel who is great fun, 'With Love and Hisses' is worth watching for him alone.

There are very amusing, like the ending, and charming moments and the pace is generally very energetic.

Hardy however deserved more to do and much funnier material, and even more so that 'With Love and Hisses' misses the chance to utilise their chemistry properly. 'With Loves and Hisses' doesn't really feel like Laurel and Hardy, due to Hardy having little to do and their chemistry barely existent.

Not everything is funny, too much of it being predictable and not being sharp enough in timing, some of it surprisingly broad for early Laurel and Hardy with a vulgar edge at times. The story is very slight, barely existent in fact, and erratically paced, sometimes too busy while not getting going soon enough.

In summary, worth a look but hardly a Laurel and Hardy essential. 6/10 Bethany Cox

An early film featuring Laurel and Hardy. Their frequent nemesis James Finlayson is also featured in the film. What makes this film interesting is that Laurel and Hardy are not friends,and had not yet become the comedy team they would become later. There's a few good laughs to be had in this film. I disagree with some of the other reviewers who are more negative than positive about this film. There's some good gags and physical comedy. James Finlayson takes some spills that are quite funny, but nothing out of the ordinary for the genre. With Love and Hisses has all the classic gags: the hat flying off the head, spills, kicks in the rear end etc. Though this is clearly not their best, its still better than a lot of other silent comedy I have seen.

"With Love and Hisses" isn't really a Laurel and Hardy film. They weren't a team full time at this point and their scenes together aren't tailor-made ones. Even so, Stan does very well in the lead as a rather simple character who is drafted into the army. He was a natural for being a comic leading man and knows how to use his body in the Art of comedy. Poor Stan is on the receiving end of both Ollie as the bullying drill sergeant and James Finlayson as the ineffectual captain. The latter has quite a lengthy scene where he tries to teach Stan how to be an efficient soldier on parade. It is excellent slapstick and the timing is spot on. The ending is a riot after most of the soldiers manage to lose their uniforms! A comedy short that shows potential for all future Laurel and Hardy comedies.

This silent early pairing of Laurel and Hardy is entertaining and inventive, using a minimal amount of 'title cards' to tell its simple but sight-gag-stuffed story. Even though the iconic duo aren't playing their most iconic characters (heightened versions of themselves) in 'With Love And Hisses (1927)', their dynamic is still clear and engaging, with opportunities for both of them to play off Finlayson's stern Captain also being utilised incredibly well. They actually interact with him almost more than they do with each other and it makes for a refreshing take on the now well-known formula, while still maintaining the underlying spirit of Laurel's sweet, slightly unintelligent innocence causing Hardy seemingly endless frustration as it gets him into seemingly endless trouble. The piece is, generally, superb. It's consistently fun and has a number of properly funny set-pieces. There are also some really nice, often special-effects-driven sight-gags (as I mentioned), which pretty much never fail to get a laugh; the strongest of these is a moment in which we see Laurel's cartoonish throbbing toes. Generally, though, most of its success is sourced directly from its fantastic central performances. It's a remarkably visual experience - which you'd think would be obvious due to its silent nature, but there are plenty of pictures which fail in this regard. Of course, the narrative only serves as a way to get to each gag and there aren't any 'rolling in the aisles' moments, either. Still, these are small, essentially inconsequential complaints. This is an enjoyable film throughout. 7/10