Them Thar Hills

Them Thar Hills (1934) : Brief Review -

Laurel and Hardy on a health Picnic is injurious to them but Helpful for your health. Them Thar Hills is another typical laugh riot from Laurel & Hardy. Just like their contemporary short comedies this one too relies on substantial situations rather than making out forceful comedy like other unintelligent people did that time. Stan and Ollie take a trip into the mountains ('the high multitude') so that Ollie can recover from gout. Bootleggers have dumped their moonshine in the well from which the boys sample their 'healthy' mountain water. Mr Hall, who has left his wife with the boys while he refuels his car is not amused at his wife's condition when he returns. I must say it has those jokes which we are fond of Today, that's almost after 9 decades. I would say watch out for few scenes which led to funny situations effortlessly. Like that water scene, Stan suspects the colour but Ollie answers, that's why Doc asked us to drink it a lot. Such a cute and innocent comedy it was. Who else did it better in 30s than them? So, their legacy is unquestionable, rather undeniable. I missed Stan's funny cries this time, maybe he could had his signature cry here too as i felt that drunkenness could have helped it to score. Ollie, as always, sensibile yet insensibly funny. When he offers a food and drink to that lady i was like, how sophistically he speaks. I mean even many rehearsed gentlemen would fail to bring that much convince on screen. Talking about comedy, it's not hysterical or completely mad but yes it is Funny and meaningfully. It depends on your taste how you like it. As for me, the sensibility always works more than dramatic proportions. A fine job Charley Rogers has done with no hard efforts at all. Easy and Simple, that's how he managed it. I will be catching the Sequel in no time.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

At home with a foot in plaster, Hardy is advised to cut out rich foot and maybe take a trip to help relieve his pains. Laurel and Hardy set out for a trip to the country on a sunny day and stumble across a building that had been used as a hideout for a gang of moonshiners. Unbeknownst to Laurel and Hardy, the moonshiners were forced to dump their alcohol into the well when the police came, a fact that they only discover once they start using the well water for cooking in.

A simple set up and simple execution leads to a very entertaining short in which Laurel and Hardy, well, get wasted! Their decline into a state of merry inebriation is funny to watch and leads to an amusing game of tit for tat while an angry husband takes a feathering while awaiting his chance for retribution. When Laurel says `jump in the well to put out the fire' I started laughing in expectation!

While the routines lack a real imagination (apart from that aforementioned scene) the film is well made and it is fun to watch the duo get hammered with hilarious results. Both men do well in the film with Hardy, as usual, carrying the brunt of the physical work. The support cast are both good but really it's Laurel and Hardy's show.

Overall this short doesn't have any one scene that really screams out as great (with the possible exception of the `jump in the well' scene) but it is good-natured and funny regardless.

Stan and Ollie made a lot of shorts. So many that it's natural that there would be some repetition of the gags. In this film, the formula from their silent film BIG BUSINESS is repeated but this time with Charley Hall. In fact, their fight with Hall was so successful, that it was repeated a year later in TIT FOR TAT.

Basically, what happens is that a small slap or insult or whatever provokes a response from Laurel and Hardy. And, this escalates and builds until the end result is total destruction. In BIG BUSINESS, a house and a car were destroyed, in TIT FOR TAT, two businesses bit the dust. In this film, Charley Hall is angry because the boys unintentionally got his wife drunk--resulting in him being covered in molasses and feathers and Stan and Ollie having their mobile home destroyed. It's formula but it's a good and funny one at that.

Nothing super new, but done so well.

This is a good Laurel & Hardy short comedy, with one particularly hilarious sequence. With Ollie suffering from too much high living, the two take a trip to the country to live the simple life for a while, but instead they find themselves getting into one caper after another. After some adventures of their own, they encounter a pair of stranded motorists. Their extended squabble with Charlie Hall in the last part of the film is non-stop laughs, and one of their funniest sequences. That, and plenty of other laughs in the rest of the film, make "Them Thar Hills" one of the best-remembered Laurel & Hardy short features.

Stan and Ollie hire a trailer and go for a camping trip to the remote countryside , get accidentally drunk ( It can happen you know ) and that`s basically it as far as the threadbare plot goes . However the film feels more cohesive than some of the other L & H shorts which are sometimes a series of set piece prat falls with little regard to the over all plot . There`s also a very memorable ditty that goes

La la la lala lala la la la

Pom Pom

Which will disappear into your head and then reappear in your memory sometime in the future and will have you scratching your head asking " Where does that song come from ? "

Just like everyone else on this page I liked THEM THAR HILLS but wouldn`t say it`s the greatest ever L & H short . In fact I wouldn`t even say it`s the greatest short featuring Mr and Mrs Hall because the sequel TIT FOR TAT released the following year is even better