Verlorene Liebe

Laurel and Hardy are door to door greeting card salesmen. They happen across a wife who believes her husband no longer loves her. The duo come up with the suggestion that one of them pretend to make love to her when the husband is due home – if he acts jealous then she will know he loves her. However when the man comes home to find Hardy kissing his wife he, the best shot in the land, challenges Hardy to a duel that is harder to get out of than Hardy expects.

An enjoyable short that allows Laurel and Hardy to do good physical work as well as their verbal banter. The card sales pitches they do are simply `wacky' and display a nice touch of the absurd (the 4-in-1 card that covers all seasons!). I was a bit taken a back by hearing Laurel offer to `make love' to the woman – but it is a different time and meant kiss etc. The build up to the duel is more verbal humour than physical and is funnier for it.

Laurel's confused story telling is good value and Hardy's reactions are pure gold. The support cast are all pretty good – whether it be the comedy drunk, the upset wife or the vengeful husband, they all play their part and enable Laurel and Hardy to bounce off them with ease.

Overall this is a very enjoyable short that allows the duo to play down the pratfalls and play up the verbal and performance comedy.

Stan and Ollie have another one of those innocuous jobs. They are door to door greeting card salesmen. When they come to the door of Mae Busch, she is bemoaning the fact that her husband doesn't seem to love her. To test this, it is suggested that Oliver pretend to "make love" (not quite the same meaning as now) to her and test the husband. Of course, he is Charles Middleton, who played the evil space lord, Ming, in the Flash Gordon serials. He is an artist and the best shot in France, and he decides to fight a duel with our rotund friend. Now the boys must find a way out of this because this guy really means business. Unfortunately, they decide to get drunk and through a series of unfortunate events, end up back at the artist's home, in his bed. This is a little weaker than many of these episodes, but it's still better than what most anyone else was doing at the time.

THE FIXER UPPERS

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white - Short film)

Stan 'n' Ollie are hired to 'seduce' a desperate housewife (Mae Busch) who wants to inspire a jealous reaction from her uncaring husband (Charles Middleton). However, the plan backfires when Middleton determines to take deadly revenge against these 'home-wreckers'...

Lively stuff from L&H's glory days, a reworking of their silent short SLIPPING WIVES (1927), played to the hilt by a note-perfect cast, and constructed with just the right amount of tact and discretion by director Charles Rogers. A formidable presence in so many films of the era, Middleton - later to star as 'Emperor Ming' in the "Flash Gordon" serials - plays the villain with deadly seriousness (complete with silent movie mannerisms and exaggerated indignation), which renders proceedings all the more amusing, while L&H blunder their way into trouble at every turn. Watch out for the memorable diner sequence, which includes Stan's famous response to a ringing telephone.

Sorry if I`m hurting anyone`s feelings but this is one of the weakest of the L&H shorts . My problem with it is not so much a threadbare plot but the set-up and the coincidence of the husband arriving home at that precise point . Like science fiction comedy relies on sincere credibilty for it to work and sincere credibilty is in short supply when Stan and Ollie sit in a bar when they should be getting the first train out of town . Wouldn`t you in the same circumstance ? And the flaws in the script aren`t helped by the very stagey performances of the supporting cast .

That said both Stan and Ollie greatly rise above the material on display and do give very good slapstick performances with the telephone scene and the duel working simply because L&H have the greatest chemistry of any comedy duo that have ever lived . Even when the scripts aren`t very good Stan and Ollie can still bring a grin to my face

Six out of ten

Laurel and Hardy are selling greeting cards door to door. When they enter Mae Busch's flat, they find her in tears. She feels her husband, Charles Middleton, is neglecting her. She offers to pay Ollie $50 to make love to her to make Middleton jealous and reawaken his feelings. The plan is successful. Middleton feels it necessary to challenge Hardy to a duel.

It's a very late short for the Boys, filled with nonsense and sight gags, and Arthur Housman doing his drunk act. It's also the last short that longtime Roach stalwart, Noah Young would appear in with Stan and Ollie.