Dick und Doofs Lachparade

LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

An angry judge orders vagrants Stan & Ollie to `SCRAM!' or they'll be locked-up. Before they can obey, a good deed performed for an inebriated millionaire precipitates the Boys into a crazy series of misunderstandings.

A hilarious little film. Highlight: the wild romp with the lady of the house. That's Richard Cramer as His Honor; Arthur Housman as the drunk; and Vivien Oakland portrays the lady.

Scram! (1932)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Since the jail is too full a judge orders Laurel and Hardy to get out of town within a hour. Outside the courthouse they help a drunk man who then offers to let them spend the night with him but the drunk takes them to the wrong house. Plenty a gags from start to finish in this very good short. The highlights include trying to get a key from a drain and the terrific ending where L&H get drunk with another man's wife.

Saps at Sea (1940)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Terrific Laurel and Hardy feature has Hardy suffering a nervous breakdown so Laurel suggests they go to the sea for peace of quiet. This doesn't work as planned but things get worse when an escaped killer kidnaps them. Clocking in at just around 57-minutes this here basically plays out as two shorts with the first half taking place at home and the second half at sea. The first half is a lot funnier but the ending is among the funniest stuff I've seen from any L&H film.

This is a "vintage" Stan and Ollie film in more than one sense of the word as four of the five main characters in the story are innebriated for a large portion of the proceedings.

Token Hollywood drunk Arthur Houseman (an...ahem...method actor) is at his career best, and the boys are also on form. Watch for Stan's bewildered reply to the judge's question: "On what grounds?". It's a classic.

Richard Cramer is truly menacing as the judge, and the scenes featuring the judge's wife (played by Vivien Oakland) made me laugh out loud along with the characters.

8/10

Convicted of vagrancy, Laurel and Hardy are give one hour to get out of town or be jailed. On their way out of town they meet a drunk who has lost his car keys. They help him find them and he takes them to his house, but given the trouble they have getting inside, is it even his house?

As usual Stan and Oliver are homeless and workless. Here they are forced out of a town but think they've landed on their feet when a drunk takes them into his luxury home. This plot gives the leads only really one type of humour to concentrate on – physical routines. That isn't a major problem as they are pretty funny is never exactly setting the world on fire.

However I always liked their dialogue together as it is often hilarious and well written to make them both look foolish. Here there is none of this worth speaking of. Both the leads do well and there's no doubting their abilities when it comes to falling over in amusing way.

Overall this is funny if you like L&H's physical stuff which I do, but I did feel like the job was only half done when their was none of their usual banter.

Laurel & Hardy were in their prime when they appeared in Scram!, a terrific two-reel comedy that's funny from the start and builds to an uproarious finale of drunken mayhem. This is the one where Stan and Ollie are vagrants, ordered to leave town by an ornery judge (the magnificently irascible Rychard Cramer) who harbors a special hatred for drunks. When the boys come to the assistance of an intoxicated playboy (the supremely sozzled Arthur Housman) who has lost his car keys he rewards them with an invitation to his home, then takes them to the wrong address. Through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings the guys wind up sporting silk pajamas in the boudoir of the lady of the house (Vivien Oakland) and proceed to get her quite merrily intoxicated, only to learn, belatedly but in the most unmistakable fashion, that they are in the judge's house and the lady is his wife. Mayhem ensures, but it's strangely "innocent" mayhem where the guys are concerned.

Sounds nightmarish, doesn't it? Actually it's hilarious, really one of the best Laurel & Hardy shorts of all. Something I admire about their characters is their sincerity, the sense that they're just being themselves and never straining for a laugh. I love the way Ollie politely addresses the judge as "Your Highness," just as I love the way Stan always blurts out precisely the wrong thing at times like this. And it's amusing as ever to watch as the boys try to break into a house the hard way, in their time-honored fashion. But as wonderful as they are, a few words should be said on behalf of the supporting players in these comedies. Some of the key members of the stock company (i.e. Jimmy Finalyson, Mae Busch, Charlie Hall, etc.) appear frequently and often deserve co-star status, but the three main supporting players seen here, while not so well known, each make a major contribution toward the success of this short. Rychard Cramer is so scary in his brief appearance as the judge in the opening scene that his angry words seem to echo long after he's gone -- foreshadowing his return, which plays like something out of a Noir melodrama or even a horror movie. The perpetually hammered Arthur Housman is given a rare opportunity to perform an extended version of his drunk routine, and more than holds his own opposite Stan & Ollie. But it's Vivien Oakland who gets the best sequence, a prolonged and hilariously pointless laughing jag with the boys that makes the boudoir finale the highlight of the film. This scene is a guaranteed laugh-provoker that defies the viewer NOT to join in the hilarity.

At a time when most of their contemporaries were still struggling to adjust to the new technology of talkies, silent comedy vets Laurel & Hardy had already mastered the new medium and were funnier than ever. Their voices suited their screen characters perfectly, their comedy was enhanced by the delightfully bouncy music of Le Roy Shield and Marvin Hatley, and the supporting roles were filled by a crew of distinctive, gifted players who look like they're having the times of their lives. All these years after the films were made, that sense of fun still comes across.