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Laurel And Hardy made their first starring feature film for Hal Roach with Pardon Us. It's a prison picture, but this correctional facility will never be the same now that Stan and Ollie have served time there.

They were not very good as bootleggers selling some of their illegal stock to an undercover policeman and got sent to the big house. Where Stan makes an inexplicable friend in the toughest con in the joint Walter Long. Ollie is not so similarly fortunate, but Long tolerates him as long as he's with Stan.

Stan has an additional problem. A loose tooth has him make the noises of a Bronx Cheer at the most inopportune moment.

This film has a large black cast of extras because part of the plot involves the boys escaping and eluding their captors while in blackface pretending to be field hands. Unlike a lot of films the black people here are portrayed with dignity. The sequences show the singing talents of Ollie and Stan does a nice patter with a dance. Since the blackface is integral to the plot I've not heard any objections raised to it here.

It was a good beginning for Stan and Ollie in sound feature films.

Being the lads first full length feature it's not surprising that much of it feels like filler, certainly the jokes are not quick fire and the culminating outcome doesn't quite leave the viewer fully satisfied. However it should be noted that Laurel & Hardy's average output is still better than most other duos who would follow in their slipstream, and Pardon Us does have those moments that ooze comedy class. Witness both Stan & Ollie trying to control a machine gun with typical riotous results, enjoy Stanley's tooth problem that becomes a running gag, and of course enjoy Oliver's incredulous looks at the camera. It's solid if unspectacular, but certainly worth a watch now and then, 6/10.

Footnote: Other user comments allude to certain aspects being un PC for the modern age, who cares is what I say, this is after all Laurel & Hardy in the 30s, it worked then and really it still works now, harmless and enjoyable fun.

Laurel and Hardy's first feature film is a rather uneven affair with a disjointed story that sees Laurel and Hardy are sent to prison for selling home brew to a policeman during prohibition.

In hail they end up on the wrong side of their cellmate, The Tiger who is mean bad one. Stan's loose tooth which makes a raspberry noise constantly lands the duo in trouble.

They end up in solitary, then escape to a cotton plantation and once recaptured they inadvertently break up a prison riot.

The film is rather overlong and padded, like a couple of shorts cobbled together with some songs.

Laurel and Hardy are shopping for ingredients for their next get rich scheme – making and selling liquor during prohibition. Of course when Laurel sells a bottle of beer to a policeman, there is only ever going to be one outcome and the two finds themselves on the way to the big house. Locked up with a mean spirited collection of fellas, Stan and Oliver take their chance to escape and find themselves wanted men on the run.

Having just watched the very structured "Our Relations" it was noticeable when I stepped back into the much looser Pardon Us. The basic plot is no more than a nail on which to hang a series of comic scenarios and, as such, it works because it is pretty funny for the majority. The story is pretty weak but it does allow for a solid spoof of jail clichés as well as a pretty un-PC but funny scene where the boys try to pass themselves off as cotton pickers. Despite not having this flow to it, the film does have a couple of good stand out scenes that will please everyone with their typical silliness and mix of looks and double-takes.

Laurel and Hardy are both on form and are served to their strengths well. Finlayson is wonderful in a great classroom scene and he got the biggest laughs from me with a master class in slow burns and double takes. Long is enjoyably tough as The Tiger while Lucas is a good warden. The support cast are roundly good even if they are mainly there to carry the scenes rather than the comedy. The musical numbers are obvious but still good – with Hardy getting a good chance to show off his baritone talents.

Overall a thinly plotted affair but one that delivers quite a few memorable and hilarious scenes, connected with generally amusing moments.

So says Ollie at the start of a sustained eleven-minute sequence where he and Stan paint their hands and faces to hide amongst a black community. On two occasions the paint gets washed off and has to be replaced; Stan with dirt from a puddle, Ollie with oil. Like the stereotypical black people that occupy the piece, it's one of those "would never be allowed nowadays" moments that marks Pardon Us out as an unusual curio. The boundaries between innocence and unintentional risk-taking occur throughout. Set largely in a prison, there's a later scene where Stan is threatened by a knife, and an inmate is shown to be a potential rapist when coming face to face with the warden's daughter. Although Stan's sharing a bed with Hardy and the same inmate promising that he and Stan will be "great pals" is played without any form of sexual connotation.

This sort of politically incorrect humour is not only common to Pardon Us, however. In the following year's Pack Up Your Troubles the duo would pretend to have only one arm in order to escape being drafted into the army. Stan would pour boiling hot water over three men, while the two would steal $2000 from a bank. The 1932 film would also tackle the theme of wife battery and feature another race joke, which takes us back to Pardon us. In a curious scene, Stan mistakes two prisoners – one black, one Asian – as the radio "blackface" double-act, Amos and Andy. It's impossible to condemn the film on such matters, and I wouldn't even try, as that sort of thing was commonplace for the time it was made. But it's notable, and slightly alarming, even so. Whoever would have thought such naive humour still had the ability to shock seventy years on?

Laurel and Hardy perhaps never had wide ambitions, though did some pretty groundbreaking stuff in terms of stunts and special effects. More intelligent than The Three Stooges, they nevertheless didn't aspire to the same terms of art and film as, say, Chaplin. But while they may not be as admired as Charlie, Keaton or even Lloyd, they are doubtless more loved. Even though most of the jokes are clearly set-up, their assured execution, by Laurel, particularly, means they never fall flat. It must be said that the interplay between the two stars isn't as good as it would be, and that as their first full-length talkie, the pace is notably slower than what was to follow. The age of the silent movie is still felt throughout, with a lone damsel in distress in a burning building, and some overstated body language from the bit players. The film opens with a caption, and incidental music is almost omnipresent – both now redundant, and slightly distracting. Though while the rapport between the two would be stronger - only their 24th talkie, they would appear in another 52 together after this - Pardon Us is still a fine example of their work. Stan's gormless, inane smile, dopey eyes and sticky ears are a delight, while his mastery of physical comedy is exceptional. Those who wish to build an argument that Stan was the talented one will be served here by a Hardy who gets to be second fiddle all the way, and is encouraged to double-take to camera a few too many times.

Lastly, two points come to mind. One is a dentist calling Stan "Rosebud" – was Orson Welles inspired? And Ollie here says "another nice mess", not the oft-quoted "fine".

This was Laurel and Hardy's first full-length movie, though it is admittedly a short full-length film. And, apart from a few somewhat slow moments (particularly in the very politically incorrect and portion where the team pose as Black sharecroppers) as well as a running gag that isn't funny (the tooth), it is great fun overall. Part of the reason it is so much fun is that their foil is Walter Long--one of the absolutely scariest looking bad guys in movie history! I loved him in this movie and he is just terrifying. Well, the boys being very stupid, find a way to get on Long's bad side and they know their days are numbered unless some miracle happens--and that's exactly what happens at the film's conclusion. I won't give away the details because I don't want to spoil the fun, but this is a wonderful little film--minus all the songs that seemed to be added as padding.

In & out of prison, Stan & Ollie just can't seem to stay out of trouble.

"PARDON US" was the Boys' first starring feature film. Rather disjointed and poorly edited, it plays more like a few of their short subjects strung together. However, the Boys never falter and they deliver a film whose parts are greater than its whole.

The film was meant to be a spoof of MGM's popular THE BIG HOUSE (1930) and it helps to have seen that earlier movie to fully appreciate this one. Many of the standard conventions of the typical prison film are mocked here: the ‘understanding' warden, the dangerous convict cell mate, the confinement in Solitary, the escape chased by bloodhounds, the prison riot.

A few comedy pieces in particular stand out: Stan's loose tooth; Ollie in the dentist's chair; the Boys trying to settle into the constricted confines of an upper bunk. James Finlayson, Stan & Ollie's old nemesis, makes the most of his one scene as the prison schoolteacher driven to despair by the Boys' good-natured idiocy.

Walter Long is lots of fun as the Tiger, the meanest convict in the prison (Boris Karloff played the part for the French language version). Movie mavens will spot an uncredited Charlie Hall as the dental assistant.

An added delight is Babe Hardy's rendition of ‘Lazy Moon,' one of the decade's finest film songs. Ollie had a warm, evocative voice, full of feeling and emotion. Here, backed by the magnificent Hall Johnson Choir, his song reaches out of the screen and down the decades to touch the hearts of the audience.

This was Laurel & Hardy's first feature-length film, and it's clear they're not too comfortable with the format: too much padding, not enough laughs. They play a couple of would-be beer barons who find themselves in the slammer after trying to sell beer to a cop, and they look like veritable lambs to the slaughter as they fall foul of Walter Long, the evil-eyed Tiger. The best thing about this film – apart from the boys themselves, who rise effortlessly above their rather mediocre material – is the great array of weather-beaten punch-drunk faces of the character actors chosen to flesh out the parts of the other inmates. They all look like they spend most of their time loitering in dark alleyways waiting for some poor soul to come wandering past.

There's a lot of content that would be considered politically incorrect in these wonderfully enlightened times, and for once the film would probably be no worse off if it wasn't there. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but for the most part this one falls far short of the boy's usual high standard. The editing, in particular, is shockingly bad – even for 1931.

This was the first full-length movie from Laurel & Hardy, that last over 1 hour long. Their first effort is definitely one of their better ones.

Difference with most other Laurel & Hardy movies is that this one actually has a story and continuity in it. It's more than just one slapstick and comical moment after another and it's obvious that they definitely put lots of effort in the story. The movie is constantly funny although the movie could had done without those musical numbers in my opinion. It's extremely old fashioned and takes the pace right out of the movie.

Besides the two boys the movie also has some other memorable characters in it such as Wilfred Lucas as the jail warden, James Finlayson as the jail schoolteacher and Walter Long as fellow prisoner The Tiger. Especially Walter Long stands out in his role and he plays an extremely fun character who of course gives the two an hard time.

The movie is very fine constructed and build up to the memorable ending in which one big jail break is attempted. It's pretty violent stuff for Laurel & Hardy standards and I had never thought that I would ever see the two of them holding a gun. The ending is almost action movie like but it of course is also extremely hilarious at the same time.

There are quite some returning running gags in the movie that all help to make this movie a very memorable one. Also enough slapstick humor is present so fans of that will also be delighted with this movie.

9/10

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I think it was the natural and successful career move for Laurel and Hardy to make feature length movies. They proved during the 1930s that they could adapt to making films of approximately an hour in length by working with a fuller storyline. Several of their feature length films remain classics and rightly so. It would take a couple of films before Stan and Ollie felt at home in this particular format but their debut feature, "Pardon Us" shows a lot of promise. It is a patchy film in that the story is a bit drawn out but the comedy is very good. Our hapless heroes attempt to cash in on the bootlegging racket but don't realise they have sold some of their product to an undercover police officer - until it's too late. Sent to prison, they find it hard to cope with incarceration. Stan suffering from toothache doesn't exactly help! He manages to incur the wrath of everyone as a result. I don't usually care for music numbers being included in comedy films. In fairness though, it doesn't harm this film. I enjoyed the cast of African/American performers as they sang and harmonise together. Great singing all round, not least from Ollie who was truly blessed with a superb voice. The best Laurel and Hardy feature films were to follow but "Pardon Us" has some effective scenes.

Stan & Ollie's "Pardon Us" is not one of their most memorable films, and not one of their funniest. Stan and Ollie are send to jail for selling beer, they later escape but are recaptured. The plot seems pretty thick compared to comedy films of that day, and there seems to be less attention paid among the scriptwriters on jokes and funny moments. The running gag through the movie is Stan's loose tooth, which makes him sound like he insults everyone. It's not very funny, and gets extremely repetitive and thus predictable. And if you look past that joke, then there isn't much left to laugh about about.

And that is pretty much the problem. Not once during the movie did I laugh. Just a halfway grin on occasion. So it remains just a little film, that you watch, and then forget. There are of course a few half funny moments, Stan trying to get comfortable to sleep in his and Ollie's bed at the prison. The scene at the dentist, the scene at the prison school (with Finlayson, who makes his usual - but still great - mimics) and the ending of the film are all OK moments, but not that much more. There's an extremely huge amount of singing in the movie. Singing at the prison, and while Stan and Ollie escapes, they hide as black workers on a cotton farm, leading to classic "negro-spirituals" and similar. It's not bad at all, but it drags on a bit too much.

So all in all, too much regular movie'ish plot, and too little solid comedy. It's not a bad film at all, but far from being a Stan 6 Ollie classic.

A few years later, the boys would make "Sons Of The Desert", a master example on a classic Stan & Ollie movie. And it success "Pardon Us" in every way possible.

In Laurel's and Hardy's first full length talking picture the boys go behind bars.And Stan's loose tooth gets the boys in trouble many times, when it starts making a funny noise every time he speaks.Pardon Us offers you many funny moments with Laurel and Hardy.

I wonder if some of the younger viewers will get the initial premise. A Constitutional amendment, whose number I don't want to bother looking up, made almost all forms of alcoholic beverages illegal during the 1920s until the amendment was repealed in 1933. It was a curious law. The targets seemed to be not so much booze as immigrants who drank for recreation (Irish) or as part of a meal (Italians). It was particularly bad for most of the breweries. They were run by Germans, who had just been demonized in World War I. (Think Schlitz, Blatz, Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser, Gablinger, etc.) When Laurel and Hardy are first seen, they're planning to buy enough ingredients to make 25 gallons of illegal beer. Presumably they get caught. That's why they're taken to jail.

It's their first talkie but some of the verbal gags are unexpectedly cute. So the dynamic duo are being booked. "What's your name?", the gruff desk sergeant demands of Laurel. "Stanley Laurel," is the obedient answer. "Say SIR when you speak to me!" "Sir Stanley Laurel." More are routine puns but still amusing. What's a comet? A star with a tail on it. Correct -- name one. "Rin-tin-tin." For you young uns, Rin-tin-tin was a famous dog in the early movies. Hardy seems to break the fourth wall more often than usual but not enough to turn the viewer off.

There are scenes that some might find irritating or offensive because they are echt-non-PC. Laurel and Hardy escape from prison, don blackface, and join a small community of black who pick cotton and live in tumbledown houses. But so what? A lot of blacks in the South DID pick cotton. They're presented as positively as any other group -- singing and enjoying themselves after a hard day's work -- and Laurel and Hardy are perfectly comfortable in their company. Hardy sings "Lazy Moon," totally forgettable, while the banjo and guitar back him up, and Laurel does a little dance. Later, when they're back behind the walls, a quintet of inmates sings the more successful "I Want To Go Back to Michigan," written by Irving Berlin in 1914. From a materialist point of view, disregarding ethics, this was 1931 and all of the actors in this movie -- stars and extras alike, black or white -- were collecting pay checks that might be otherwise hard to come by.

One of the more notable scenes: Laurel and Hardy in the waiting room, about to have the dentist pull one of Laurel's teeth. There's no slapstick at all. One by one, the waiting prisoners are ushered into the dentist's office and shortly afterwards we hear screams of pain and fear, the crashing of pots and pans, while Laurel quivers in fright. Maybe I responded the way I did because one of the phrases I most dread hearing is a dentist saying, "Now just open wide and turn this way a little." The direction is pretty crude -- lots of close ups of faces registering one or another intense emotion. But the story has continuity and leads to a properly kinetic climax with some imaginatively choreographed slapstick.

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.

Although a vast majority of Laurel and Hardy's previous efforts ranged from above average to very good ('45 Minutes from Hollywood' being the only misfire and mainly worth seeing as a curiosity piece and for historical interest, and even that wasn't a complete mess), 'Two Tars' for me was their first truly classic one with close to flawless execution. After all their efforts between that and this being decent to brilliant, their first full length feature 'Pardon Us' came up somewhat short, for me it was their weakest effort for quite some time up to this point and almost all their feature films that came after fared much better.

'Pardon Us' weakest points were the story and the pacing. The story is barely existent and feels cobbled together, like a series of sketches or a couple of shorts in one feature film which gave a disjointed feel. Although 'Pardon Us' was short, the content was not enough to sustain the length and it did feel more like a very padded short film rather than a feature film. There is a fair bit of padding and some of it comes over as over-stretched.

Most of the comedy material is fine, apart from some repetition here and there. Some of the editing is a touch on the sloppy side.

It is a nicely shot feature though and it is competently directed. There are a lot of amusing moments and the best parts are hilarious if not quite classic. The supporting cast do solidly enough.

Laurel and Hardy, as they rightly should be, are the stars. They show impeccable comic timing, especially Laurel though it was always great when their style had fully settled and their output evolved Hardy had more to do and able to show off his equal amount of talent more. Together, one can totally understand why they were such a legendary partnership. It was fully formed by this point and felt like a proper partnership, when before 'Two Tars' you mostly had them not having enough screen time together and Hardy having little to do. Not so on either count here.

On the whole, disappointing but worthwhile enough. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Call me crazy ("Hey, crazy!") but I never enjoyed silent era films. I tried, oh I tried, but each time an actor's mouth moved there was nothing but an awkward silence. Then after what seemed too lengthy of a wait, a placard flashed on the TV screen, reflecting what the actor had just said moments before. I found this to be very distracting, plus it slowed down the natural comedic timing. This lapse between action and dialog, for me, was like watching an entire movie subtitled, and I couldn't square the two up.

That being said, I didn't watch any of the short and feature length "TV reruns" unless they were "talkies." As a kid who was fortunate enough to have a tiny black and white TV set in my bedroom, every Saturday morning before my parents or the Sun were up, I was thoroughly mesmerized by the vaudevillian, overtly physical humor of Buster Keaton, Our Gang (The Little Rascals), The Three Stooges, and of course, Laurel & Hardy.

The first Our Gang (The Little Rascals) talkie was "Small Talk" released in 1929. Buster Keaton's first talkie was "Free and Easy," released in 1930. The Three Stooges (Larry, Moe and Curly) most recognized talkie was The Woman Haters (1934). "Unaccustomed As We Are," released worldwide in 1929, was Laurel and Hardy's film debut with sound. It was an immediate hit with audiences.

Unlike many of their silent film era contemporaries who couldn't make the transition from silent to sound film, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy effortlessly slipped into this new media. Both actors had the rare gift of "comedic timing," and the duo knew how to thoroughly exploit sight gags. Moreover, lovable Hardy routinely broke the "fourth wall" of film, and after each hilarious yet tragic gag, he would often look straight at the camera as if to say, "Can you believe what just happened to me?"

Pardon Us (1931) is Laurel & Hardy's first starring feature film and coincidentally is one of their funniest (on the L&H DVD set it runs a full 1:10 while televised versions cut it to 1:04). L&H we're masters at filling out meager plots with maximum improvisation. The idea of putting the boys in jail was brilliant!

Ollie sings for us (he had a beautiful and natural singing voice) and Stanley delivers some riotous, eccentric dancing, the kind that would make anyone laugh. It's that good!

This comedy is brilliantly choreographed by two of the arguably most iconic comedic teams in history, and they are supported by a wonderful set of familiar actors who would often appear in many future Laurel & Hardy shorts and feature length films.

No spoilers here as usual, but I will reveal that there is a brief cameo of Hal Roach (after all, it was Roach's studio) marching in front of Ollie after he is recaptured.

Not a bad film by the legendary Laurel & Hardy duo. Like every 'long' (one-hour) film of theirs, there is almost always a recurring problem: in the short films Laurel and Hardy make four or five very funny gags, while in the feature films they only increase the length but not the number of gags, thus leaving you with empty moments between gags. These 'empty' scenes either contain jokes that nowadays just make you smile or contain a bit of plot. However, for being from 1931 even those plot parts are not bad. There is a directors' cut version, containing another ten or so minutes originally cut, these scenes are scattered throughout the film and contain 2-3 jokes each that only serve to give more context. As far as I am concerned, the shortened version is at least on par with the full version, because the unedited scenes (apart from one that is a little more interesting than the others) add nothing to the film.

"Pardon Us" was the first full-length film featuring the comedy duo of Laurel and Hardy. It was short by present day standards, running for just under an hour at 56 minutes. It was released in 1931 as the infamous prohibition era was coming to its end. It was the era of Chicago gangsters and hoodlums, it was the era of Al Capone, it was the era of the electric chair, it was the era of the speakeasy, it was the era of the bootlegger, it was the era of illegal alcohol production, it was the era of prisons. So against this background our happy pair of laughable chaps find themselves in prison for trying to sell their home made brew to a friendly LA cop! However there is no real story running through the film, it is no more than a series of separate sketches loosely tacked together with prison life as a common theme. Many of the prison scenes of riots and shoot-outs are in fact left over footage from an earlier film, "The Big House". Maybe MGM felt they were on a winner with something that was in the public's eye - lawlessness, crime and corruption. However it does not seem to have worked, for laughs are few and far between. The best supporting star is Walter Long who plays an extremely tough and much feared prisoner "The Tiger". Apart from one sketch involving the daughter of the Prison Governor there is no female character in the film, perhaps she should have been more prominent. Stan and Ollie's old stalwart James Finlayson appears in just one sketch in which he plays an idiosyncratic teacher in front of a class of prisoners. There are a few mild laughs here but one is immediately reminded of the famous British comedian Will Hay who as Headmaster of St.Michaels school had perfected virtually the same act around 1920; as both he and Laurel had worked for Fred Karno, it is possible that Finlayson was introduced to this act by Laurel. Surprisingly, Hardy comes over very well in one scene as a singer, he had a good baritone voice, not something we normally associate with him. Overall "Pardon Us" is very out dated so it must be regarded as a nostalgic work that has not aged well; so much so that the MGM credit has been removed from the start of the film. If you are a Stan and Ollie fan watch it by all means but for others, watch something else instead.

Just rewatched Pardon Us, Laurel & Hardy's first feature film having been a success in two-reel shorts for years. It wasn't originally supposed to have been. See, producer Hal Roach had wanted to use the prison set of his distributor M-G-M's The Big House for his L & H parody but got upset when he was informed he would have to loan them to Leo the Lion's studio in return. So he had the expensive set duplicated at his Culver City lot with the decision to pad the film to recoup costs. Anyway, while the added scenes do seem extraneous, I got plenty of laughs anyway so it's all good. Like that scene with James Finlayson as a professor trying to teach his students and getting lots of nonsense answers when asking for certain facts. That sequence is all the sweeter as it plays the Our Gang theme of "Good Old Days" by Leroy Shield since it's reminiscent of a similar one in one of their shorts. Oh, and the version I'm reviewing is the longer preview print running 65 minutes that I taped off of AMC back in the '90s. Since Black History Month is in several days, I'd like to also note that the singers at the plantation scenes are that of Etude Ethiopian Chorus as directed by Freita Shaw. Oliver Hardy himself has a marvelous singing voice as evident when he warbles "Lazy Moon" with them. By the way, the blackface on both him and Stan doesn't cross the line to offensive since they don't look or act like the stereotype caricatures one associates with the makeup when it's put on. Really, all I'll say now is if you're a die hard Laurel & Hardy fan, I highly recommend this extant version of Pardon Us.

Like many of their contemporaries, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy could be relied upon time and again for a steady stream of gags, physical comedy, situational humor, and some witty dialogue. While their brand of frivolity was often lighter and gentler than that of, say, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, or The Three Stooges, in the very least viewers can be assured of consistent amusement, if not big smiles or hearty laughs. This particular picture tends toward the more passively enjoyable side of the duo's oeuvre, eliciting big reactions less frequently by comparison to others, but it's hard to go with Laurel and Hardy at large, and 'Pardon us' remains a splendid classic of the early sound era.

The pacing generally, and comedic timing specifically, feel a bit too relaxed here, reducing the entertainment to some extent. This is in addition to a considerable range in quality between bits; some are fine fun while others pass by indifferently. Moreover, rough spots in the editing can surely be attributed to the fact of different versions having been made or distributed, but nevertheless the breaks are often all too apparent. And as one further consideration, this is a title that makes use of blackface; at least here it's a question not of taking the place of black actors but instead one of having fun at the expense of the characters in question, but the inclusion is unfortunate all the same, and ill-considered. Still, even with all this having been said, the chemistry between the stars remains intact even in their weakest moments, and whether individually or as a set they carry high energy and mirth about them to carry the proceedings.

The writing is swell in the broad strokes, despite imperfections, and likewise James Parrott's direction. The sets look fantastic, and while stunts and practical effects are relatively deemphasized in 'Pardon us' they still come off well, with the climax being a major highlight in this and all other regards. Sound effects instead take greater precedence in this case, and are inarguably a minor joy. When all is said and done this may not stand as tall as some of Laurel and Hardy's other works, though in fairness, this was their first full-length feature. In any event, it's a good time more than not, and can claim a strong finish in the last stretch. I don't think it's something one needs to go out of their way to see, and the faults should be noted, but if you do have the chance to check out 'Pardon us' it's a decent watch and another small gem in the stars' crown.

...for not being very funny. Scenes drag on with slapstick and pratfalls which must have been tired and dated even in 1931. It is quite anxiety-inducing to watch as you just want it to stop. I quite liked the idea of Stan blowing raspberries at the prison's 'Top Dog' Walter Long (The Tiger). However, it's funny once, maybe twice but please stop it there. In this offering, I'm afraid the repetition of this joke falls flat and becomes an irritation. Sort of what Abbott & Costello were to do in the 1940s - you know, milk a joke to death so that it is no longer funny.

I'd watched "The Big House" (1930) the day before I saw this and the inspiration from that film is obvious in both storyline and set. That film is better than this Laurel & Hardy offering and I just felt slightly let-down because I never really got a good laugh from this film.