Tit for Tat

With a fine combination of both obvious and subtle laughs, "Tit For Tat" is one of the funniest Laurel & Hardy short comedies. It is a follow up to "Them Thar Hills", and it plays off of the memorable confrontation scene with Charlie Hall in the earlier movie - this time, Stan and Ollie open up an electrical supply store, only to find out that Charlie runs the grocery store next door. It doesn't take much for a full-scale battle to break out once again. It's very funny creative chaos - they make full use of the props in the two stores, and there is plenty of hilarious slapstick along with some more subtle humor (for example, watch for the running gag each time they go next door). Not to be missed for fans of these master comics.

For fans of Laurel and Hardy, this is a classic short. Others might be less impressed by this war of destruction between the pair and their next-door neighbor, Charlie Hall. It's all based on childish insults that cross the line when they start tearing up each other's stores.

It's simple and direct physical comedy in the best tradition of L&H and their slapstick brand of comedy. A running gag has someone pilfering their store whenever they go next-door to wreck havoc on their neighbor. Naturally, they never notice a thing, even when he loads all their wares in a truck by the curb.

Mae Busch is the wife about whom Charlie Hall becomes jealous. When Oliver gets tossed onto their window ledge by one of Laurel's gaffes, he's helped inside the woman's bedroom by the woman herself. Coming down the stairs, he utters a line that clearly got by the censors: "I've never been in that position before!" Any wonder the husband goes into a jealous rage? Funny stuff, tailor-made and simple story that provides plenty of slapstick moments you won't forget.

Stan and Ollie have gone into business with an electrical appliance store and it just happens to be located next to the grocery store of Mae Busch and Charley Hall. As fate would have it they've got a history with Mae and Charley going back to a previous short subject Them Thar Hills.

Charley's of a suspicious nature, no doubt aggravated by seeing Ollie coming down the stairs of his apartment above the store and saying goodbye to Mae. There is an innocent explanation for it all, in fact it was caused by Stan, I won't say how.

This gets Hall's back up and they start a war of pranks for the rest of the 19 minute short subject. Which are a series of slapstick gags the boys pull on Charley and he keeps retaliating. It escalates pretty good and they come, not fast and furious, but kind of slow cooked the better to savor.

Though Tit for Tat probably should be seen back to back with Them Thar Hills, it's a good enough short subject to stand on its own. Why would it have gotten an Academy Award nomination if it wasn't?

Stan and Ollie run an electrical shop (I'm sure they are stellar businessmen). Unfortunately, they have had previous dealings with the guy next door who runs a grocery store. Somehow the guy gets it into his head that Ollie has a thing for his wife (Mae Busch) and decides to start a war (a tit for tat kind of thing) with the boys. Soon they are trying to outdo one another in their cruel attacks. What is also going on is a man who goes into Stan and Ollie's store and starts stealing their stuff. At first he takes little things. As time goes by, he is utterly ignored because the parties are so involved in their discord. Soon he is hauling out huge amounts of stuff, using a wheelbarrow. The timing and interaction between these people is delightful and, as usual, things don't go well.

This is certainly one of the best L & H shorts because unlike most of the others there`s little in the way of an episodic feel and it has a continuity with THEM THAR HILLS . What makes memorable to me is the innuendo involved when Ollie comes down the stairs with the grocer`s wife and laughs " I`ve never been in a position like that before " I was totally shocked , Oliver Hardy comes out of a bedroom , down a flight of stairs and exclaims " I`ve never been in a position like that before " Of course there`s an innocent explanation for all this but it`s unbelievable the censors allowed this type of innuendo to be used in 1935 . I would have loved to have seen this at a cinema when it was first released just so I could see if anyone picked up on the ambiguity of Oliver`s statement