County Hospital

Another fine comedy from Stan and Ollie. Stan pays a hospital visit to Oliver, who is up in traction with a broken leg, enjoying the peace and quiet. Of course it isn't long before that peace is destined to vanish.

Stan is so wonderfully inept in this one. Visiting Ollie as he hasn't anything else to do today, not bringing Ollie candy as "It costs too much" and not having been paid for the last batch. He comes up with his legendary gift.

Don't think any other comedian eating a hard boiled could be funny, but in Laurel's effortless hands it's great. The trouser gag is absolutely hilarious.

Only the climax is a let down, spoiled by poor rear projection work and going on too long. We are rescued though by the boys' L-shaped car (at least that's how it ends up!) Stan and Ollie: best there's ever been.

"County Hospital" is a perfectly fine L&H short until the final sequence. I always enjoyed the scenes where Stan roams the hospital halls looking for his buddy (trying to figure out what a "solarium" is) and accidentally wanders into the maternity ward; he's mightily relieved when he finds out he's on the wrong floor! I also very much enjoy Ollie's scenes with doctor Billy Gilbert and silly Englishman William Austin. The film is also enlivened by the nurses, played by Estelle Etterre (who laughs hysterically when she finds that Stan has accidentally injected himself with a sedative) and May Wallace (who joins in the laughter and says, "He'll sleep for a month!" -- so much for medical ethics).

Personally, I always liked the scene where Dr. Gilbert is flung out the window of Ollie's room on the top floor--it adds a little action to a film where the longest scene is a single take of Stan trying to eat a hard-boiled egg. Also, the gag with the egg dropping into an unseen container by Ollie's bed and making a metallic clunk is NOT a mistake--the joke is that we think at first the egg has dropped into a chamber pot (ask your grandparents what that is), but as Stan brings it up into view we're relieved to see it's only a pitcher. The same gag happens in the team's earlier short "Helpmates," where Stan drops an alarm clock into an unseen container under his bed.

As for the final sequence with the back projection, it's not so much the quality of the film running behind the boys as a problem of sluggish editing. If the shots had been much shorter--and if we'd had a few more cutaways outdoors than just the one of the car skidding on a wet road--the sequence might have worked. Roy Seawright, who did the special effects scenes at Roach's, was a good friend of mine and his crew generally did top-notch work-- check out the split-screen scenes in "Our Relations" and "Brats," the animated bubbles in "Swiss Miss," and all of the effects work in Hal Roach's feature "Topper."

As we all know Stan Laurel does not do well in a crisis, especially those of his own making. Just a simple act of kindness visiting his good buddy Oliver Hardy in the hospital causes mayhem in the hospital and also out on the road.

By the way do any of you doubt the reason that Ollie is in the hospital in that contraption with a broken leg is because Stan did something to cause it?

Anyway the highlight of this is poor Ollie hung up with his leg still in the cast while Dr. Billy Gilbert is hanging out the high window at the same time. Poor befuddled Laurel can't figure out what to do.

William Austin playing his usual silly twit Englishman is Ollie's roommate and I have to say that the boys and Hal Roach were most generous giving Gilbert and Austin their share of laughs.

In the end a tranquilizer kicks in as Stan is driving Ollie home. What havoc is wrought.

One of their funniest short subjects.

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. Didn't find 'County Hospital' quite one of their very best, but it to me still very good and some of the best material is among their funniest.

Admittedly, the story is pretty thin and is pretty standard and it does run out of steam at the end complete with some very obvious back projection and sluggish editing, both of which fake-looking.

Despite that, 'County Hospital' is great fun, never less than very amusing and the best moments, being classic hilarity. It is never too silly, there is a wackiness that never loses its energy and the sly wit is here, some of the material may not be new but how it's executed actually doesn't feel too familiar and it doesn't get repetitive. A lot happens yet it doesn't ever feel rushed or over-stuffed. The first half is terrific and one of the better first halves of Laurel and Hardy's output from this period.

Laurel and Hardy are on top form here, both are well used, both have material worthy of them and they're equal rather than one being funnier than the other (before Laurel tended to be funnier and more interesting than Hardy, who tended to be underused). Their chemistry feels like a partnership here too, before 'Two Tars' you were yearning for more scenes with them together but in 'County Hospital' and on the most part from 'Two Tars' onwards we are far from robbed of that. Their comic timing is impeccable.

Excepting the editing at the end, 'County Hospital' looks good visually, is full of energy and the direction gets the best out of the stars, is at ease with the material and doesn't let it get too busy or static. The supporting players are solid, especially Billy Gilbert, but it's Laurel and Hardy's show all the way.

In summary, very good if not one of the best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I've probably seen this Laurel & Hardy short more than any other. I watched it with my dad in the early Fifties. I have to admit, I really felt for Oliver in this one. He is really in bad shape and his good buddy comes along and ruins it for him. From the beginning when Stanley brings him a gift of some hard boiled eggs and some nuts, it's all over. Stan causes so much trouble that they are both thrown out of the hospital. After several harrowing moments, Stan sits on a hypodermic needle that contains a sedative. Of course, he has to drive Oliver home. There is a great line when Oliver asks his friend why he didn't bring a box of candy. He says Ollie never paid him for the last one.