Le Chant du coucou

Call of the Cuckoo (1927)

** (out of 4)

A man (Max Davidson) swaps houses, sight unseen, due to his wacko neighbors. When he moves into the new house it turns out the thing is falling apart in every way possible. The only real highlight is the few scenes with the neighbors who are played by Laurel, Hardy and Charley Chase.

Second Hundred Years, The (1927)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Laurel and Hardy play convicts who make an escape but they find themselves in a more dangerous place than prison. There's small laughs scattered throughout this short but in the end the only real highlight is seeing boys with shaved heads.

Laurel and Hardy appear in supporting roles in this short Max Davidson comedy, playing two of a quartet of loons living next door to the hapless hero. I've never seen a Davidson film before – or heard of him to be honest – and judging by this effort, it's no surprise that he's now largely forgotten. He strokes his beard a lot and holds the side of his face but rarely does anything remotely funny. In the film he's so desperate to get away from his mentally challenged neighbours that he agrees to swap houses with a stranger. He takes his long-suffering wife and heavily freckled (and rather gormless-looking) son with him and soon finds out that the new family home is about to fall down around his ears. Everything that can collapse does so, flames come from a tap while the cooker sprays fountains of water, and the pattern on the kitchen floor disappears when Mrs Max wipes it with a mop. Despite none of these escalating series of mishaps being particularly funny, they are nearly all repeated two or three times.

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.

Their previous short films were variable in quality, a couple decent and most average or just above, only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired. 'Call of the Cuckoo' is not a step backwards but not a return in the right direction either like their previous three efforts were. It is nice and entertaining, more than watchable in an inoffensive way, but later offerings make far better use of Laurel and Hardy and their partnership and are much funnier, including its remake as mentioned by a few here. 'Call of the Cuckoo' felt like they were not yet fully formed and yet to properly find their feet.

'Call of the Cuckoo' looks quite good and hardly the work of an amateur. The performer who comes off best is Laurel who is great fun, 'Call of the Cuckoo' is worth watching for him alone.

There are very amusing, like the flames from the taps, and charming moments and the pace is generally very energetic.

Hardy however deserved more to do and much funnier material, and even more so that 'Call of the Cuckoo' misses the chance to utilise their chemistry properly. 'Call of the Cuckoo' doesn't really feel like Laurel and Hardy, due to Hardy having little to do and their chemistry barely existent.

Not everything is funny, too much of it being predictable and not being sharp enough in timing. The story is very slight, barely existent in fact, and erratically paced, sometimes too busy while not getting going soon enough.

In summary, worth a look but hardly a Laurel and Hardy essential. 6/10 Bethany Cox

CALL OF THE CUCKOO

Aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Sound format: Silent

(Black and white - Short film)

Desperate to escape their crazy neighbors, Max and his family accept a house-swap sight unseen, but their new home turns out to be a dilapidated wreck...

Though headlined by silent star Max Davidson, Clyde Bruckman's unusual comedy opens with second-billed Laurel and Hardy performing strange, child-like mimes with James Finlayson outside Davidson's property, rather like circus clowns dressed in regular outfits! Once the action shifts to Davidson's new home, however, the movie becomes less interesting, as the building collapses around him at every turn. Davidson's bearded appearance and overcooked performance suggests - intentionally or not - some kind of appalling Jewish caricature, which taints the entire movie. One of the intertitles describes his nerdish son (Spec O'Donnell) as 'Love's great mistake!', a pre-Code insult which just about takes the biscuit, even today!

The main story here is the standard stuff of destroying a house and car, with some pretty offensive antisemitic stuff as the center.

Both of those elements are pretty disposable, a worthless film, except for the side story.

The reason for the destroyed house is that Mr. Gimplewart traded his house for this one because he couldn't stand the neighbors. In the credits, they are called "asylum inmates," but there is nothing in the movie that imposes this sense on them.

Anyway, we see them early in the thing generally acting nuts. I've been watching a lot of Laurel and Hardy recently. I don't expect to see everything — they are just not that interesting.

But the few moments they are on screen have to be the funniest I have ever seen of them. It makes it worthwhile. Just watch that part.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.