Laurel et Hardy chefs d'îlots

One of Laurel and Hardy's last films was this one for MGM where they play a couple of 4Fs who still want to do their bit for the USA at war with the Axis. After getting turned down by all the armed services, Stan and Ollie return to their small town and their bicycle shop to volunteer as air raid wardens. Their bicycle shop in fact has been taken over by Donald Meek who is running a radio repair shop, but Meek allows them back in as partners.

MGM did give the boys an excellent supporting cast a lot better than what they usually had with Hal Roach. Problem is that they looked a bit old and tired and both were having health problems at the time. Still they got a few good slapstick licks in, especially with Edgar Kennedy and Howard Freeman who was a great foil for them.

My favorite moment in the film was when after one foul up too many they get canned as air raid wardens and Stan who usually cried at the drop of a hat, was almost in real tears about it. Both he and Ollie really do want to do something for the war effort even if they know they're a pair of bumblers.

Ollie in fact was the most restrained I've seen him. The Laurel and Hardy shtick is that Stan is a dummy and he knows it, Ollie is dumb, but has delusions of grandeur. Here Ollie also tones down the usual pomposity we expect from him.

Of course they redeem themselves when they stumble on to a real group of Nazi spies. Among that cast of all American small town types are a pair of known character actors who are in fact spies and saboteurs.

But you'll just have to see Air Raid Wardens to find out who.

In the small town of Huxton, incompetent business owners Laurel (Stan Laurel) and Hardy (Oliver Hardy) intends to join the war effort. Only non of the military services are willing to accept them. They return home with no jobs and no store. They sign up to be air raid wardens. The boys try very hard but they are also very incompetent.

It's the first of two movies the boys made at MGM. The good news is that they are the stars of the movie. The bad news is that they're not doing their best work. The physical gags are basic and a little slow. The boys need to write some better gags. I still love them and that's why I like this movie. They are sweet and fun and that's what they make this film... even with the Nazis.

It's World War II, and Stan and Ollie want to join the Armed Forces to help fight the enemy. It's a wonder they haven't received their draft notices way before 1943, but then, that's Laurel and Hardy. They try the Navy, then the Army and then the Marines. They're turned down by all the services.

Just when they are starting to feel like losers, they see the ad for Homefront duty. Through a friend, Dan Madison (Stephen McNally) they get to be air raid wardens. Well, naturally they bungle that job In some preparedness tests. But even after they get ushered out of the Air Raid Warden service, the boys become heroes.

They uncover the Nazi plot to blow up the new magnesium plant about to open in their town. And they coral that sinister culprit, Eustace Middling, who is a spy. Donald Meek always gets some laughs when he plays these tough guys or bad guys, even when not in and Laurel and Hardy film.

This is not among the better films of the comedy duo, but it's has a few laughs. Both men are showing their age some - in their early 50s.

Yes, this is pretty anemic L & H, but as their '40s films go, I put it third behind THE BULLFIGHTERS and JITTERBUGS as their most tolerable (the fourth, THE BIG NOISE, has one of the best L & H fadeouts ever, but that's another entry).

Anyway, AIR WARDENS manages to eke out some effective comedic bits, especially some unexpectedly impressive pratfalls from an aging Laurel. The war time trappings can get tiresome, but at least there's neat payoff with one sight gag near the end. Edgar Kennedy is a big plus in this film, and though its flaws are many (why no background music?),it's hardly a catastrophe. That's a backhanded compliment, but I think accurate enough!

An unashamedly jingoistic Laurel and Hardy movie that sees them try to join the war effort. Watching loveable everymen Stan and Ollie put up signs saying "gone to fight the Japs" troubles me ideologically. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but seeing such crass propaganda as Ollie saying, "There's a job to be done right here at home" fills me with a sense of dread. And it's weird hearing English Stan talking about "Our Country" and uttering such trite platitudes as "We'll do anything that Uncle Sam wants us to do, won't we, Ollie?"

What's most unsettling is that Stan and Ollie look so old and ill you no longer laugh at their slapstick but fear for their safety. Direction by Edward Sedgwick is quite nice in terms of angles and camera motion, but completely at odds with the material. More to the point, sometimes poor shots and editing made the old Laurel and Hardy films funnier. With more professional standards they seem like an anachronism. The tiredness of the two leads (Stan in particular, who liked to be more involved in the creative level) comes through, and it all has a jaded, rehashed feel. I laughed just four times in the film's 64m duration, and while I cannot imagine any L & H vehicle plumbing the depths of a * movie, this is easily the weakest of their work that I've seen so far.

There's a lifeless atmosphere throughout, and Stan and Ollie's rapport is virtually non-existent for once. Some bits, like Stan sleeping in a gas mask amuses, but the chemistry is almost entirely absent. If they'd made the film half the length yet with the same material it might have meant a pacier, snappier, product. In fact, it took me a while to put my finger on it, but what the picture misses more than anything else is incidental music, something that was synonymous with Laurel and Hardy. Their violent fight with an awkward houseowner – including ramming a pipe down his throat and smashing his head into a fusebox – does recapture some old glories, but it's too little. Most unsettling scene is the one where Stan can't write his own name. Laurel & Hardy are always dumb, but here it's supposed to be funny that they have learning difficulties? The climactic final pay-off is particularly notable for being nowhere near good enough. The film doesn't so much end, but slump to a halt.

Intriguingly, when Air Raid Wardens was released with Nothing But Trouble on one tape in 1993, the blurb on the back told you the ending. How thoughtful.