With Love and Hisses

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. 'With Love and Hisses' is not a step backwards but not a return in the right direction either. 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. 'With Love and Hisses' felt like they were not yet fully formed and yet to properly find their feet.

'With Love and Hisses' looks quite good and hardly the work of an amateur. James Finlayson is amusing and even better is Laurel who is great fun, 'With Love and Hisses' is worth watching for him alone.

There are very amusing, like the ending, 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 'With Love and Hisses' misses the chance to utilise their chemistry properly. 'With Loves and Hisses' 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, some of it surprisingly broad for early Laurel and Hardy with a vulgar edge at times. 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

"With Love and Hisses" isn't really a Laurel and Hardy film. They weren't a team full time at this point and their scenes together aren't tailor-made ones. Even so, Stan does very well in the lead as a rather simple character who is drafted into the army. He was a natural for being a comic leading man and knows how to use his body in the Art of comedy. Poor Stan is on the receiving end of both Ollie as the bullying drill sergeant and James Finlayson as the ineffectual captain. The latter has quite a lengthy scene where he tries to teach Stan how to be an efficient soldier on parade. It is excellent slapstick and the timing is spot on. The ending is a riot after most of the soldiers manage to lose their uniforms! A comedy short that shows potential for all future Laurel and Hardy comedies.

In this short, Stan Laurel is an Army private, Oliver Hardy is the bombastic sergeant, and James Finlayson is the flustered captain. Stan and Ollie aren't quite the friends they would be in later films but there's still some funny scenes when they're together as well as when either are against Fin, that's for sure! The version I watched on YouTube used the music scores usually heard in their talkies as well as sound effects and their voices from those subsequent films. I liked most of the results especially when those sound effects went into play on many of the physical gags. Also appearing was Anita Garvin as one of Fin's girls though she didn't do anything that would be considered funny here. So I say, give With Love and Hisses a look if you're an L & H fan.

Laurel and Hardy weren't really a partnership when they made this short for Hal Roach, so it's something of a happy coincidence that, not only are they teamed together here, but they also come up against their frequent nemesis, James Finlayson.

Hardy plays an army sergeant, and his character is quite different from the dainty clumsiness of his later persona. While Stan is pretty much the simpleton he would always be in their films, the duo aren't friends on screen and there is less chemistry between them than there would soon be. Stan's a new recruit who keeps infuriating Hardy's cranky sergeant who, in turn, infuriates his libidinous commanding officer (Finlayson).

The film gets off to a slow start but quickly gathers pace, and from the parade sequence, in which Finlayson and Laurel nearly come to blows, the film is pretty funny. After forty years of watching Laurel and Hardy it's refreshing to come across a short of theirs I've never seen before.

This movie is a very early film with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, though it should not be mistaken for a "Laurel and Hardy" film. That's because Hal Roach still hadn't created the formula for their films together and they do not perform as a team. It's more a chance appearance of both in the same film--along with a chance appearance of their favorite nemesis, James Finlayson. And since the traditional formula hasn't been created, the play against each other instead of with each other. They are NOT pals like they almost always were in films. Ollie plays a drill sergeant who frequently takes out his anger on a new recruit to the army--Stan. Stan is the dumb guy he always is in later films, so his role isn't much of a stretch, but Ollie is pretty much a jerk. Plus, Ollie is a lot thinner and not totally unrealistic as a soldier--something the extremely rotund Ollie not very convincingly played in their later films.

The film itself is very episodic and has a lot of gags strung together in a little over twenty minutes. Most of these are only mildly funny, but fortunately, they get funnier as the movie progresses--culminating in a very funny segment where Stan, Ollie and several other soldiers have their clothes burnt up while they are skinny dipping. As a result, they have to try to sneak back in camp,....at the exact same time the big cheese is coming for an inspection!! Overall, this is a pretty good comedy. It's certainly not one of the funnier ones I've seen, but for what it is it succeeds pretty well. Just don't expect the familiar formula--it just hadn't been invented yet.