The Live Ghost

When the L&H Fan Club "The Sons of the Desert" was formed in the early 1960's, Stan, who had sustained a crippling stroke, nevertheless gave his blessing to the formation of the club and supplied the motto for it, which I have repeated above. (Another of his witticisms which I like is "You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead").

Theo Robertson in his comment above wondered whether either of the boys were fishermen. I don't believe Hardy was but Laurel in his younger days was a keen big game fisherman and fished regularly off Catalina Island for swordfish or marlin. Catalina Island, Theo, is about an hour boat trip from Los Angeles, for your information. He loved the water and had his own boat in those days.

In 1962 I visited Stan at his apartment in the Oceana Hotel in Santa Monica. A wonderful experience and a fond memory for this writer. One question I asked him was about Walter Long, the villain of villains in many of their films. His reply was that surprisingly, Long was one of the mildest men he had ever known and absolutely would not hurt a fly. That came as a big surprise for me.

Watching THE LIVE GHOST I was reminded of how this short resembles very many other L&H shorts . This isn`t meant as a criticism in any way but it`s remarkable how many other films feature Stan and Ollie fishing , we see them do the same in BONNIE SCOTLAND and MURDER CASE and a few other of their laugh fests . Does anyone know if these two comedy greats were obsessed with fishing in real life ?

THE LIVE GHOST also shows the duo are at their funniest when Stan plays the hysterical coward who sadly deludes himself if he goes running to Ollie he might able to do something which a big mistake since Ollie plays an arrogant and hypocritical coward lecturing Stan that there`s nothing be afraid of . The script telegraphs what the pay of is going to be ( Not to mention the title ) with Stan running around squeling EEEE - EEEE - EEEE , Ollie howling OOOOHHH - OOOOOOHHH - OOOOHHH and this reviewer going Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

The supporting cast of Long , Busch and Housman more or less play the parts that they do in all the other L&H shorts ( Again not a criticism ) so when all is said and done this is certainly one of the most typical short features with Stan and Ollie so is certainly worth watching

This is a pretty good Laurel and Hardy short--not among their best, but still very good and watchable. I think part of the reason it works so well is that Walter Long is an incredibly scary and effective foil for the team. I would be very scared if Long were chasing after me, thank you very much! The boys think they accidentally killed a shipmate while shanghaied aboard Long's ship. So the solution? Yep, put the guy in a bag and chuck him overboard!!! Well, the "dead guy" isn't really dead and when this bag starts moving, things get crazy. It's silly and stupid and funny to see this guy accidentally get turned white and Stan and Ollie think he's a ghost. Believable? No way--but fun!

Stan and Ollie, in their usually unemployed and semi-destitute state, are hired by a ship's captain (the frightening Walter Long) to shanghai sailors because no one wants to sail with him (they say he has a ghost ship). Unfortunately for them, they are knocked unconscious and end up with a crew that despises them. On board the ship is a drunk, played by Arthur Housman, who falls in a bucket of whitewash and is mistaken for a dead man. Stan and Ollie throw him overboard but he quickly makes it back on board. Of course, he is immediately mistaken for a ghost and Long is furious. The guys are under his protection, but all bets are suddenly off because he has no more use for them. Mae Busch is soon present as a doxie and a merry chase begins. Just another fine comedy from the amazing twosome.

No one wants to ship on skipper Walter Long's ship. They all say it's haunted, and he gets violent whenever anyone repeats that. He pays Laurel and Hardy a dollar a head for helping him shanghai hands.... and then shanghais them. Add in Mae Busch as a waterfront floozie and you've got a good comedy.

Walter Long was the actor for the Boys whenever they wanted a real tough. He seems to have priced himself out of their market soon after this. A veteran of more than 200 features and shorts from 1910, he died on Independence Day in 1952 at the age of 73.