Them Thar Hills

This Laurel&Hardy short subject opens with Ollie suffering the effects of the gout. Given his stoutness I would think that was something that Oliver Hardy might have had in real life. In any event Dr. Billy Gilbert suggests that he and Stanley go off into the mountains and get some clean country living. Ollie's been living it up too good with that rich city food. Surprisingly Gilbert, a great comic talent in his own right is little used in this short.

But anyway off go Stan and Ollie in a trailer to Them Thar Hills. But they come into some moonshiner territory where the locals have dumped some of their product into a well the boys stop at. That leads to all the rest of the gags in this film including getting a neighbor's wife drunk and the neighbor taking umbrage.

At least until the final gag Ollie may not have had his gout cured, but with all that moonshine in him, he forgot his ills.

Them Thar Hills, the story of Mr. Hardy needing good mountain climate, Mr. Laurel agreeing, and together they set out "for the mountains" with a small camper behind them, and the radiator overflowing. Being told to drink plenty of Mountain Water, they do so when they find a place with a well they drink as much water as possible; only what they don't know is that moonshiners dumped their liquor into the well. So, slowly, the boys become drunk, and when Mae Bush and Charlie Hall come to ask for gas, Mae becomes drunk as well; resulting in one of their funniest tit-for-tat sequences. The film has many of these hilarious moments, for instance, when Stan tries to carry Ollie, but through a little mishap, winds up dumping himself and Ollie in the bathtub! Also, while cooking and making everything ready for lunch, Ollie hums "The Old Spinning Wheel," and after a while, Stan gives in a good "Pum-Pum." This results in Ollie's hitting him over the head, saying, "I'm singing this song!"

This is an excellent Laurel & Hardy short subject, one that is a must-see for every Laurel & Hardy Fan. What is also exciting, is that apart from being a good film, this short will be celebrating its 70th anniversary on July 21, its initial release into theatres and the world in 1934.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. Poor Ollie is suffering painfully from gout. His doctor advises rest, country air & lots of fresh water. So the Boys rent a trailer and head up into THEM THAR HILLS. Picking a quiet spot, they are unaware that the well has been tainted with many barrels of bootleg liquor. Drinking the water while fixing their dinner, they quickly become inebriated. They are suddenly visited by a bickering couple who've run out of gas. Playing host to the wife, Stan & Ollie share their water with her and she is roisteringly drunk by the time her husband returns...

This is a very funny little film & should be seen in conjunction with its follow-up, TIT FOR TAT. The slapstick fight between the Boys & Charley Hall, as the furious husband, is hilarious. Mae Busch is the wife; film mavens will recognize Billy Gilbert as the doctor.

Mr. Hardy is suffering from gout, so Mr. Laurel proposes they buy a trailer and go stay in the country. They park on a patch of land with a well on it. Little do they know.... well, anything. In this case, revenooers have poured moonshiner's products down the well. As they drink the water, their mood rises..... but here comes married couple Charlie Hall and Mae Busch. It all ends in one of the marvelous slow motion 'tit for tat' duels that the Boys got into.

Stan and Ollie were alternating their shorts with features by this point, and could choose to make a movie short or long depending on what they wanted to do. This undoubtedly contributed to their sustained level of excellence in this period.

This is a good Laurel & Hardy short comedy, with one particularly hilarious sequence. With Ollie suffering from too much high living, the two take a trip to the country to live the simple life for a while, but instead they find themselves getting into one caper after another. After some adventures of their own, they encounter a pair of stranded motorists. Their extended squabble with Charlie Hall in the last part of the film is non-stop laughs, and one of their funniest sequences. That, and plenty of other laughs in the rest of the film, make "Them Thar Hills" one of the best-remembered Laurel & Hardy short features.