Thicker Than Water

Thicker Than Water is one of Laurel and Hardy's more consistently funny shorts. It sees Ollie being henpecked by his tiny wife (Daphne Pollard), but when Stan suggests that Ollie take charge, things go terribly wrong (how could taking advice from Laurel be anything but trouble?).

The film kicks off with an amusing washing up routine, Ollie cleaning the plates, with Stan drying them and then passing them back to Ollie to wash again. When Ollie sees what Stan has been doing he tells him to put the plates elsewhere, so Stan stacks them on a lit gas burner; Ollie picks them up to put them in the cupboard, burns his hands and drops all of the crockery. So far, so chucklesome.

A little later, Laurel and Hardy regular co-star James Finlayson arrives at the house to collect payment for the Hardy's furniture, which leads to a clever verbal exchange between all of the characters akin to Abbott and Costello's famous 'Who's on first?' routine. Following this, Stan tells Ollie that he should pay for the furniture outright with his savings, but Mrs. Hardy disagrees. Egged on by Stan, Ollie goes to the bank to withdraw the cash, but instead of paying for the furniture, he mistakenly spends the money on a grandfather clock in an auction (the price going sky high thanks to Stan). On their way home with their purchase, the clock is smashed to pieces by a lorry.

When Mrs. Hardy discovers what has happened, she loses her cool and hits her husband over the head with a frying pan (climbing on a chair to do so). In hospital, Ollie requires a blood transfusion, with Stan as the donor, and the results are unexpectedly bizarre.

Not only does this short deliver solid laughs at regular intervals, but it also features some wonderful transitions, Stan pulling the next scene from the side and dragging it across the screen. It's clever stuff for the time and really adds to the fun.

In their partnership, Stan and Ollie made quite a few domestic comedies--particularly those where Ollie has an angry and domineering wife. So, this territory is certainly not unusual. However, the comedy short is still very well handled and is quite creative as well--providing more than enough reason to recommend this little film.

Ollie is married to a tough little woman. In fact, the contrast between them is funny in itself. Ollie is of course big and fat, but his wife is so tiny, seeing her scolding him and bullying him is pretty funny. In fact, late in the film, she needs to stand on a chair when she ultimately smacks him over the head with a frying pan! So how did their domestic bliss degenerate to such depths? Well, much of it seems to arise from allowing Stanley to live with them as a border and Ollie's stupid decision to actually listen to one of Stan's "good ideas". Given she has to deal with BOTH these men, I guess I can forgive Mrs. Hardy for being so angry!! Perhaps the one thing I like about the film best were its scene transitions. In a truly unusual and cute touch, Stan and Ollie often stop the scene they were doing and then walked to the corner of the scene and then "pulling" the next scene into the camera! This sliding transition was very well done and it was cute when they would say something like "wait" and then do this.

As the end of the film goes, I am a tad uncertain what I thought of it. Sure, seeing Ollie pay the price for his stupidity by getting slugged over the head with the frying pan and ending up in the hospital is kind of funny, but it's also a tad cruel and how all this is wrapped up it totally bizarre (albeit, funny). I think you just have to see it--I'd hate to spoil the ending by going any further.

Laurel and Hardy eat a nice dinner before setting out for a baseball game. However Mrs Hardy forces them to stay at home to wash the dishes. This, combined with further embarrassments, lead Laurel to suggest Hardy take control of his affairs rather than being owned by his wife. However a confusion over money leads the two men into a medical emergency.

Although the film feels like it has been made up of several good ideas rather than one, it still manages to be very funny for the most part. The opening dish washing routine is a great example of how much comedy they can get from a simple concept, while the `I gave it to him to give to you' routine is a good example of their verbal skills as actors. The short continues well but isn't able to be as good as it's first half again. The final scene is funny but the whole hospital epilogue doesn't really belong and it suggests that the idea occurred to them and they just looked for a film that they could tack it onto.

This sounds like a problem but it isn't that big a deal as the majority of the film works really well. Hardy and Laurel work well together and do well with the many types of routine they have here – just the routine where Laurel keeps putting clean dishes into the sink for washing is a good example of how their looks and body language can create laughs. Pollard is a good Mrs Hardy as she is feisty without being too dour. Finlayson enjoys his role as he has more dialogue than usual but also gets to do his `d'oh' and double take stuff (often it seems he either gets the physical stuff OR the dialogue).

Overall this is a really funny little short from Laurel and Hardy. The ending may feel like it doesn't belong with this film but even it manages to be worth a laugh! The fancy way that the scenes are linked (sliding doors effects) adds a novelty feel to what is a strong short from Laurel and Hardy.

I won't wade into the same territory that others have. I think the dish washing scene was perhaps the most "Laurel and Hardy-esque" scene in the film, but the one in Helpmates was better.

Personally I felt that the banter about who gave the money to whom went on a bit longer than it needed to. I hope audiences in 1935 found it more engaging than I did.

The main reason I wanted to write a review is that I was impressed by the creative and clever way they handled scene changes from the Hardy house to other locations. Stanley grabs what might be some sort of pocket door or panel (if it were a real house) and pulls on its thick black border to walk it across the screen. The scene changes with it. In one of these clever "wipes" he accidentally lets go and it returns to the right side of the screen. So he grabs it again and walks it across the room. The scene change follows the movement of this panel. I haven't seen this trick done before. And being that this was decades before green screen, it must have been rather labor intensive to handle it in the cutting room. Bravo for this quirky little technique!

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.

Although more than fine in its own right, 'Thicker Than Water' is most notable for being their last short film, meaning them in the lead roles and not just a cameo appearance. Didn't find 'Thicker Than Water' one of the duo's best, in a filmography that was mostly solid to classic (only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired for me but that was very early on when their partnership and style hadn't formed or evolved and when Hardy especially was not being used well), nonetheless it is still very good and has much of what makes Laurel and Hardy's work as appealing as it is.

Flaws are very little and more nit-picks really. The story is slight and a bit disjointed.

Do also agree to an extent that while the ending is very funny, it also felt a little tacked on.

More often than not though, 'Thicker Than Water' is great fun, not always hilarious but has enough amusing parts. It is never too silly, it doesn't lose its energy and the sly wit is here, some of the material may not be new but how it's executed actually doesn't feel too familiar and it doesn't get repetitive. The physical comedy comes thick and fast and choreographed and performed beautifully, and the witty verbal interplay shines every bit as much. The beginning is one of the duo's funniest.

Laurel and Hardy are on top form here, both are well used, both have material worthy of them and they're equal rather than one being funnier than the other (before Laurel tended to be funnier and more interesting than Hardy, who tended to be underused). Their chemistry sparkles and after taking time their early efforts to fully form it certainly felt well established from 'Two Tars' onwards and since then has not let up. Their comic timing is impeccable, both in the physical comedy than the verbal.

'Thicker Than Water' looks good visually, the energy is there from start to finish and the direction shows a sense of being at ease with the material and doesn't let it get too busy or static. Daphne Pollard and James Finlayson are great support.

Overall, very good. Not essential or classic Laurel and Hardy, but a good representation of them. 8/10 Bethany Cox