Towed in a Hole

It has a laugh a minute and has some very sophisticated humour. Two fabulous bits stand out - one where Stan is washing the anchor chain and 'wrings' it into a bucket of water. The other is where Stan has been confined to the cabin and plays noughts and crosses with himself. In the finale, there is this wonderful scene where Stan and Ollie watch helplessly as their newly painted boat careers down the road under sail power and smashes into a million pieces. The film does not have too many set pieces but contains loads of small, exquisite gags which will have you doubling up with laughter.

Towed In A Hole finds Laurel and Hardy seeking to expand their business horizons. When we first meet them they are selling retail fish from the back of their truck, fish caught by other people. Of course Stan gets the idea that they should get a boat and start catching their own fish to sell and become wholesalers. But what do these guys know from boats or fishing.

They buy a used boat that's a fix-it-up from Billy Gilbert who saw them coming a mile away. Then the rest of the film is spent in their futile attempts to repair this beached craft. After that it's the usual antics.

Best scene for me was Stan getting his head caught between the inside wall of the boat and the mast. What to do but saw the mast to get his head out. Good thing he had around a saw that he had been trying to make music on a few minutes earlier.

Problem was that while Stan was below Ollie was on top of the mast doing some repair there. When Stan finishes solving his problem the results are disaster for Ollie.

Directing these shenanigans for Hal Roach is George Marshall who would in a few years start turning out a whole series of some great comedy films.

Towed In A Hole also gives us some idea of Ollie's singing voice which was quite good. He doesn't sing, but right at the beginning he's hawking those fish in good voice in which he occasionally slips into the southern speech of his native Georgia.

Nice short subject for Stan and Ollie's legion of fans world wide.

This is probably my all time fav. L&H short. right from the start with the call of 'Fresh Fish' (toot), this is a 'hoot'. As always, Stan has an idea this time expressed as only Stan can. 'If we had a boat .....'. The bit that makes me howl is when Olly is painting the rudder and Stan is scrubbing the deck and finds the tiller in the way. The pause before 'what did you put that stuff on your face for' is agony!. As for Stan's method of getting his head out from behind the mast... See this one now.

Laurel and Hardy are travelling fishmongers, selling door to door on the street. Laurel has the idea to cut out the middle man and catch the fish themselves – hence turning pure profit on every fish they sell. They buy an old boat and begin to do it up – with predictable consequences.

From the opening conversation where Hardy asks Laurel to repeat his sensible and good idea and Laurel proceeds to muddle himself (`if we catch the fish, the people wouldn't have to pay and….') I was sold on this short film. The action follows this banter with a fantastic mix of physical humour and the good old double take stuff they do so well. Here the two (styles) really compliment each other – the highlight being when Laurel causes Hardy to become covered in paint and there is an eternity of looks, double takes and pauses before he asks `why did you put that stuff on your face'!

The stuff around the boat is all good and both men do really good work with their looks and their bodies. Hardy shows his class while leaning on the mast of the boat, hears sawing, looks to camera, looks down towards the sound, looks to camera then goes!

Overall this short has everything in it that I love about Laurel and Hardy and should be immediately seen by anyone who is wondering what all the fuss is about!

Laurel and Hardy have a business plan: instead of buying fish and selling it, they'll catch the fish themselves and cut out the middleman. Unfortunately, the people who are going to execute this idea are Stan and Ollie.

It's my favorite short by Laurel and Hardy. There are others just as good, but this is just them. Except for a brief appearance by Billy Gilbert (maybe seconds) to sell them a boat, it's all the Boys and the boat they are trying to recondition, right next to a big mud puddle. The inevitability of disaster is delicious, and the gags are, as usual, great.