Il compagno B

Despite being doughboys in General Pershing's army in France, the Allies still were able to win World War I with Laurel and Hardy in the ranks. But most of Pack Up Your Troubles is spent with the boys as veterans looking for the family of their late comrade Don Dillaway on behalf of his daughter little Jackie Lyn Dufton.

Best scene in the film is when Stan and Ollie are sent out on what their exasperated sergeant thinks and hopes will be a suicide mission. They're told to get a prisoner. Remember this is 1932 and the story of Sergeant York even without the movie being made was known to one and all. How do Stan and Ollie pull off a Sergeant York? Well it involves a prototype tank, the enemy trenches, and some barbed wire. You have to see it being done.

Laurel's scenes especially with the child have a nice ring of pathos to them. Most of the time he's simply an idiot, here he's a lovable idiot. Next best scene in the movie is the little girl reading Stan a bedtime story, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and Laurel falling asleep.

Pack Up Your Troubles has an unusually good cast of recognizable character players in roles that we all identify them with. Of course James Finlayson is there as their commanding general. But also there's Charles Middleton as a welfare inspector, Billy Gilbert whose daughter blows up a marriage to Grady Sutton when the boys think he's Dillaway's father and Mary Gordon as a delightful old Irish mother babysitting the little girl for Stan and Ollie. Third best scene is the police closing in on them and them trying to escape in a dumb waiter.

Only their third sound feature length film and a winner for Laurel And Hardy.

Amazing how they did it. This movie features war sequences, the lost of a friend who leaves a young daughter behind. All some serious heavy dramatic stuff but yet the boys manages to make this movie a perfectly entertaining one with some good slapstick humor and comical situations.

The movie at times is a sappy one that goes definitely over-the-top but yet for most part the story and its drama works effective. Stan and Ollie taking care of the young daughter of Eddie and their quest for her grandparents is quite heartwarming. Especially since the boys in this movie have an amazingly good chemistry Jackie Lyn Dufton, who plays the young girl. Especially Stan Laurel has a good chemistry with her. Dufton refers to Stan and Ollie as her uncle's in this movie and that special feeling is brought amazingly effective and believable to the screen.

Yet the movie is also one of their most fun ones, despite the dramatic undertone. The slapstick humor is especially top-class and the boys manage once more to get themselves into some silly and hilarious situations.

The movie its supporting cast is also good. The movie features lots of different actors in a variety of roles. Of course this movie also has the regular Laurel & Hardy actors in it, such as James Finlayson, Charlie Hall and Paulette Goddard. But it's the supporting cast as a whole that delivers a good and impressive performance.

A delightful and well made comedy that also works effective with its more dramatic moments.

8/10

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Once again, Stan and Ollie find themselves being potentially done in for trying to do the right thing. Through a series of events, the boys find themselves in France in the service. They are totally incompetent as soldiers, of course, but they make the acquaintance of Eddie Smith, who helps them get by. Eddie gets a Dear John letter and gets the boys to promise that if anything happens to him, they will see that his baby gets taken to his father's home. Well, the sad thing happens and they are in his debt...a promising made. They are released from the Army as heroes for inadvertently rounding up a battalion of German soldiers. Once back in the states, they begin the arduous process of finding a man named Smith. This allows them to make some hilarious mistakes, including telling a bridegroom at his wedding that they have his child. A mistake, of course. This is a touching, loving effort. But, of course, these guys seldom catch a break.

Stanley's and Oliver's army buddy Eddie Smith gets killed in a war, so the boys have to find the grandparents of Eddie's daughter.So they go from door to door looking for every Smiths there are in the town.It's not an easy job for the boys to do, because there are many Smiths but only two boys.And it doesn't make the job any easier that they get blamed for a bank robbery. Pack Up Your Troubles is a very funny comedy from Laurel and Hardy.It is one of the best Laurel and Hardy movies.The movie has many funny situations.Watch the movie and you just can't stop laughing.

Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy wind up in the army in the Great War. In the trenches, they become friends with Don Dilaway. When he buys the farm, they return to the United States, rescue his orphaned daughter Jackie Lyn Dutton, and try to locate her grandfather amid the comedy set pieces.

It's a surprisingly serious movie amidst all the shenanigans and gags. Among the issues are marital breakdowns, abusive foster parents (played by the thoroughly malign Richard Cramer) and the unfeeling child welfare system (personified by Charles Middleton). Yet it never falters, thanks in no small part to direction by Ray McCarey and George Marshall -- the latter has three scenes as a miserable army cook. Through it all, the friendship of Stan and Ollie sustains them. They are stupid and ineffective, but they know they can rely on each other's poor best in the face of a hostile world. Plus they are so very funny.