Call of the Cuckoo

Laurel and Hardy appear in supporting roles in this short Max Davidson comedy, playing two of a quartet of loons living next door to the hapless hero. I've never seen a Davidson film before – or heard of him to be honest – and judging by this effort, it's no surprise that he's now largely forgotten. He strokes his beard a lot and holds the side of his face but rarely does anything remotely funny. In the film he's so desperate to get away from his mentally challenged neighbours that he agrees to swap houses with a stranger. He takes his long-suffering wife and heavily freckled (and rather gormless-looking) son with him and soon finds out that the new family home is about to fall down around his ears. Everything that can collapse does so, flames come from a tap while the cooker sprays fountains of water, and the pattern on the kitchen floor disappears when Mrs Max wipes it with a mop. Despite none of these escalating series of mishaps being particularly funny, they are nearly all repeated two or three times.

CALL OF THE CUCKOO

Aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Sound format: Silent

(Black and white - Short film)

Desperate to escape their crazy neighbors, Max and his family accept a house-swap sight unseen, but their new home turns out to be a dilapidated wreck...

Though headlined by silent star Max Davidson, Clyde Bruckman's unusual comedy opens with second-billed Laurel and Hardy performing strange, child-like mimes with James Finlayson outside Davidson's property, rather like circus clowns dressed in regular outfits! Once the action shifts to Davidson's new home, however, the movie becomes less interesting, as the building collapses around him at every turn. Davidson's bearded appearance and overcooked performance suggests - intentionally or not - some kind of appalling Jewish caricature, which taints the entire movie. One of the intertitles describes his nerdish son (Spec O'Donnell) as 'Love's great mistake!', a pre-Code insult which just about takes the biscuit, even today!

This is a fairly decent, typical Hal Roach slapstick comedy, which guest star's Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson as Asylum inmates.

Real main characters of the movie though are played by Max Davidson and Lillian Elliott and with Spec O'Donnell as their stupid looking son. Especially Spec O'Donnell is great in his role who carriers the brilliant name 'Love's Greatest Mistake' in the movie. Basically all he does in the movie is look stupid but he does this extremely good and because of that he is really fun to watch.

The movie has some typical slapstick moments that are most of the time fun to watch but never truly hilarious. The way it is brought to the screen is simply too outdated for todays standards, also compared to other slapstick comedies made from the same time period. Especially the editing is lacking. There lies the main problem of the movie; it's too lacking in it's humor and style.

It certainly does have its moments but it is no essential viewing for the fans of slapstick comedy from the '20's. Perhaps still only for some, for the fairly small Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson roles in the movie.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

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.

Their previous short films were variable in quality, a couple decent and most average or just above, only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired. 'Call of the Cuckoo' is not a step backwards but not a return in the right direction either like their previous three efforts were. It is nice and entertaining, more than watchable in an inoffensive way, but later offerings make far better use of Laurel and Hardy and their partnership and are much funnier, including its remake as mentioned by a few here. 'Call of the Cuckoo' felt like they were not yet fully formed and yet to properly find their feet.

'Call of the Cuckoo' looks quite good and hardly the work of an amateur. The performer who comes off best is Laurel who is great fun, 'Call of the Cuckoo' is worth watching for him alone.

There are very amusing, like the flames from the taps, and charming moments and the pace is generally very energetic.

Hardy however deserved more to do and much funnier material, and even more so that 'Call of the Cuckoo' misses the chance to utilise their chemistry properly. 'Call of the Cuckoo' doesn't really feel like Laurel and Hardy, due to Hardy having little to do and their chemistry barely existent.

Not everything is funny, too much of it being predictable and not being sharp enough in timing. The story is very slight, barely existent in fact, and erratically paced, sometimes too busy while not getting going soon enough.

In summary, worth a look but hardly a Laurel and Hardy essential. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Since this was filmed not long after The Second 100 Years, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy still have their shaved heads from that one. They, along with James Finlayson and Charley Chase, are the cuckoos of the title. They're not the stars, however, it's actually someone named Max Davidson who ended up during the talkies taking roles with scant time on screen. He plays a house owner who wants to sell because of those next door neighbors I just mentioned. One potential buyer wants the house so bad, he agrees to a trade, no questions asked. I'll just now say Max really should beware of what he's purchasing and leave it at that. I thought this short had plenty of earned laughs whether concerning that new house or those next-door cuckoos. So that's a recommendation of Call of the Cuckoo.