Detetives Pensam?

Judge James Finlayson's life has been threatened and indeed why would it not be threatened as he's a hardnosed law and order type who has just handed out a life sentence to some tough criminals. That gang hires the Slasher played by a creepy Noah Young to take vengeance on Finlayson.

This film may have been responsible for the adversarial relationship that Stan and Ollie enjoyed with Finlayson. The boys are the detectives that are sent by the local police to guard the life of the good judge.

The pattern of the characters of Stan and Ollie that we would get to know so well is forming here. Stan is the simpleton and he knows it, Ollie is the man who thinks he's a genius, but always falls way short. One thing Ollie is not is a marksman, a fact he proves by frightening everyone in the house with his shooting.

Future frenemies are formed here.

Judge Jimmy Finlayson sentences maniacal slasher Noah Young to be hanged by the neck until dead, "And I hope you choke!" This so enrages Young that he escapes to kill Finn. The police assign two detectives to guard him: Laurel and Hardy.

It's astonishing how fast these two old hands came together as a team. Here's where they picked up their derbies. Of course! it was the featured headwear for metropolitan plain clothes men in the era. They do their wrong hat gag for a minute or two.

I've seen this one a dozen times or more over the years and laugh like a maniac every time.

Although by no means a comedy must-see, "Do Detectives Think?" is a worthy movie from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who in 1927 just began working together as a comedy team, for the Hal Roach studio's.

It's a movie that is good thanks to its little comical moments. It's not the sort of movie that is hilarious constantly but it has some great original and funny moments in it that are good for a couple of laughs. It's certainly not the most consistent Laurel & Hardy silent comedy short around but it's an enjoyable one nevertheless, which is also thanks to its fun simple story. It makes "Do Detectives Think?" an above average early Laurel & Hardy movie.

Problem of the movie really is that the comical moments in it are rather stretched out. If only the movie was about halve its running time shorter, perhaps the movie than would had been a better and even more enjoyable one. The movie its flow would at least had been better if that had been the case.

The cast is good. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (who was looking quite thin by the way) already seem to be in their element as the famous comical duo. Also really good was James Finlayson in a great comical role. He steals the show in most of his sequences. Just his looks alone and some small actions is enough to provide the movie with some great laughs and comical moments. Also Noah Young is well cast, as a psychotic killer who tries to kill the judge (the James Finlayson character) who convicted him. The boys play two detectives, with odd names, who are send by their agency to protect the judge but of course everything goes wrong and the boys really mess things up again.

Of course everything about the movie is predictable but it's a well made and originally directed movie. The timing is nice and the movie is well edited which makes most of the comical moments work out really well.

A good enough enjoyable early Laurel & Hardy comedy short, that uses a bit too many stretched out comical moments to prevent this movie from being one of their best works.

7/10

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Perhaps Laurel and Hardy's most visual experimental work. I know, the story is uninteresting, the gags are basic, the mood is dated, and the duo's personalities are far from fully development. Still "Do Detectives Think?" is worth remembering for its nocturnal, expressionistic scenes around the graveyard, where a goat's shadow suggest a scary demon; also for its moving camera, a rare James Finnlayson's close-up underwater, a keyhole's point of view, mirror reflections and some other few technical devices not very frequent at the time that provides this little film an unusual freshness and a sense of unlimited creative freedom.

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.

'Do Detectives Think?' is nowhere near classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better. At this point, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in most of the previous outings had too little to do. 'Do Detectives Think?' is still worth watching though and is an improvement on some of their previous short films, along with 'Duck Soup', 'While Girls Love Sailors', 'Sailors, Beware!' and 'The Second Hundred Years' it was up there as among Laurel and Hardy's best up to this point.

Personally would have liked more sly wit that made their later entries better, though the slapstick does entertain and is timed well if a bit too far on the simplicity.

The story is a bit busy at times and both slight and formulaic.

Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious, like as was said for a few of his previous outings 'Do Detectives Think?' is worth seeing for him alone. Hardy is at least not wasted, and he does give one of his funniest and most interesting appearances of his pairings with Laurel up to this point despite his persona being not as fully formed as Laurel's. The chemistry is much more here than in previous outings of theirs if still evolving. Support is nice, especially from James Finlayson.

A good deal of the humour is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny, with everything going at a lively pace, and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going. 'Do Detectives Think?' looks quite good and is more visually experimental than their previous efforts.

To conclude, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox