Maridos Muito Vivos

An early pre-talkie Laurel & Hardy short with the formula already in place. Memorable for the scene in which Stan's eyebrow shoots toward his hairline every time his flirty companion presses his nose and his tongue pops out when she pokes his throat.

Just watched this Laurel & Hardy comedy on Hulu as linked from IMDb. In this one, Stan & Ollie are trying to get to a poker game but their wives seemed determined to keep them at home. So when someone from there calls, Ollie takes it and addresses him as Boss so he could fool the spouses that he and Stan are going to the Orpheum Theater to see a live show with him. After they leave, they meet a couple of ladies after one of them misplaces a hat...I'll stop there and just say while there's not too much slapstick here (though the give-and-take between Stan and one of the ladies was pretty funny), there is some highly amusing pantomime between the boys when they try to describe what they saw in the show as the wives can only grimace at what they know are bald-faced lies. Don't want to reveal much more than that so I'll just say I recommend We Faw Down. P.S. On YouTube, there's an "extended" version which puts nearly the entirety of Laurel & Hardy's next short, Liberty, in the middle of it. This is obviously because those scenes were originally part of this short but had to be cut for time constraints.

This is a fairly obscure Laurel & Hardy comedy which deserves to be better known, for while it's no masterpiece it is quite funny and entertaining, as well as unusual in some respects. We Faw Down is one of the earliest explorations of Stan & Ollie's relationships with their wives, and in 1933 it would serve as a blue-print for their best Battle of the Sexes feature, Sons of the Desert. It plays rather like a silent version of "The Honeymooners." Imagine Ralph Kramden & Ed Norton in this scenario: the boys tell their wives a fib in order to sneak out and play poker, but en route to the game they manage to get entangled with a boxer's flirty girlfriend; later, after narrowly escaping from the murderous boxer, they make matters worse for themselves by blatantly lying about the whole episode to their wives, who are now furious. The Gleason & Carney parallel with Laurel & Hardy has long been noticed, but it's especially apparent here, although in Laurel & Hardy's world it appears that forgiveness and understanding are harder to come by than in the Kramdens' apartment: at the end of this film, Mrs. Hardy is chasing the guys through an alley with a shotgun, firing at them. It's hard to imagine Alice Kramden doing that.

At any rate, what we have here is a Roaring Twenties sitcom, nicely photographed (by George Stevens, no less), smoothly directed (by Leo McCarey, no less), and beautifully well acted by the entire cast, Stan and Ollie in particular. At their best, Laurel & Hardy are so natural we don't even think of them as actors, but what better definition is there of first-rate acting? As actors playing off each other, the guys are at the top of their game in this short. Watch the interplay of their facial expressions in the opening scene as they conspire to fool their wives -- they couldn't fool grade school kids, but it's fun to watch them attempt to be sly. And later, when the boys are semi-innocently ensnared by two good time gals, there is a delightful extended sequence in which Stan is playfully tormented by the boxer's girlfriend, to his mounting annoyance and Ollie's growing amusement.

This is where the film gets into unusual territory, at least for viewers accustomed to the later, more child-like Laurel & Hardy. Although their characterizations are essentially in place in this early short, Stan and Ollie are distinctly more grown-up in their response to the sordid situation they get themselves into; they're simpletons to be sure, but grown-ups nonetheless. They're not entirely innocent, and they exchange wicked conspiratorial grins throughout. Even in the final sequence, when their story unravels and they stand revealed as liars, they can barely conceal their impish amusement over the whole thing -- and that's something you won't find later on, as they became more infantile and more fearful of their wives. They do pay for their misbehavior here, but at least they get some kicks along the way, and that's kind of a treat. You might say that We Faw Down presents Laurel & Hardy at their naughtiest.

Casting Note: In this film Mrs. Laurel is played by Bess Flowers, later to become famous -- to movie buffs, that is -- as the Queen of the Hollywood Extras. She appeared in scores of movies throughout the entire Golden Age of the studio system, usually as an elegantly attired dress extra. (Just check out this woman's filmography, it's amazing!) We Faw Down provides Ms. Flowers with a rare opportunity to play comedy in a featured role, and gives viewers a rare chance to get a look at this attractive lady for more than a few seconds. It's nice to see that she could hold her own with two of the top comedians in the business.

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 a vast majority of Laurel and Hardy's previous efforts ranged from above average to very good ('45 Minutes from Hollywood' being the only misfire and mainly worth seeing as a curiosity piece and for historical interest, and even that wasn't a complete mess), 'Two Tars' for me was their first great one with close to flawless execution. 'We Slip Up' is not quite as good, but is still among their best and funniest early efforts. Their filmography, apart from a few bumps along the way, was getting better and better and that is obvious here.

It may not be "new" material as such and the first part takes a little bit of time to get going.

When 'We Slip Up' does get going, which it does do very quickly, it is non-stop fun, not always hilarious but never less than very amusing. There is insane craziness that doesn't get too silly, a wackiness that never loses its energy and the sly wit emerges here, some of the material may not be new but how it's executed actually feels fresh and it doesn't get repetitive.

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 feels like a partnership here too, before 'Two Tars' you were yearning for more scenes with them together but in 'We Slip Up' we are far from robbed of that.

'We Slip Up' looks good visually, is full of energy and the direction gets the best out of the stars, is at ease with the material and doesn't let it get too busy or static. The supporting players are solid.

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

We Faw Down (1928)

** (out of 4)

Routine Laurel and Hardy short has the boys lying to their wives and sneaking out for a poker game but they're picked up by two flirts. This here has a couple good laughs including a wonderful site gag at the end but there's really nothing here that separates it from better shorts dealing with the same subject matter.

I viewed this film in the 21-disc, UK box set, which is a dream come true for fans of Laurel and Hardy. It's certainly worth the money if you are a fan.