Um Duelo de Amor

THE FIXER UPPERS

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white - Short film)

Stan 'n' Ollie are hired to 'seduce' a desperate housewife (Mae Busch) who wants to inspire a jealous reaction from her uncaring husband (Charles Middleton). However, the plan backfires when Middleton determines to take deadly revenge against these 'home-wreckers'...

Lively stuff from L&H's glory days, a reworking of their silent short SLIPPING WIVES (1927), played to the hilt by a note-perfect cast, and constructed with just the right amount of tact and discretion by director Charles Rogers. A formidable presence in so many films of the era, Middleton - later to star as 'Emperor Ming' in the "Flash Gordon" serials - plays the villain with deadly seriousness (complete with silent movie mannerisms and exaggerated indignation), which renders proceedings all the more amusing, while L&H blunder their way into trouble at every turn. Watch out for the memorable diner sequence, which includes Stan's famous response to a ringing telephone.

This one takes the basic idea of a neglected wife pretending to have a lover to make her husband jealous from Slipping Wives, a 1927 silent short that Laurel & Hardy both appeared in, although not as a comedy team, but it quickly departs at a tangent. The neglected wife here is Mae Busch, in a more sympathetic role than usual as the neglected wife in question. Her husband is Charles Middleton, a frequent foe of the boys who, rather than brimming with gratitude to Ollie for showing him how neglectful he had been, challenges him to a pistol duel.

The story is a bit daft, and it's true that this isn't one of Stan & Ollie's stronger shorts, but those two only have to appear on screen to make us smile. They sell greeting cards in this one, and Stan is the writer of such gems as 'A Merry Christmas, husband, a happy New Years nigh, I wish you Easter Greetings, hooray for the fourth of July.' 'We call that our four-in-one,' Ollie advises the unhappy wife.

Laurel and Hardy are door to door greeting card salesmen. They happen across a wife who believes her husband no longer loves her. The duo come up with the suggestion that one of them pretend to make love to her when the husband is due home – if he acts jealous then she will know he loves her. However when the man comes home to find Hardy kissing his wife he, the best shot in the land, challenges Hardy to a duel that is harder to get out of than Hardy expects.

An enjoyable short that allows Laurel and Hardy to do good physical work as well as their verbal banter. The card sales pitches they do are simply `wacky' and display a nice touch of the absurd (the 4-in-1 card that covers all seasons!). I was a bit taken a back by hearing Laurel offer to `make love' to the woman – but it is a different time and meant kiss etc. The build up to the duel is more verbal humour than physical and is funnier for it.

Laurel's confused story telling is good value and Hardy's reactions are pure gold. The support cast are all pretty good – whether it be the comedy drunk, the upset wife or the vengeful husband, they all play their part and enable Laurel and Hardy to bounce off them with ease.

Overall this is a very enjoyable short that allows the duo to play down the pratfalls and play up the verbal and performance comedy.

THE FIXER UPPERS was one of Laurel and Hardy's final short films, and its a classic. One thing to note, there were more clever lines and situations at work here, as opposed to the usual crashes and explosions. The boys manage to mess things up either way, now working as greeting card salesmen who happen upon weepy customer Mae Busch --who wants to use Ollie to make her stubborn husband jealous!

This was a good switch for Stan and Ollie, and with Charles Middleton playing the "deadly serious" husband, who happens to know how to use a gun! Middleton was always a fun bad guy for Laurel and Hardy, usually playing a bitter, revengeful chap, ready to strangle them. In one goofy bit, Hardy phones him and lets the insults fly, followed by Stan, prompting Middleton to hang up and declare he'll kill them both, the sooner the better!

By the way, Mae Busch never looked lovelier, and exceptionally well dressed, as opposed to her usual exasperated housewife roles opposite Hardy. Not to forget she was a leading dramatic actress in silent films. Arthur Houseman is again cast as a loony drunk (with an ice pack on his noggin), one of the boys customers, probably the best actor ever to play such a role.

The bedroom scene with the cops carrying Stan and Ollie (who drank too much also) into Mae's room ---before her husband arrives --is outrageous. This short was originally computerized colored for vhs with a few other L & H films.

Note that some of Laurel and Hardy's short films are on European dvds that will not play on U. S. made dvd and blu ray players. Be sure to check where the box set was produced.

MAE BUSCH is having domestic problems with her husband, CHARLES MIDDLETON, and comes up with a scheme to get him back by making him jealous. She uses Christmas card salesman OLIVER HARDY as the man but things go wrong when Middleton not only becomes jealous but threatens to kill Hardy in a shooting duel.

STAN LAUREL steals the show in his usual bumbling way and ARTHUR HOUSMAN comes close to doing some scene-stealing of his own as a drunken neighbor.

It's foolish stuff, of course, typical of the sort of scrapes Laurel and Hardy were famous for, their Christmas card greetings written by Stan being both dismal and daffy.

Middleton is excellent as the villain of the piece, playing his part without a trace of humor in order to make him the fearsome character he is as Busch's jealous hubby.

Good for a few laughs, but definitely not one of the duo's best.