Fale a Verdade

Laurel & Hardy return to a favourite plot device - that of blackmail - in this reasonably funny short. They save the life of a woman attempting to drown herself and are rewarded by having her threatening to have them arrested for attacking her if they don't take her home with them. Of course, being Stan & Ollie, this is what they do - with typically riotous results as they try to conceal her from their wives.

This one has a couple of classic moments: the encounter with the ice cream salesman in which Stan wants mustachio with his chocolate ice cream, and the boy's noisy attempts to cover the music blaring from another room by banging their crockery and singing at the tops of their voices. Not quite vintage Laurel & Hardy but still extremely funny.

The beginning of this film is an almost exact copy of SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME, as Ollie and his wife are trying to spend a quiet evening ALONE, but Stanley (and in this case with his wife) show up unannounced. Ollie and his wife hide and pretend they aren't home, but to no avail. Then, you soon notice that Ollie's wife is a pretty bossy and mean piece of work and she begins nagging him unmercifully. Stan wants ice cream, so he and Ollie leave to bring some back for everyone. On the way back, they catch a woman who appears to be trying to drown herself. Instead of being grateful, she is a major pest who follows them home and tries to make their lives miserable (a rather unbelievable turn of events, I know). And the last portion of the film consists of the boys trying in vain to stop this woman from revealing herself to the wives.

As far as the film goes, it's funny stuff, but also pretty forced. It's awfully familiar and ordinary. Not a bad film, but also not particularly memorable.

Keep fooling those women. Stan and Ollie are married and living in relative luxury. They see so much of each other that when the Laurels want to come over, the Hardys try to avoid them. It doesn't work and they end up together. Soon the boys go out for ice cream (apparently a regular event because this is not the only time). They end up with the miserable Charlie Hall making this a hard proposition. While out, they save a suicidal woman from drowning. Instead of gratitude, she begins to extort them for money to be quiet about having dealings with her. Modern audiences would recognize her as a hooker. The police are after her and are offering a huge reward. The fun starts as she makes her way to their home and dresses in the wive's clothing. Of course, the job now is to hide this woman from the wives till they can pay her off. Mae Busch is sort of tragic as the woman. Ollie does get the last word in the final scene.

The Hardy's are planning for a nice evening in when the Laurels come knocking. When they can't pretend to be out any longer, they let the Laurel's in and Stan and Oliver go out to buy some ice cream. On the way home they see a woman drowning in the river and save her. Less than grateful the woman follows them home and the duo try to hide her from their wives. Meanwhile the police continue their hunt for a wanted woman.

In terms of plot, this short is quite weak. The main plot doesn't really happen till the end of the short and, even then, it doesn't really make any sense and it feels like the writers had an idea about L&H hiding a woman in their home but couldn't work out a better way of setting it up. Aside from this the opening of the film is good, as is the scene in the ice cream shop. The scenes involving hiding Kate from their wives are OK but the final short is quite underplayed considering how quite funny it is.

Laurel and Hardy play their parts well. Laurel has some very good scenes of his trademark confusion early on and Hardy does well without dominating the film in the way it is often easy for him to do. Busch does OK as the wanted woman but I couldn't understand her part one little bit!

Aside from these complaints the short still contained enough funny moments to be worth watching. It's just a little distracting that the writers came up with the basic sequences first then trying to crow bar them into a poor plot.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

Stan & Ollie save the life of a bizarre woman attempting to drown herself. Instead of gratitude, the ferocious female follows them home, ensconcing herself in Ollie's bedroom & demanding money. Not wanting to COME CLEAN to their wives only makes the problem much worse...

A hilarious little film. Highlight: Stan in the bathtub. That's Mae Busch as the female (her name is misspelled in the opening credits) & Charlie Hall as the soda jerk.