mortenwebstar2

Stan & Ollie's "Pardon Us" is not one of their most memorable films, and not one of their funniest. Stan and Ollie are send to jail for selling beer, they later escape but are recaptured. The plot seems pretty thick compared to comedy films of that day, and there seems to be less attention paid among the scriptwriters on jokes and funny moments. The running gag through the movie is Stan's loose tooth, which makes him sound like he insults everyone. It's not very funny, and gets extremely repetitive and thus predictable. And if you look past that joke, then there isn't much left to laugh about about.

And that is pretty much the problem. Not once during the movie did I laugh. Just a halfway grin on occasion. So it remains just a little film, that you watch, and then forget. There are of course a few half funny moments, Stan trying to get comfortable to sleep in his and Ollie's bed at the prison. The scene at the dentist, the scene at the prison school (with Finlayson, who makes his usual - but still great - mimics) and the ending of the film are all OK moments, but not that much more. There's an extremely huge amount of singing in the movie. Singing at the prison, and while Stan and Ollie escapes, they hide as black workers on a cotton farm, leading to classic "negro-spirituals" and similar. It's not bad at all, but it drags on a bit too much.

So all in all, too much regular movie'ish plot, and too little solid comedy. It's not a bad film at all, but far from being a Stan 6 Ollie classic.

A few years later, the boys would make "Sons Of The Desert", a master example on a classic Stan & Ollie movie. And it success "Pardon Us" in every way possible.

When I saw this movie the first time, I was greatly disappointed, and thought that the boys really had lost it. But after watching it again, I realised this view was a bit unjustified.

The movie is about Laurel and Hardy taking a job at a private home as detectives, to protect a bomb (called "The Big Noise" - thus the title of the movie) from people wanting to steal the bombs, and sell it to foreign nations.

The big flaws that this movie has, are particularly the little kid of the house trying to tease and annoy the persons in it, particularly Stan & Ollie. This may sound like fun, but it truly isn't. And the only the kid really managed to annoy, was me. Also the scene of the woman of the house trying to seduce Ollie wasn't my thing (a scare attempt to enter some love in the movie?), and finally the nazi segment. This segment is particularly disappointing, because it shows a Japanese officer saying "Heil Hitler", and the Japanese did no such thing.

But apart from that, the movie has some good scenes. All scenes with Stan and Ollie at their room in the house are hilarious. For instance Stan's unpacking of the things, when the woman trying to temp Ollie sleepwalks with a knife into the room, when Ollie disappears inside the wall (don't ask) and the card playing. Amongst other noteworthy scenes, are the dinner scene at the house and the bunker scene in a train.

So, not a classic and with flaws. But still having some original and hilarious moments.

This short series depict what is a struggle for two parents who lost their son. An the makers of this series, tries all they can, to emphasise big sympathy for the parents, and particularly the mother, Mary Brown, played by Patty Duke. But that simply didn't work for me.

I found Patty Duke's to be so mean, that even super villains would have a hard time to reach her level. In that respect, it is impossible, to be anything but horrible. The problem with these movies, are that they only work, as long as the viewer is exactly in view with the opinion of the writer and/or director, as soon as the viewer merely questions the biased patriotic viewpoint expressed here, then it falls flat.

I can't understand the huge support there is for Mary Brown. During the film, she ruins the life of her granddaughter and the granddaughter's mother, by kidnapping the granddaughter. She is sop convinced of who is guilty of what, that she takes law into her own hands, and commits great cruelty towards the granddaughter's mother, without any proofs. And also she is mean and cruel to any one, in her attempt to get all things, her mean way. A true deranged fanatic. So, in all, in the scenes, where people had a hard time to keep the eyes dry, because it was so beautiful, I had a hard time not to vomit.

The granddaughter's mother, Dusty, who suffered during the entire series, is apparently more evil than the devil, according to the creators of the show. To me, Dusty is the hero of the series, her and her daughter, those two living a happy life together, would be beautiful to me. And the director, when filming the "oh-so-happy" scenes, after the Mary Brown conducted kidnapping, fails to realise, what evil it is, to rob a young of her mother. But this show seems to have nothing to do with reality or truth, even the word "justice" in the title, couldn't have been used more incorrectly.

It's just a manipulative little show, and very horrible, horrible, horrible!