À bord du Miramar

Sailors Beware is one of Laurel & Hardy's earlier shorts, and they're not friends in this one. Ollie's a ship's purser with an eye for the ladies while Stan is a taxi driver who gets duped out of his fare and winds up on Ollie's boat. The film is quite funny, although the most memorable aspect is the midget who plays the husband of a villainous vamp. Disguised as a baby throughout, the midget puffs on a cigar and cheats at dice. Weirdest of all, he actually looks like a baby, which definitely lends a surreal quality to the film at times.

Stan's persona is almost fully developed by now. The blank gazes at the screen aren't there yet, but the confused tears of distress are, and it's clear his character isn't the brightest of sparks. He's probably not quite as dim as he would later be, but he's getting there. Ollie, meanwhile, displays surprisingly few of the trademark delicacies of movement that would later make him instantly recognisable. The film's still worth a look, anyway. If you like the boys and/or silent comedy, you're sure to be entertained.

It's not the first Oliver Hardy "tie-twiddle" that's supposed to be in this film, it's the first "camera-look," and even that's not quite true. In 1954, Oliver Hardy gave an interview to John McCabe in which he recounted what he remembered as the first of his long-suffering gazes into the camera. The scene he recalled--being hit in the face by buckets of water immediately after opening a door, and then staring into the camera in disgust--is in this film, although Hardy mistakenly remembered it as being in "Why Girls Love Sailors." He doesn't actually stare into the camera after being hit with the water so much as glance a few times at us. What's interesting is that Stan Laurel is playing directly to the camera throughout this entire film, both in long shots and close ups. With their next film, "Do Detectives Think?," the process is more like what it would be in their mature films, with only Ollie breaking the fourth wall and looking directly into the camera.

The credited director of this film was Hal Yates, although he actually only directed one day's worth of retakes (April 18, 1927). I know this to be a fact as I am the author of "Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies" and spent years doing research on the team, locating the precise shooting dates for most of their films. The actual director for most of the filming (April 4 through 14) was Hal Roach. The reason that Fred Guiol is credited as the director on the available DVD is because the producer of that disc created new main titles (they were missing on the available print, which was from a foreign source) and substituted a director credit title from "With Love and Hisses."

This is quite an excellent film, with fine support from Anita Garvin and Viola Richard. The production values are surprisingly elaborate, which isn't really apparent in the battered print that's currently available on DVD.

One of the better shorts made with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before their celebrated teaming;well produced,some amusing sequences,though frustratingly the boys don't share that many scenes in the film.Still,we get the the first known camera-look from Hardy(although he had performed this trait in previous films,notably STICK AROUND,made in 1925),and Anita Garvin and Harry Earles are fine as an improbable man and wife jewel thieving team.Hal Yates is credited with the direction,though in fact Hal Roach is thought to have been the director,with Yates filming one day's worth of retakes.Later in the year,he directed HATS OFF,when the teaming was becoming an item;sadly no copy of HATS OFF is known to exist.

This is another of the early Laurel & Hardy silent shorts that I watched on YouTube with added music score from subsequent Hal Roach talkies, suitable sound effects, and the voices of Stan, Ollie, and Anita Garvin from their subsequent films. I enjoyed those additions and I also enjoyed the plot of this one: Stan is a taxi driver waiting for his pay from Garvin as she and her "infant" board a ship. Stan ends up on that vessel as well when his car is accidentally picked up upon it making him a stowaway in which he now has to work for his admission. Ollie is the purser who has to guide Stan to his duties. I'll stop there and just say that I found much of it quite funny even though some of the characterizations seem inconsistent. With each subsequent short I review of the boys, I'm getting closer to when they officially become the "Stan & Ollie" we know and love, that's for sure! So that's a high recommendation of Sailors, Beware!

I am not a huge fan of Laurel and Hardy, I will admit. BUT, I am a huge fan of Harry Earles, who plays the baby/midget in this short. In general, I would say that this movie is very very good. It is pretty quickly paced, Hardy plays the slightly effeminate (IMHO) steward on a ship in which Laurel has mistakenly been put aboard. Since Laurel doesn't want to be there, and with the only other choice being too detrimental to his well-being, he decides to go along with it. During his pseudo-duties, he finds a midget (Harry Earles) acting as a baby in order to help his thieving wife aboard the ship. Generally a good bit o' fun! The only problem I had was with the many many sound effects that accompanied my version. Hopefully you won't have the same problem!