Un jour une bergère

Original title: Babes in Toyland

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

7.9K

YOUR RATING

Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel in Un jour une bergère (1934)

Play trailer3:27

1 Video

91 Photos

Screwball Comedy Slapstick Comedy Family Fantasy Musical

Opposing the evil Barnaby, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toylan... Read allOpposing the evil Barnaby, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.Opposing the evil Barnaby, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

7.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

Silas Barnaby
(as Henry Kleinbach)

Ernie Alexander

Townsman
(uncredited)

Richard Alexander

King's Guard
(uncredited)

Frank Austin

Justice of the Peace
(uncredited)

Florine Baile

Girl
(uncredited)

Eddie Baker

Dunker
(uncredited)

Scotty Beckett

Schoolboy
(uncredited)

Georgie Billings

Schoolboy
(uncredited)

Charles Bimbo

Jack in the Box
(uncredited)

Billy Bletcher

Chief of Police
(uncredited)

Eddie Borden

Demon Bogeyman
(uncredited)

Carl R. Botefuhr

Schoolboy
(uncredited)

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The stop-motion animation for the "March of the Wooden Soldiers" scene was created by special-effects director Roy Seawright and cinematographer Art Lloyd. They used 100 wooden toy soldiers, each standing one-foot high, which had to be meticulously posed and shot frame by frame. Eleven of the toy soldiers seen in this sequence are known to survive: one drummer, one trumpeter, and nine riflemen. A Roach studio executive saved 10 of these figures and passed them down to his family, who publicly revealed their existence in 2020; that same year they sold one at auction for $14,520. Another toy soldier is owned by Laurel & Hardy historian Randy Skretvedt, who occasionally loans it out for museum exhibits.

Goofs
The wooden soldier, brought out as a demonstration model by Stannie and Ollie, blinks in one shot.

Quotes
Ollie Dee: Well, Good-bye and good luck.
Stannie Dum: What do you mean, good-bye? I'm not going with you?
Ollie Dee: Why, no. You have to stay here with Barnaby. You're married to him.
Stannie Dum: [starting to cry] I don't want to stay here with him.
Ollie Dee: Why?
Stannie Dum: I don't love him.
[blubbers]

Crazy credits
The titles appear on a child's toy building block that falls into position onscreen.

Alternate versions
Some prints omit the opening verses of the song "Toyland" ("When you've grown up, my dears", etc.), and begin the song with the main chorus ("Toyland, Toyland," etc.). Other prints omit Mother Goose's vocal of the song entirely, and have only the chorus singing the song.

Connections
Edited into Dick und Doof - Superschau des Lachens (1966)

Soundtracks
Toyland
(1903) (uncredited)
Music by Victor Herbert
Lyrics by Glen MacDonough
Played during the opening credits
Sung by Virginia Karns and Chorus

User reviews82

Featured review

7/10

Mystical Merry Toyland

Given its nature Babes In Toyland unlike most operettas from bygone days will have productions running forever. The Victor Herbert-Glen McDonough music will last forever and productions for Theater companies that specialize in youth will always be putting on this show.

Hal Roach put on this one and it starred his two favorite comedy players Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy playing sorcerer's apprentices to the evil Barnaby played by Henry Brandon. Brandon wants to take over Toyland and he's got special designs on Little Bo-Peep played by winsome Charlotte Henry whose other big role was Alice in Alice And Wonderland. Those designs are of the Snidely Whiplash variety.

Stan and Ollie play characters and for the most part eschew the normal shtick associated with them. Their characters don't stand out as they are well integrated in the story.

The two musical numbers associated with this production are done quite nicely, Toyland and March Of The Wooden Soldiers. The latter is used to great affect in the climax.

Walt Disney did a decent production of Babes In Toyland in the Sixties with Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands. But I'll take Stan and Ollie any day for a mystical journey to childhood.