Olivier le huitième

When a wealthy widow advertises for a new husband both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy decide to compete for her hand, with hilarious and unexpected results.

Absolute classic Laurel & Hardy, with the comedians at the top of their game, shelling out the non-stop slapstick humour amidst the rather dark elements (I. E. touches upon insanity and murderess) and there are too many great jokes such as the 'pick a card' and the bit when Oliver is trying to nap while Laurel is keeping an eye for the murderess who wants to slit Oliver's throat. There's a nice twist at the end.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. Ollie agrees to marry a wealthy widow - not realizing she's a homicidal maniac. She has a curious habit of finding men named "Oliver" and then slitting their throats the night before the wedding. She's killed seven times already; now she plans on making OLIVER THE EIGHTH victim. Locked in her mansion of death, the Boys are in for a night of comic terror...

This little film is somewhat of a change of pace for the Boys, but it's very funny and they lampoon its Gothic mood quite nicely. Mae Busch is lots of fun as the widow.

Jack Barty is hilarious and performs one of the best pantomime scenes I have ever seen.

Stan, Ollie and Mae Busch all join in to create an incredible pantomime dinner party.

Stan and Ollie are with perfect partners in this film.

The interaction between all the characters is perfect. Barty's speaking voice is also hysterical. It has a bit of English sound, mixed with a deep rasp. His enunciation is sublime.

Sublety abounds. "Madame" (Mae Busch) is perfect as she slides in and out of a sort of schizo-dementia.

You will be glad to see this masterwork and to have in your collection when you need a lift. What great great actors.

This was made in 1934 ! One thing I hadn`t realised untill I saw this film again on BBC 2 a couple of days ago was that a lonely hearts column is used to kick start the plot , a lonely hearts column in 1934 ?Here`s me thinking sad anoraks and wall flowers sending off ads to publications in order to meet equally desperate people was a relatively recent concept . Mind you I thought the same about post modernism untill I saw the Bing and Bob ROAD TO... movies so what do I know ?

Anyway as some of the other reviewers on this page have noted this has a very strange , very dark feel to it . In many ways it feels like Stan and Oliver have walked into a film based on a work of Edgar Allan Poe , and for the first time watching the season of L&H shorts on BBC 2 I couldn`t help noticing gaps in logic in the story , watch OLIVER THE EIGHTH and I promise you that you`ll be saying " Hey , why didn`t they ....? " . Despite these criticisms this certainly one of the better shorts , the bedroom scenes had me laughing out loud , but not for the first time we`re treated to a really bad cop out ending . Oh well nothing is perfect

Oliver and Stanley own and run a barbershop. When Stanley sees an advertisement for male company from a rich woman he tells Ollie and they both write letters. Ollie posts his but hides Stanley. When the woman sees Oliver's letter she plans to take revenge on him for her first love – also Oliver – who broke her heart, just as she has killed seven other Olivers before. Oliver and Stan arrive assuming that they have it made but begin to suspect something afoot.

Can I ever get enough Laurel and Hardy? Probably not! This entry starts really well and is very funny despite tailing off a bit in the final 10 minutes or so. The opening is classic banter between the two men and with some really funny lines and the invisible food etc is all good. However the ending is more physical comedy that doesn't work as well as what went before. And the ending is a real cop out and just felt like they ran out of ideas for what to do next.

The two leads are very funny no matter what and are at their best when exchanging equally foolish dialogue. Barty is OK as Jitters but the whole `invisible' card thing didn't really grab me. Likewise no-one could accuse Busch of giving a subtle, comic or measured performance and just goes all out to leave the audience in no doubt as to her character.

Overall this is still funny but the ending didn't work very well for me and the last 5 odd minutes suffered in the same way. But for the most part I was laughing out loud and was happy to see service as normal.