La flotte est dans le lac

The duo are back again, this time as sailors wooing to equally dumb girls. It's got the usual slapstick and facial expressions that make the viewer laugh but in addition to that, it's got some witty dialogues too. The bar scene where Hardy selfishly tries to get out of paying is downright hilarious. The slapstick regarding the boat where the duo try to row out but end up rotating in one spot, drags a little but the sequence thereafter, that leads to a 'catastrophe' is hilarious. I kept wondering, OK now the boat's going to sink until it eventually does. The underwear confusion in the beginning was another laugh-out-loud sequence and I'm glad they didn't overdo it by using clichés. That sequence could have ended with Laurel or Hardy handing over the underwear to the girls followed by an embarrassing scream but thankfully that was avoided and the plot continued well. Overall, it is a well executed movie. A nice little funny film.

Laurel & Hardy are in their sailor outfits again, although there's really no need for them to be other than to emphasise their ineptitude in the second part of the film, which takes place on a boating lake. They come across a pair of bloomers and mistakenly believe they belong to one of a pair of young ladies they meet in the park. Of course, they don't belong to the ladies, but the boys realise this before they can embarrass themselves. That fact alone is an indicator of the high quality of the writing here; a lesser writer would have had the boys making asses of themselves, but the more satisfying pay-off is gained from the audience's sense of relief combined with the idea of what could have happened.

The boys take the girls for a soda. The clerk here is their old nemesis James Finlayson, but he doesn't really have a lot to do here other than squint suspiciously at the boys through one eye and say 'doh!' (nearly sixty years before Homer). Of course they don't have enough money and Ollie decides he and Stan will have to share one between them. You probably know how that works out, and the simplicity of Stan's line is filled with the kind of crackpot – but understandable – logic that typifies Laurel & Hardy's humour.

The ending's a variation on a theme they had used many times before but it still works because it *is* a variation rather than a rip off. This one's definitely worth a look.

Two sailors meet two equally less-intelligent chicks and with a single tiny coin they manage to produce another quality catastrophe. This is how you take the most out of the situation! One hapless situation follows after another, and when you see what kind of sailors these two are you'll think what kind of Captain let them to ruin Navy's honor. When they manage to get the two chicks into the bar you'll know that something is going to happen when the old grim-face Finlayson is seen playing the bartender.

Everything works fine in this small flick, the total chaos that eventually happens doesn't start too early, though unfortunately it feels a bit prolonged one. But before the lousy bit, you have been given a sharp reminder on how good these masters of banal catastrophes were also verbally.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

Sailors Stan & Ollie, two MEN O'WAR, are on shore leave. While strolling through the park, they meet & escort two silly young women. After a financial contretemps at the soda fountain, the Boys initiate a rowdy donnybrook on the boat pond.

A hilarious little film, with a delightful sense of spontaneity, as if the performers were extemporizing much of their dialogue. This short is also refreshing in that the plot takes place entirely out of doors. Highlight: bedlam in the boat. The knickers sequence shows that this film was produced pre-Production Code. That's James Finlayson as the soda fountain/boat rental manager; Anne Cornwall & Gloria Greer as the young women; and Charlie Hall as the man in the canoe.

Laurel and Hardy are sailors on shore leave walking through the park. A misunderstanding over a misplaced item of clothing leads them into the favours (and company) of a pair of delightful young ladies. The pair invite them for a soda despite the fact that they have very little money, and then onto a quite memorable boating trip.

I have tried to really get into Laurel and Hardy shorts and have started watching them whenever I may get the chance. Of the ones I have seen so far this has been one of my favourites. The reason for that is I always enjoy when they are given the opportunity to be more than physical clowns and are given witty dialogue driven scenes. Here the majority of the film (the lost gloves and the soda shop) are all driven by the dialogue and the good `to-camera' work the pair do. The climax on the river boat is not as good as their better physical work but I didn't care as the majority was sublime.

Laurel and Hardy excel in the film, especially in the first three quarters. The chemistry and timing between them always shines through in the verbal more than the slapstick. Their delivery is perfect – while Hardy was calmly pleading with Laurel in the soda shop `why did you do that, just tell me why' I was in stitches! The support cast is pretty good although the ladies are a little dull. This short is also the best example of James Finlayson at his best and a good chance for all Simpsons fans to catch the origin of the Homer Simpson `d'oh'.

Overall I was always going to love this film simply because it revolves more around the dialogue than the slapstick. The climax on the boating lake is funny but this should be watched as proof that Laurel and Hardy were more than successful fall guys – they were simply comedy genius's who were all round vaudeville entertainers.