User reviews

There is little story present and the movie can mainly be split into two separate parts. The first part of the story is about Stan, who tries to sneak out of the house from his wife, to meet up with Ollie to go and have a good time in 'Rainbow club'. The second part of the movie is about Stan and Ollie, who get 'drunk' in the 'Rainbow club'. The second part of the movie is more filled with some typical good slapstick humor and hardly any words are spoken in those sequences. It's in my opinion the best part of the movie and the timing and comedy-acting is top-class!

The movie has more than enough laughs in it to make "Blotto" an entertainingly watchable comical movie with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Especially the slapstick moments make this movie a fun one to watch and are good for some serious laughs.

Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel are good as always and once more show the wonderful chemistry the both of them had together. Also Anita Garvin is wonderful in the role of Mrs. Laurel.

The movie also provides a pretty good view on '30's nightlife, when the two enter the 'Rainbow club'.

Perfectly watchable when you want to have a good and fun 26 minutes.

7/10

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A very refined work by Stan Laurel and Oliver hardy in early thirties (the peak time of this comedy team). Stan and Ollie are planning to go to Rainbow Club (which is opening same night) but Anita Garvin (Mrs. Laurel) listen the conversation of both of them on telephone. Stan is telling Ollie that he cant come because he cant find some genuine excuse to go out. Ollie suggest him to send him self a telegram '' important business'' , then Ollie asks from where they can get bottle, Stan says don't worry my wife has got one , he will be blaming it on the iceman. Anita Garvin listen all their plans and change the liquor with cold tea. Wonderful expression by Stan when he wants to talk to Oliver but cant due to the presence of his wife who is sitting close to him. In the end , famous weeping and specially laughing ( that they drank her liquor) by them reflects that they were really master of humour and their records will keep on alive in generations to come. And simultaneously when Anita Garvin tells them that it was cold tea not the liquor, at that very point the transition of them from ''Laughing guys'' to the serious ones reflects that how natural they were while acting. Anita Garvin, performed her role very well, and would be remembered specially , because of her work with these comedy legends.

"Blotto" is one of the few underrated Laurel and Hardy shorts. Strange, when you consider that "Below Zero", one of there lesser shorts, to be much more highly appreciated. Stan Laurel in his solo scenes with Mrs Laurel (Anita Garvin) are a revelation. It is quite surprising, as you would have thought that without the other half of the duo, it wouldn't really be very funny. With so much talent for solo performances, I wonder why he entered into a partnership with Oliver Hardy? Still, the scenes later on in the film with Oliver Hardy are just as good and I can't think of any of their films (except the nineteen forties movies they made, under completely different conditions, which didn't allowed them any artistic freedom) that don't have at least a couple of riotous laughs in them. Also, its the only one of their films to have Stan Laurel married, but not Oliver Hardy. A film well worth seeing.

This short film's direction is twofold. One is to avoid their wive's control over them (they always seemed to have wives who were much smarter, and much meaner than them) by stealing some alcohol from them. The other is to see what happens to them as they drink the tea that has replaced the liquor. The title of the film tells us that someone is going to get really drunk. Of course, they have already blown it before they go to the bottle club (taking a risk during prohibition) because of Ollie's big mouth (he is overheard by his wife). Anyway, the scene at the club is hilarious because the power of suggestion is more powerful than the realities of the human body. This is laugh riot. Will they pay a price for their actions? That's the question.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.

Stan & Ollie head for an evening at a ritzy nightclub, against the wishes of a furious Mrs. Laurel. After getting BLOTTO on a mixture of cold tea & Tabasco, the Boys make a noisy spectacle of themselves. But just wait until Mrs. L. shows up with a shotgun...

A very funny little film. Highlight: Stan's laughing fit. The tearjerker sung by the crooner that gets the Boys crying is `The Curse Of An Aching Heart', a popular ballad from 1913. Mrs. Laurel is played by Anita Garvin.

Oliver and Stan steal a bottle of booze from Stan`s wife and depart to a speak easy .

There that`s the plot . No seriously that`s the entire plot and it should have been awful but I spent most of the film with an amused grin on my face because it`s a show case for the infectious mirth making slapstick of the greatest comedy duo who ever lived or will ever live . There`s no reason why anyone should laugh at Stan passing a bottle to Oliver , or Stan putting an ice bucket on his head but I laughed out loud . Imagine if Jim Carrey and Chris Rock made a film where they bought some crack and decided to smoke it at an illegal drugs den ? It`s with a premise like that you really do appreciate the talents of Laurel and Hardy

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

Although a vast majority of Laurel and Hardy's previous efforts ranged from above average to very good ('45 Minutes from Hollywood' being the only misfire and mainly worth seeing as a curiosity piece and for historical interest, and even that wasn't a complete mess), 'Two Tars' for me was their first truly classic one with close to flawless execution. Didn't find 'Blotto' as one of their best and a bit disappointing compared to their late 1928 and the best of their 1929 efforts, which were among their best and funniest early work. It is still very good and has much of what makes Laurel and Hardy's work as appealing as it is.

The story is extremely slight to the point of non-existence and the first part takes a little bit too time to get going and is a little formulaic.

When 'Blotto' does get going, which it does do quite quickly, it is great fun, not always hilarious but never less than very amusing, the best being classic hilarity. It is never too silly, there is a wackiness that never loses its energy and the sly wit is here, some of the material may not be new but how it's executed actually doesn't feel too familiar and it doesn't get repetitive.

Laurel and Hardy are on top form here, both are well used, both have material worthy of them and they're equal rather than one being funnier than the other (before Laurel tended to be funnier and more interesting than Hardy, who tended to be underused). Their chemistry feels like a partnership here too, before 'Two Tars' you were yearning for more scenes with them together but in 'Blotto' and on the most part from 'Two Tars' onwards we are far from robbed of that. Their comic timing is impeccable.

'Blotto' looks good visually, is full of energy and the direction gets the best out of the stars, is at ease with the material and doesn't let it get too busy or static. The supporting players are solid with a scene stealing Anita Garvin.

Overall, very good. Not essential or classic Laurel and Hardy, but a very good representation of them. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Ollie hatches a plan to sneak henpecked Stan out for a night on the town with Mrs. Laurel's hidden bottle of liquor. Unfortunately, Mrs. Laurel, played by the always reliable Anita Garvin, overhears the plot and substitutes the liquor for a distasteful combination of her making.

Fans and critics tend to be dismissive of film, but I have always found this film to be one of my favorites of their early talkie shorts. There isn't much of a plot, but the sequences are very well-constructed and funny. The interplay between Stan and Anita is very funny. (I like her much better than Linda Loredo, who plays the same role in the Spanish language version.) I also really enjoy Ollie's solo bits on the telephone. Those people who dismiss him as being Stan's straight man should watch that scene. His mannerisms and expressions are priceless.

The nightclub sequence is very funny as the boys proceed to get "drunk" on the illicit "alcohol." The best moment is when Stan is reduced to tears by a melancholy song. The boys would go on laughing jags later in the other films, but nowhere is it funnier than in this film, which also ends effectively with a big car gag -- as so many Laurel and Hardy films do!

Others may disagree, but I consider this a classic Laurel & Hardy short.

Call me crazy ("Hey, crazy!") but I never enjoyed silent era films. I tried, oh I tried, but each time an actor's mouth moved there was nothing but an awkward silence. Then after what seemed too lengthy of a wait, a placard flashed on the TV screen, reflecting what the actor had just said moments before. I found this to be very distracting, plus it slowed down the natural comedic timing. This lapse between action and dialog, for me, was like watching an entire movie subtitled, and I couldn't square the two up.

That being said, I didn't watch any of the short and feature length "TV reruns" unless they were "talkies." As a kid who was fortunate enough to have a tiny black and white TV set in my bedroom, every Saturday morning before my parents or the Sun were up, I was thoroughly mesmerized by the vaudevillian, overtly physical humor of Buster Keaton, Our Gang (The Little Rascals), The Three Stooges, and of course, Laurel & Hardy.

The first Our Gang (The Little Rascals) talkie was "Small Talk" released in 1929. Buster Keaton's first talkie was "Free and Easy," released in 1930. The Three Stooges (Larry, Moe and Curly) most recognized talkie was The Woman Haters (1934). "Unaccustomed As We Are," released worldwide in 1929, was Laurel and Hardy's film debut with sound. It was an immediate hit with audiences.

Unlike many of their silent film era contemporaries who couldn't make the transition from silent to sound film, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy effortlessly slipped into this new media. Both actors had the rare gift of "comedic timing," and the duo knew how to thoroughly exploit sight gags. Moreover, lovable Hardy routinely broke the "fourth wall" of film, and after each hilarious yet tragic gag, he would often look straight at the camera as if to say, "Can you believe what just happened to me?"

Blotto! (1930) was Laurel and Hardy's 6th sound movie. Like the first five, it is a short. And like many of the early L&H Shorts, they were hilariously written by Leo McCarey who would someday win a Best Picture Oscar for "The Awful Truth" (1937). Blotto's plot is simple: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy come up with a badly worked out plan to attend the opening of a nightclub without first getting permission from henpecked Mr. Laurel's dominating wife. They even steal a bottle of alcohol from Mrs. Laurel to later drink at the club. Naturally, the two get completely wasted (Blotto) even though the bottle of booze they stole was nothing more than cold iced tea. "You can certainly tell good liquor when you taste it," says Ollie. The boys are having a grand old time until a steaming furious Mrs. Laurel shows up with a loaded shotgun.

It's all brilliantly choreographed by two of the most iconic comedic teams in history, and supported by a wonderful set of actors who would often appear in many future Laurel & Hardy shorts and feature length films.

No spoilers here as usual, but I will reveal that like several other L&H short features, Blotto was also filmed in a Spanish version, with Oliver and Stanley actually speaking Spanish.

This is a nice Laurel & Hardy short film, although you can not say there is a story. Laurel is married and wants to go out but his wife forbids him. Hardy calls Laurel a couple of times and after a while he speaks to Laurel's wife. She is nice instead of angry but has a plan of her own. She pretends to be in the kitchen while Laurel is talking but she also grabs a phone and learns about a plan the men have. This is the first part of the short.

The second part is the actual plan of Laurel & Hardy. They are on a night out but they have brought their own bottle of liquor. What happens there with the wife who knows where they are and their own bottle of liquor I will not reveal but it is a nice piece of comedy.

Maybe the premise doesn't sound very good, but there are a lot of laughs here. Especially Stanley Laurel is great and he manages to get a smile out of the most simple situations. Still, this is definitely not one of their best. Because it has no story it gets a little boring. Fortunately the final moment is hilarious and makes sure you will enjoy this short film from start to finish.

Just watched the colour version of this, and I know purists will hate it, but I feel the colorised versions of the Laurel and Hardy shorts really add something to them.

Especially here, where The Rainbow Club is seen in all its art deco glory!

I don't get peoples beef with there being no story, there is one, no matter how slight !

The scene of uncontrollable laughter never gets tired.

Highly recommended.

My favorite movie starring the trio of Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Anita Garvin. It's so funny, I've watched it many times. So much better than 99% of modern comedies. 10/10.

Amusing 2 reeler from the duo. Not nearly as good as "Music Box", but then few short comedy features are. Love the tea placebo stuff at the night club as well as Anita Garvin's harridan with a shotgun (L/H was always fortunate in its gallery of hoydens). Too much time is spent getting to that funny point, though, and there should have been more physical gags along the way. Give it a B minus.

Stanley is supposed to go out with Ollie for a night on the town, but his wife, Anita Garvin, objects. So he steals her bottle of liquor -- not knowing she has switched the booze for cold tea with pepper -- and sneaks out.

This sort of 'boy's night out' short comedy dated bac decades, if not centuries when the Boys made this one, so they had plenty of material to choose from, from Stan being confounded by a Yiddish newspaper to Anita Garvin's brand of sexy shrewishness; of all the many top comediennes on the Hal Roach lot, none could approach her for comic malevolence.