User reviews

"Be Big" is one of the better short slapstick movies that the legendary couple made.Like always the story is not as important as the many jokes and visual expressions. The phone and doorbell of Hardy is hilarious as well as the doorbell of Laurel. Still,the biggest laughs come after the wives have left and when Ollie & Stan put on their boots for the club.These scenes are,although sometimes a bit long,really funny.

Of course it ends all wrong,but that is typical for these short features.A very nice piece of work. 9/10

Laurel and Hardy are both married in this comedy short. They are about to take their wives to Atlantic City when Hardy gets a call. The men at the club will honor Hardy tonight so he must be there. Hardy fakes he is suddenly ill and he wants Laurel to take care of him while the ladies must have their fun in Atlantic City. Laurel and Hardy change for the evening but there is some trouble with Laurel's boot on Hardy's foot. Hilarious sequences is what we get to see.

Although almost the entire short deals with the boots, Laurel and Hardy find enough ways to make us laugh. Hardy takes some nasty falls and Laurel has some nice moments with his stupidity. A very entertaining short.

Stan, Ollie and their wives are going on a trip to Atlantic City, but when Ollie gets a call from a friend saying a stag party is being thrown in his (and Stan's) honor, he cannot resist. The boys get themselves into their usual bit of trouble, although the laughs here are a bit strained, most notably in the long winded boot sequence which went on entirely too long.

This is far from being the best Laurel & Hardy short, even though it surely does have its moments.

It's a bit of a disappointing entry, in the long series of Laurel & Hardy shorts. There is almost absolutely no story present and the movie relies too much on funny sounds and too many long comical sequences. I mean watching a couple of minutes how Olie tries to get his boots on and off gets a bit tiresome after a while.

Still I don't rate this movie poorly, since I was still more than amused by it all. Especially Stan's stupidity never seizes to amuse. There also are a couple of moments in the movie that makes it definitely worth watching. Of course the timing is perfect and the chemistry between the two boys is amazing to watch. They really feel each other and make some of the sequences work better than scripted. They even make the predictable moments in the movie work- and funny.

To some it might be a disappointment but the movie has got more than enough entertainment in it, to make it a movie that's well worth to watch.

7/10

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Once again the boys try to fool their wives by feigning illness. This time instead of taking them to Atlantic City, Ollie gets wind of a stag at their lodge and apparently it's in his honor. After convincing Stan that he is not actually sick, they set about preparing for the event. However, it takes half the episode to get Stan's boots off Ollie, who has accidentally put them on. Stan's boots are way too small. Nothing ever works out because the women have to return and the boys are caught red handed. Nevertheless, while the women are away, things are hilarious. We would ask ourselves, if this were a realistic venue, why these guys are so cavalier in their efforts to try to get up to something when these things are doomed.

Laurel and Hardy are about to leave for a weekend in Atlantic City with their wives when Baldwin Cooke calls up to tell Ollie to come over to the club.... there's a party on in his honor, and the description, unheard by the audience, convinces Ollie.... and convinces the audience that it's going to be something racy. Ollie affects an attack of nerves and the Boys send their wives on ahead. But the best laid plans of mice and men, as the saying goes.

Stepping out on the wives was not a new plot when this short was made, and it wouldn't be the last time Stan and Ollie used it; what, after all, is SONS OF THE DESERT? But farce comedy is not about the plot, it's about the gags, and a good deal of this one is expended on Mr. Hardy trying to get some boots off, while Mr. Laurel is mostly unhelpfully helpful. It's funny. What more do you want?

Not the finest moment for the duo, particularly on a technical level. The direction and editing are all over the place (often using long shots for reactions) and even in the newly restored version the sound quality is muddy.

Basic plot seems to read as a try-out for Sons of the Desert, with Stan and Ollie duping their wives so they can go to a stag party. Though in the case of this short they never quite make it there. Most of the slapstick sequences feel oddly laboured and contrived (Ollie at one point taking over twelve minutes trying to get a boot off), not least because they're all backed up by an overstated musical score.

I've got a new theory: the funniness of Laurel and Hardy is directly proportional to the length of Stan's hair. In the amusing Chickens Come Home-, made the same year, he sports a large quiff, yet here it's just medium length and not as extreme.

Not awful, but Be Big! feels more like a formula filler rather than any great step forward in their career.

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. The Boys are all set to take their wives for a weekend in Atlantic City when Ollie discovers that the gang at the club are going to hold a stag party in their honor that very night. Feigning a terrific nervous headache, he gets Stanley to agree to send the wives on ahead by themselves. Now Ollie & Stanley can dress for the party - except for the little matter of Stanley's boots on Ollie's feet. If the wives find out they've been tricked, the Boys had better face their wrath like grownups and BE BIG!

This is a very funny film, relying almost entirely on slapstick humor - one has to wonder how Ollie could take those falls without seriously hurting himself. Watching him strain to get Stanley's boot off his right leg is genuinely exhausting and will make all fat men ache in sympathy.

Laurel and Hardy and their wives are due to go away for a trip. However when Hardy's pals call him and tell him of a party in his honour he feigns illness and sends them on ahead of him and Laurel. But making excuses to his wife and getting away with it is only the start of the problem when it comes to actually getting ready to go out.

In what seems to be more an exercise in patience rather than a short film, the duo go through the motions in a film that doesn't do them justice when viewed along with other shorts. The plot's high point is a sequence where Hardy tries to get Laurel's boot (which he has mistaken for his own) first onto his foot and then, realising his mistake, off his foot. This is the guts of the film and is easily the funniest bit – but it isn't very good. It goes on too long and, save the great work in delivery, isn't funny enough to carry the film in the way it is expected to.

The duo try hard and both Laurel and Hardy do their well known thing to the best of their abilities but the material and the gags simply let them down. As real troopers they do their best and they are still worth watching the short for (I can't help but love Hardy's looks!) but they are not well served. The support cast (the wives) are good despite having little of consequence to do – it is nice to see Laurel and Hardy given wives who look pretty as opposed to battleaxe types (or themselves!)

Overall I feel that Laurel and Hardy are always worth watching, but this would be a poor place to start. A short film that goes through the motions with no really good gags or high points.

This particular Hal Roach short with Laurel and Hardy seems to have worked so well that the idea was later expanded into their classic Sons Of The Desert comedy.

Stan and Ollie are a couple of henpecked husbands who have planned to take a joint vacation to Atlantic City with the wives. But then Ollie gets a call from a hunt club that he and Stan belong to and it seems as though the gang is throwing them a bash. And since this is a guys only type gathering, they have to ditch the wives.

Ollie fakes a tremendous headache in the usual overactive Ollie fashion and the wives decide to make it a girls only trip to Atlantic City. With the ruse working, Ollie and Stan have to get into their hunting outfits.

Personally I find it hard to believe that some hoity toity outfit would even have Laurel and Hardy as members let alone as honored guests at a party. But leaving that aside, most of the film from this point on is taken up with Hardy having managed to squeeze into Laurel's boots by mistake now trying to get them off his feet with Laurel's inept assistance.

I've never seen one gag milked so successfully for a film, granted it's just a short subject. Seeing poor Laurel struggling to get those boots off Hardy's feet, dragging him around the apartment and wrecking half of it is hilarious.

Who could have known that in reality the title Be Big referred to Ollie's feet.

Up until a few years ago I had disliked Laurel and Hardy, until my wife, who is a fan forced me to watch some of their better movies, for example Way out West and Sons of the Desert.

Watching this particular effort, however, reminded me of why I had disliked them so much in the first place.

It starts out brightly enough with the boys trying to pull the wool over their wives' eyes in order to go to a stag party in their honour but then it loses it's way. The centrepiece is an over-extended sequence where Ollie is trying to remove a boot. After ten minutes of this I was heartily wishing it hadn't got stuck as well

For dedicated fans only

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 'Be Big!' 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 and mundane.

When 'Be Big!' 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 'Be Big!' and on the most part from 'Two Tars' onwards we are far from robbed of that. Their comic timing is impeccable, especially Laurel's.

'Be Big!' 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.

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

Be Big! should be one of those early, late-1800's film shorts that lasted about a minute or a minute and a half in length and were clearly spur-of-the-moment and provided a momentary relief from the drudgery of ones day. Instead, it's a nearly thirty-minute long, failed attempt at comedy from one of America's most famous comedy duos, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The short concerns the two men about to go to Atlantic City with their wives until Hardy abruptly changes plans when his pal calls and informs him of a stag party that is taking place in their honor. In order to get out of the trip, Hardy pretends to be ill and in pain and implores Laurel to stay behind, promising to meet the wives in the morning. The plan would be fool-proof if those executing it weren't fools themselves, as much of the short concerns Laurel attempting to pull the boots off of Hardy's feet, resulting in mishaps galore.

What ensues is a repetitive and dreadfully overlong account of Laurel attempting to undress Hardy, and being that this is a film with sound and dialog, it clearly functions in that time when screen writing with vocal dialog was something to still be practiced, resulting in Be Big! playing like a silent comedy in terms of its simple narrative. Because of this, the simplicity of the short is also its greatest issue, with the short never reaching comedic heights in terms of writing or performances, and we're robbed of the great situational comedy typically brought on by the team of director James W. Horne and writer H.M. Walker.

Be Big! does have one memorable thing about it; it's what I was practically telling the short's ambition and scope to do while watching it.

Starring: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Directed by: James W. Horne.

Classic Laurel and Hardy, which actually was a comedy experiment in one scene. The boys get word of a wild stag party, and use the old routine of being too sick to go away with the wives. So Mrs. Laurel And Mrs. Hardy catch a train to Atlantic City and Stan and Ollie are home free, right?

First off, it's time to change --and Hardy happens to be wearing Stan's tight boots. All they got to do is pull them off.

This was the comedy experiment that some critics claim went on too long. That said, it's actually quite ingenius, and shows the team's versatility, if not talent for gymnastics. In the process of attempting to remove the boots, such as using a cheap bootjack? -- while grabbing a steaming radiator and curtains for leverage, they manage to wreck the apartment. And could this all have been avoided, had Hardy not been in a rocking chair in the first place?

Lots of credit is due Hardy for his bruising pratfalls, including stumbling into a sunken tub filled with water. In the meanwhile, the wives miss their train and return home... The boys have to hide and end up in a bed that folds into a wall! This gag is laugh out loud funny.

Beware! The ladies grab a shot gun!

Once again, the production crew demonstrates their creativity. Laurel and Hardy are literally blown through the other side of the wall and into the street, replete with bricks, wood, smoke and feathers? See to believe.

10 Stars, and re-done in both Spanish and French versions that had Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy reading their lines (in different languages) off cue cards.

This short was followed by the legendary R- rated CHICKENS COME HOME (1931).

Because if you are honest with yourself, this Laurel & Hardy short is among their weakest. It's just not. Very. Funny.

Plot In a Nutshell: Two friends (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy) accidentally put on each other's boots, then one can't get them off.

Why I rated it a '4': Because that's pretty much the whole story, and it's flimsy. And protracted. And tedious. Listen, I love L&H, but not everything they did was gold, and this is a prime example. I could not believe how these two extremely funny guys got stuck doing this film about removing a troublesome boot that just went on and on and on. They are better than this. Much better.

There are several reviews here giving "Be Big!" an 8, 9 or 10, and all I can say is, they are grading on an EXTREMELY generous scale. This film has a few laughs, but only a few, and for something that runs 25 minutes, giving it that much praise is highly questionable. There's just no way.

4/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Definitely not. "Be Big!" proves the old axiom that no one is perfect, not even L&H.