THE BIG NOISE has had an horrendous reputation with critics,film-goers and L & H fans in the past,dismissed by various film scholars,writers and journalists as "a groan","sublimely indifferent","sinking to a new low",and even receiving an entry in Michael and Harry Medved's notorious book,'THE FIFTY WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME'.The film is certainly no classic,and is pretty poor when even compared to their average efforts at the Hal Roach Studios,but for the standards of the L & H wartime comedies,this is actually one of the better,more tolerable films that were made,which isn't saying very much,though increasing numbers are recognising that some of the contemptuous comments made previously are somewhat unfair and out of proportion.
The story itself is rather thin,but one plus factor is that there is a decent concentration on Stan and Ollie here,unlike their previous efforts for 20th Century Fox,and scenes which are thankfully more in keeping with their characters;it is pleasing to see the Hardy camera look in many scenes,for example.This essential trait of Ollie's behaviour was non-existent in their previous Fox features(the otherwise banal MGM vehicle AIR RAID WARDENS at least had several authentic stares to the camera),but after several unsuitable drafts,writer Scott Darling apparently watched a few vintage L & H shorts,and began in earnest to mildly understand their established characterisations,reworking routines from such films as HABEUS CORPUS(this very utterance is actually spoken in the film),WRONG AGAIN,BERTH MARKS,OLIVER THE EIGHTH and TWICE TWO. Some of the insertions of these routines work surprisingly well,best of all the train upper berth sequence borrowed from BERTH MARKS.The original routine was over stretched and strained,mainly because this was only the team's second talkie,and restrictions on technology at the time(particularly sound editing)led to tedium and repetition.This routine works rather better in THE BIG NOISE,with not as much footage, improved pacing and the amusing addition of a genial drunk,played by Hollywood favourite inebriate Jack Norton;Tinseltown's other regular drunkard,Arthur Housman,had worked with L & H notably several times before,and would probably have been cast for this sequence had it not been for his premature death two years earlier.
That said,there is still too much straight,non-humorous exposition involving gangsters and would-be Nazi spies,an all too common problem in these post-Roach L & H features,and Bobby(later Robert)Blake is something of an irritation as the inventor's misbehaving son.But some of the support cast aren't bad at all,especially the elderly Robert Dudley and an amusing bit from Francis Ford.Several supporting players from their Hal Roach days also turn up;the brief appearance of motorcycle cop Edgar Dearing(memorable in their silent classic TWO TARS)is a welcome diversion;a previous occasional foil,Del Henderson,can also be briefly glimpsed at the end of the upper berth sequence. The eminent L & H expert and writer Randy Skretvedt has admitted on a commentary accompanying this film's recent DVD release that his previous highly negative opinions on THE BIG NOISE were somewhat wrong,and that it's nowhere near as bad as he originally thought,rating this only under THE BULLFIGHTERS as the best of their Fox-MGM wartime features.I more or less agree with him.
RATING:5 and a half out of 10.
