This was Laurel & Hardy's first feature-length film, and it's clear they're not too comfortable with the format: too much padding, not enough laughs. They play a couple of would-be beer barons who find themselves in the slammer after trying to sell beer to a cop, and they look like veritable lambs to the slaughter as they fall foul of Walter Long, the evil-eyed Tiger. The best thing about this film – apart from the boys themselves, who rise effortlessly above their rather mediocre material – is the great array of weather-beaten punch-drunk faces of the character actors chosen to flesh out the parts of the other inmates. They all look like they spend most of their time loitering in dark alleyways waiting for some poor soul to come wandering past.
There's a lot of content that would be considered politically incorrect in these wonderfully enlightened times, and for once the film would probably be no worse off if it wasn't there. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but for the most part this one falls far short of the boy's usual high standard. The editing, in particular, is shockingly bad – even for 1931.
There's a lot of content that would be considered politically incorrect in these wonderfully enlightened times, and for once the film would probably be no worse off if it wasn't there. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but for the most part this one falls far short of the boy's usual high standard. The editing, in particular, is shockingly bad – even for 1931.