JB: This is a short that is hardly ever mentioned as being among Stan and Ollie's best, but I love it more than almost anything else they did. I find it hilarious from beginning to near-end. "Aren't you going to hang him?" makes me laugh, whether it comes out of Stan's mouth or Ollie's. When Ollie gets set to read Stan's advertisement, it shows you how much comedy Stan could get out of such simple things as getting a pair of reading glasses. Two of Ollie's greatest lines appear in this film --- "Couldn't you see that he was annoyed?" and "Pardon me --- my ear is full of milk." Add the moment where he imitates Stan, and you would almost believe that Ollie is this whole film.
JL: I
enjoy it immensely until they get to Mae's place with Walter in the
trunk. There's some good stuff when they're opening the trunk with the
drill and the flames and the water, but Walter Long's moans and groans
are the most annoying thing on a L&H soundtrack, and make you
wonder what the hell he's doing in that trunk...
The beauty of their slapstick is that they were
never satisfied with, say, Ollie getting a door slammed in his face,
ta-da, that's it, end of bit. Like the closet door business in Busy
Bodies or the car door on Uncle Edgar's foot in Perfect Day, they
found some ingenious way of piling indignities on top of one another in
rapid-fire succession. The milk can is a great example, as is the
entire sequence with Ollie getting the bed railing stuck on his head.
Copyright © 2012 John Larrabee, John V. Brennan