JB:
There is a really great gag at the beginning. Ollie's wife has
been complaining about "those Laurels" for the past five minutes, yet
the moment Mrs. Laurel enters, Mrs. Hardy couldn't be happier to see
her, as they walk off arm in arm laughing and chatting into the next
room. Throughout the entire Laurel and Hardy ouevre (somebody shoot me
please!) they spent a great deal of time expressing through gags
and situations their view on the fickleness of the female species, but
this is one of their most concise and on target comments.
The rest of the short is equally good,
if a trifle too loud for my tastes (thank you, Mae Busch). And there's
a very bizarre wrapup gag where Ollie sends Stan for a trip down the
bathtub drain. Love it.
JL: This film has one of those one-of-a-kind Ollie looks. When Ollie sends Stan to the kitchen for a pitcher, and he returns with "a pit-cher" (picture), Ollie's face looks as if he's about to break into "No, no, no, no, NO!," then changes his mind and thinks "What's the use?", and pushes Stan out of the way with a look of mild disgust. Anger, exasperation, resignation, all registered in his face in the matter of a few seconds.
Copyright © 2012 John Larrabee, John V. Brennan