Berth Marks (1929)

Berth Marks (1929) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel and Hardy are a vaudeville team who are trying to catch a train so that they can reach their next gig. They barely catch the train but once on there they run into one problem after another with the biggest being trying to get up in their bed so that they can sleep.BERTH MARKS was the duo's first sound film, although it was also shown in a silent version in theaters that hadn't yet upgraded their systems. For the most part this is a mildly amusing comedy but at the same time there's no question that it falls well short of classic Laurel and Hardy films. The biggest problem is the fact that there's really not too many laughs and the one joke pretty much takes up the majority of the running time. This joke has the boys trying to get into their bed but constantly failing for one reason or another. This here just isn't funny enough to warrant it taking up most of the running time.

THIS SHORT HAS long been familiar to us. Dating to those days preceding the advent of the home video craze and introduction of terms such as Beta, VHS and DVD, this title was in our home film library in the Super 8 Magnetic Sound format. This was a product of Blackhawk Films of Davenport, Iowa.AS AN EXAMPLE of a Hal Roach LAUREL & HARDY production, it is what truly be called "a mixed bag." The story opens up well enough; featuring an excellent example of comedy of frustration. The first scene is set at a Railroad Station; where San & Ollie keep missing each other due to being lost in the crowd. After finally finding themselves, the attention shifts to difficulties with their luggage, sheet music collection and Laurel's Bull-fiddle. They are said to be vaudevillians.AFTER SOME DIFFICULTY in communicating with a mumbling station master and getting on the moving train, they finally board. It was at this point that it was all down hill.INTERPLAY WITH OTHER passengers is kept to a minimal. Also, a brief encounter with the Conductor proves too brief; although what they did have in the movie did show definite promise. The action all too quickly shifts from the Passenger Car to the Pullman Sleeper, with its bunk-bed style Berths, hence the title (get it, Schultz?).IT IS HERE that we beginning to pray for some improvements; but a protracted scene involving the boys' attempting to undress for a night's sleep seems to occupy an inordinately long part of the allotted 2 reels. There is a monotonous succession of Stan & Ollie's frustration, which leads to their striking each other and threaten the other. It is during this exchange that Ollie makes repeated references to "crowding" and "don't hit me".THERE IS ONE promising outbreak of "Reciprocal Destruction", a invention of Roach Studios; but it really doesn't involve participation by the Boys.FOLLOWING ALL OF this ill conceived, crazy-quilt of events, the production team commits the cardinal sin of not knowing how to end it; which is the bane of the comedy movie, be it short or feature.THE PROBLEM APPEARS to lie in the attempt to do the film as both a silent and as a talkie. It was 1929 and the conversion to sound was in full swing. But the idea was releasing it in the two formats would insure its availability to those theatres which had not yet converted. The resulting product was a movie that was in a sort of Limbo, being neither here or there.WE HOPE WE'RE not seeming to be too harsh on the L & H production team, for it is still light years ahead of that stuff they did in the 1940s for Fox and MGM. It is worth at least a look.

I'm surprised at all the negative reviews here on this short. I was expecting to be impatient with it since I could tell by the title it would be the two of them in a train berth together, but for me it totally cracked me up! A lot of L&H humor goes on a long time repetitively and most of the time I love it but a few times I get a little bored (Tit for Tat comes to mind), but this was just so silly it was hard for me not to go along with the gag till the end. The gag with the rest of train was great also as was the shoe gag, but I really really thought the berth scene was a riot. BTW, I think the gag starts when they are both assigned a single berth because I don't think it works that way in real life, you pay for one bed per person. I could be wrong on that but I have a feeling thats the way it was. One reason why I may like this more then most is because after all of these years this was the first time I watched it and after watching all their later work from the 30's and on this was new material for me so I would give just about anything I watch them in thats new for me at least a 7. But I did really crack up at the two of them in the same berth and seem to like all the different comedies that get set in that type of scene like the 3 Stooges in A Pain In The Pullman and ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd in Show Business, I also think Abbott and Costello did some scenes in them and there is train humor in The Thin Man films. I always seem to enjoyed them all. I'm giving this short a 9 out of 10. Trivia: I'm surprised no one else mentioned it yet (that I noticed). That "fiddle" gets totally smashed in the beginning of the film, you can see it fall out in pieces from the bag, but then it's whole again when they get on the train!

A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.Vaudeville musicians Stan & Ollie board a train heading for Pottsville. Finding their reserved `upper', their attempts to get into it & maneuver around it are a study in total frustration. They'll have more bruises than just BERTH MARKS when they finally reach their destination.This little film is pure slapstick and very funny. The Boys make travelling in an upper berth look absolutely hideous.