Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)

Once again, Stan and Ollie find themselves being potentially done in for trying to do the right thing. Through a series of events, the boys find themselves in France in the service. They are totally incompetent as soldiers, of course, but they make the acquaintance of Eddie Smith, who helps them get by. Eddie gets a Dear John letter and gets the boys to promise that if anything happens to him, they will see that his baby gets taken to his father's home. Well, the sad thing happens and they are in his debt...a promising made. They are released from the Army as heroes for inadvertently rounding up a battalion of German soldiers. Once back in the states, they begin the arduous process of finding a man named Smith. This allows them to make some hilarious mistakes, including telling a bridegroom at his wedding that they have his child. A mistake, of course. This is a touching, loving effort. But, of course, these guys seldom catch a break.

Two years after Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante were "The Doughboys" and a year after Wheeler and Woolsey became "Half Shot at Sunrise" and a foil for Edna May Oliver, Laurel and Hardy took on their own battle in the trenches of "the Great War", creating all sorts of havoc among their own allies. The first quarter of the movie has them doing all they can to avoid the draft (a very funny scene where they pretend that they both only have one arm), the next quarter is them proving their ineptitude, and finally the last half has them back in the states taking care of the young daughter of an army buddy and avoiding the police and child protection services who want to take her away from them and place her in an orphanage.A bit funnier than their previous film ("Pardon Us"), this actually seems to be several of their two reelers rolled into one to make a feature length comedy. It's still pretty creaky and not always funny. The last half has a few moderately funny moments when the boys are trying to hide themselves and the little girl from the police and growing crowd, but its pretty maudlin material to be totally enjoyable. But Laurel and Hardy, about to make the jump out of shorts into features permanently, had better things coming, so their earlier films can be referred to as missed opportunities that don't hold up as well as their later Hal Roach films but still offer some slight amusement.

It was back in 1991 when I was shopping at Target in Jacksonville, FL, that I stumbled onto this VHS tape from Video Treasures. It was a Laurel & Hardy movie I hadn't heard of before and while I think I checked out Randy Skretvedt's book "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies" from the library there beforehand, I don't remember reading about the review of this particular movie at the time though I'm sure I read about it after seeing this when I checked the book out again afterward. Anyway, when the little girl-Jacquie Lyn-was doing the story of "The Three Bears" with sleepy Stan's reactions in close-up, I remember a relative I was living with laughing heartily at that and while it was funny to me as well, I don't remember laughing as loudly. I just watched it again this morning and I found myself laughing not only at that but most of the rest of the picture as Stan & Ollie join the army during World War I, make friends with a guy named Eddie Smith, and then try to find Eddie's parents after he dies in battle with his daughter I mentioned in tow. Hilarious supporting turns from usual L & H players like James Finlayson and Billy Gilbert as well as Grady Sutton and George Marshall who co-directed with Ray McCarey. In Skretvedt's review, he mentions a sequence cut from all reissued prints because of its too-violent-for-comedy status: Temporary guardian Rychard Cramer abuses his wife and Jacquie, then when L & H find out-he sends his goons after them but the boys manage to subdue them with boiling water! He also said a print survives dubbed in French. I'm not in a real hurry to see that one. So on that note, I highly recommend Pack Up Your Troubles. P.S. On this videotape I mentioned earlier in the review, Stan's daughter Lois put some home movies before the feature showing her on her fourth birthday and fifth birthday parties, and then showed her playing with Jacquie either in a sandbox or riding in a toy plane (cute seeing them kiss a couple of times there), a gift from her Uncle Babe (Hardy). She mentioned she hadn't seen her in a while and was looking for her. Well, a year later, Leonard Maltin & Richard W. Bann updated their book, "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang" and revealed in the C section of the Appendixes called The Rest: Their Glories and Their Ruin that Jacquie Lyn was given-by her son-a copy of this videotape for Christmas, saw those movies of her and Lois, and contacted her through The Sons of the Desert organization where she found out they only lived a couple of miles away! After Ms. Lyn left pictures after making a couple of Our Gang shorts-Free Wheeling and Birthday Blues-her family remained in Los Angeles where she eventually married a banker. I'll explain why she left when reviewing Birthday Blues. Update-12/26/14: I've now seen the deleted sequence which was colorized on YouTube. It's not as violent as I was afraid since we don't see Cramer hitting Jacquie. Also, that boiling water is from some pots that Stan uses to pour on the bad guys which is quite funny!

A comedy that features The Great War as it`s back drop might be in very poor taste but since it features Stan and Ollie this can be forgiven . The trench scenes are probably the funniest parts of the film with Ollie getting blamed for Stan " Cleaning out a coffee pot " and Stan wishing Ollie luck as he`s forced over the top After the war scenes we`re transported a few years into the future where the boys are trying to track down their old comrade Eddie Smith who has a daughter and I failed to get a joke because social mores have changed so much in the meantime . The action takes place at a wedding of a man called Eddie Smith ( An entirely different Eddie Smith ) where Stan , Ollie and a young girl appear . The doorbell is pressed and answered by a butler " Does Eddie Smith live here ? " " Yes " " That`s swell because we brought his daughter " The butler`s eyes roll and the bride`s father picks up a shotgun to attack the bridegroom when he hears this news . I was puzzled for a moment as to why this reaction came about but then I realised that in the 1930s no one but no one had children before they were married . How times change