4.0 out of 5 stars
A special place for this one, 17 Jan 2006
By Anyechka - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Laurel & Hardy - Hog Wild [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This one certainly isn't what I'd consider one of L&H's greatest sound shorts, though I don't think it's one of their worst either. It was also the very last short they ever made before switching completely to features, since by 1935 Hal Roach Studios was easing out of making short subjects. L&H were among the ones who survived the move away from shorts and into features only, the same way they very successfully survived the transition to sound in 1929. And even though this short in particular isn't one of their classics, it's very special to me because it was the very first L&H film I ever saw, in July of 1996, and I became an instant lifelong fan the moment I first saw it. Even in a lesser effort like this, there's still that sweetness, the genuine friendship and camaraderie, and of course all of the great jokes and gags.
Stan is staying with Ollie and his wife (played by Daphne Pollard), and as usual, Mrs. Hardy is quite the henpecker, as well as sick and tired of Stan living off of them. After a run-in with the landlord, played by Jimmy Finlayson, Ollie resolves to withdraw their entire savings from the bank so he can pay off the furniture. However, Mrs. Hardy doesn't know about this. On their way back to the house, the boys come by an auction, where Ollie gets trapped into bidding on a grandfather clock. He's told by a woman that she's got her heart set on winning it, but she's got to leave for a little while, and so he agrees to bid on it in her absence. He ends up winning it, and when he tries to explain to the auctioneer that "I was doing my bidding for a lady," he's forced to pay for it himself then and there. This depletes all of the money he just withdrew from the bank, and to make matters worse, the clock soon gets run over by a truck. Mrs. Hardy is so furious to find out what's happened that she smacks Ollie over the head with a frying pan when he returns home. Ollie is taken to the hospital, where it is determined that he needs a blood transfusion. Stan gives his blood, and this results in a very memorable and somewhat freakish and creepy ending.