Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice conclusion to a successful collaboration, 12 Oct 2002
If you ignore the awful later effort by a French director, this was Laurel & Hardy's last film. This is one of my favourites. There's all the usual mistakes, errors of judgement, being made to look silly by a young boy (this time a King!) and down-right ridiculous humour! Although Laurel and Hardy frequently bicker with each other, there are some films where this gets, perhaps, out of hand and ceases to be funny. That is not true of this film. It has a nice balance, a good story with a good plot and excellent continuity. Not at all a Fine Mess - anything but!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Watchable later non-Hal Roach effort, 16 Feb 2004
Most Laurel and Hardy fans know that the Boys left the nest and flew the coop artistically in 1940: after establishing themselves as the Kings Of Comedy for an independent company they decided to go for something bigger and better. Well, it sure was bigger. They signed with 20th Century Fox and MGM (who had distributed their pictures in the golden years) and expected to be able to expand their comedy with access to stages, props, etc., and to be able to have a strong voice in production. Ofcourse, they were used as B-picture "break even" attractions: name value would ensure recouping of production costs, which were presumeably minimal. In short, they were just another "low comedy" act for outfits that did not excel at old-time comedy anyway.
Okay, you knew that. You might also have known that this MGM L & H is a cut above most of the others from that 1941 to 1945 period, as it lets Stan and Ollie take center stage. Yes, they are good-natured incompetents who somehow help the protagonist (David Leland as the boy King) fight the bad guys, but at least that comes near the end, and there's no impossibly corny subplot with young lovers to section off the gags.
Ollie is a Chef with one specialty and Stan is his assistant whose specialty is to mess things up. There are some real laughs as they try to remove (what looks like) a steak from a lion's cage and to serve it to Mary Boland and guest.
A scene where Stan and Ollie coach a kids' football game has the right look but no real payoff. Still, it serves to bond them to their new pal, Leland, who is mad over American football. More sentimental than funny, but a nice try.
This quiet little film has a reasonable storyline, unlike most of their other '40s efforts which introduce characters who fall out of the story, and which insert gags apparently for nostalgia purposes only. The final scenes, involving Stan hanging out the kitchen window from a great height, and the serving of a tainted meal which gets misdirected at the evil Prince Saul, are a bit disturbing, however. Stan's cries for help sound too real, and poisoning is not something appropriate for comedy.
Still, this one, along with "The Bullfighters", and parts of a few others, are worth watching if you are true fans.
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![Laurel And Hardy - Air Raid Wardens [VHS] [1943]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NS8GGG07L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
VHS ~ Oliver Hardy
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