Silent Films: pre-team 1921-1927 Laurel and Hardy Silents 1927 Laurel and Hardy Silents 1928 Laurel and Hardy Silents 1929 Laurel and Hardy sound films (alphabetical order): A-Haunting We Will Go Air Raid Wardens Another Fine Mess Any Old Port! Atoll K (aka Utopia) Babes In Toyland Beau Hunks Be Big! Below Zero Berth Marks The Big Noise Block-Heads Blotto The Bohemian Girl Bonnie Scotland Brats The Bullfighters Busy Bodies Chickens Come Home - The Chimp A Chump At Oxford Come Clean County Hospital The Dancing Masters The Devil's Brother aka Fra Diavolo Dirty Work The Fixer Uppers The Flying Deuces Fra Diavolo aka The Devil's Brother Going Bye-Bye! Great Guns Helpmates Hog Wild The Hoose-Gow Jitterbugs Laughing Gravy The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case The Live Ghost Me And My Pal Men O'War The Midnight Patrol The Music Box Night Owls Nothing But Trouble Oliver The Eighth One Good Turn Our Relations Our Wife Pack Up Your Troubles Pardon Us Perfect Day Saps At Sea Scram! Sons of the Desert Swiss Miss Their First Mistake Them Thar Hills They Go Boom! Thicker Than Water Tit For Tat Towed In A Hole Twice Two Unaccustomed As We Are Utopia (aka Atoll K) Way Out West Specials: Cameos Cartoons For Love Or Mummy Laurel and Hardy Memories "Stan"

Berth Marks Year: 1929 Directed by: Lewis R. Foster Duration: 19m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Don’t you hit me like that!" What a decent little short Berth Marks is. Not groundbreaking, or particularly relevant to modern audiences, but a strong entry nonetheless. In fact, after once panning it as the worst short on this site (see the review of Unaccustomed As We Are), I feel it’s a film I owe an apology. It’s easy to see why a first-time view of this one would be off-putting, though: I spent the entire time waiting for something to happen… instead, nothing does. Yet that’s the genius of it. Well, maybe “genius” is going a bit too far the other way and I’m overcompensating for how much I’ve panned it in the past, but it’s nice to see Laurel and Hardy unaware of the chain of violence that they’ve let loose behind them. Also unusual is how reactive Stan is in this one, questioning and physically attacking Ollie – in fact, he probably dishes out more than he takes here. The famous scene actually in the berth perhaps isn't helped by the fact that the two leads are apparently ad-libbing most of the material and not, it has to be said, particularly well. In later years they would expertly understand their characters, but hearing Hardy ad-lib virtually the same line four times is a little unsettling. I also feel that the reputation of this one would be improved if the prints that existed weren't ones where music had been dubbed over the top some years later. A notable bit of trivia is that the opening title card is different on the colorised version, as it was made from a negative prepared for a silent edition of the film for cinemas that weren’t equipped for sound (this was only their second “talkie”, after all). The alternate cards for the colorised one can be seen below. Finally, the film was reused for a couple of different sources. One is Noche de Duendes, a Spanish version of this and The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930) combined. The second? Well, I’m afraid it’s The Big Noise (1943). Let’s not even go there...