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"
Year: 1944
Written by: W. Scott Darling
Directed by: Malcolm St. Clair
Duration: 71m
Availability: Try Amazon
The Big Noise - Audience Appreciation
Viewpoint:
"Isn't that silly?"
When I was a young child, potty training and barely able to speak, the word I always used to use to tell my parents that I wanted to use my potty was "noise". I dunno why - cos it made a noise? - it's a toddler thing I guess, but instead of "poo" or "plop", this was what I opted for. Apologies for the toilet and bodily-function related tone of this review (particularly if you're eating a snack while reading), but if you consider that when I was barely born the word "noise" was another word for excretion, then you can see what deeper meanings the title of this one has to me personally. And does this opener make this review literally anally retentive?
"Oh, well if you don't want to tell me, we'll just skip it. I don't care."
No, wait... I'll discuss the film, I promise. In fact, The Big Noise is an intriguing topic, because while it's been widely hailed as one of the worst films of all time, and Stan and Ollie's nadir, I'm going to suggest it's arguably the best Laurel and Hardy film they did after leaving Hal Roach. No, bear with me. By this, do I mean it's the funniest? Hell no - The Big Noise is shockingly, outrageously unfunny. But in terms of it being an actual Laurel and Hardy film, then the plot for once revolves around them and their interactions with other people, and they're even accorded multiple one-to-one scenes, rather than having to bounce off stilted support players for the duration. Not only that, but their characterisation is almost akin to what we recognise. No longer are they a pair of "Draft Daffy" "boobs", but Stan and Ollie, two aged janitors in a well-meaning detective expedition. Maybe what really helps is that rather than being on the outside looking in, as with much of Great Guns (1941), the role is reversed so that we see events from their viewpoint once more. Okay, most of this viewpoint does involve nicking material from Wrong Again (1929), but there's a delightful moment when Ollie indulges an inventor (Arthur Space, who is quite likeable and interacts reasonably well with the duo, all things considered) and talks about being "stuffed" after eating his food pills. Ollie then gives one of his famous (albeit jaded) double takes to camera, which produced a noise at the back of my throat that was half way towards constituting a chuckle. Yes, A-Haunting We Will Go has a few more laughs in it, but here Stan and Ollie aren't required to dress up in demeaning costumes and play second banana to a stagey stage magician. Yes, The Dancing Masters has a few more laughs in it, but Stan isn't required to dress up as a ballerina and strip himself of all human dignity. Yes, Nothing But Trouble has a few more laughs, but Ollie isn't required to humiliate himself by beating up children and getting on his hands and knees to impersonate a lion. Yes, - well, you get the idea...
The biggest element of contention was famously the scene where they recreate the bunk sequence from Berth Marks (1929). Stan was dismayed that the gag men working at Fox wanted to reuse the situation so literally - a way to save time, and thus production costs - and suggested ways in which the gag could be reworked, only to be rebuffed. When they walked out on Hal Roach, Stan and Ollie unwittingly walked out on the exceptional amount of creative freedom they had held. But wait a second - the scene is improved from its first usage. Bearing in mind that Berth Marks wasn't exactly a Roach classic anyway, here they add to the gag by having a third passenger try and join them. Jack Norton lumbers on as a drunk and clambers all over Stan and Ollie. Now, you'd be right in suggesting that said scene isn't exactly very funny, or, indeed, funny at all. But on paper, that is an improvement, surely? If this was still the Roach years (if only!) then Arthur Housman would have had the drunk role (can you see how it's getting funnier already?), and you'd be able to add to that a performance from Stan where he actually gives a damn.
Yes, there's more lazy recreations of prime material here than in any other Fox movie, with the Oliver The Eighth subplot completely underdeveloped, but the main thrust of the narrative is clear and focussed. Not only that, but there are even one or two seconds when Stan actually looks like he gives a toss. I don't blame him for not giving a performance, but when he does bother the film rises another notch. Take the film's only real laugh - him playing the concertina as Ollie winces and glares. Okay, afterwards they milk that concertina so much they might as well put a bell on it and call it Daisy, but for this one moment it was a definite laugh there. It's a feat that isn't repeated, but in principle, on paper, this is the best of the Fox output. All of the rest had funnier moments, but The Big Noise has the greatest sense of brand integrity.
Of the behind-the-scenes personnel, then this was the third in a Darling-Clair trilogy which began with Jitterbugs and The Dancing Masters (both 1943). They would also be around for the boys' return to Fox in November 1944 with The Bullfighters (1945). The fact that they worked so regularly with Stan and Ollie in days where they resented the material but carried on because they needed to earn a living might suggest that Stan and Scott/Mal didn't get on so badly. Bobby Blake, although only ten years old when this film was made, already had fifty-five film appearances to his name, or, to be more accurate, many of them to the name "Mickey Gubitosi" with the Our Gang/Little Rascals series of films. While his part in the film is largely superfluous and he doesn't have any real interaction with the two stars, at date of writing (February 2005) he's sadly on trial for the murder of his wife.
Naturally, the climax, where Stan kills an entire submarine crew of Japanese soldiers with a bomb, is a little hard to take. We must presume that had Stan and Ollie continued in this vein we would have had Stan flying Enola Gay. The total lack of thought gone into such a climax is perhaps indicative of the entire project, an A to B plotting whereas the duo would normally go from Z to K. A sub needs to be blown up, so... drop a bomb on it. Why not find some accidental diversion, like Stan knocking something over to dispose of the sub - or better yet, it not happen at all? One day in the future the technology will perhaps be invented that can recreate old film stars, from Bogart to Bardot. Come that day, there'll doubtless be a well-meaning but misguided attempt to follow up colorized and "talkie silents" with an all-new Laurel and Hardy film. And no, I'm not talking about Bronson Pinchot. You could imagine that if that were to have happened now then Fox would have Stan and Ollie taking part in the "War on Terror". Cue Laurel and Hardy in "The Weapons Inspectors."
Stan: "Say, Ollie, what are we looking for again?"
Ollie: [exasperated] "Why, you know that as well as I do. We're looking for weapons of mass deduction."
Stan: "But how do we know there are any?"
Ollie: "Why, that's simple. If we can't find them, we'll know they're just hidden."
Stan: "And if we can find them?"
Ollie: "If we find them, then we'll know they never existed."
Stan: [takes it big] "Ollie, I'm confused." [starts crying]
Ollie: "Why, there's nothing to be afraid of. I'm here to protect you."
Naturally, Finlayson would be there as Saddam, while Charlie Hall could be Bush. But what would be the point? Satire and an open mind towards political events wasn't in Stan and Ollie's charter. While they had absolute minimal input into these later movies, the jingoistic tone sits uneasily with their innocent personas and reveals an unsettling lack of sophistication.
Postscript:
As an update, then Robert Blake was found not guilty of murder on March 16th, 2005. Confusingly, Blake's four children filed a civil suit claiming that he was responsible for their mother's death, with a jury finding Blake liable for the wrongful death of his wife on 18th November 2005. Such legally perplexing issues saw him ordered to pay $30 million, and Blake filed for bankruptcy on February 3, 2006.
However, more important perhaps is what on Earth was I talking about during that review? While I can understand the points I was making, and they are valid, to an extent, rewatching The Big Noise on its DVD release I release I was way, way too kind to it. While I adopted a perhaps commendable attitude to keep an open mind to the post-Roach features, it's taken to extremes here. Or maybe I just hadn't noticed before on a grainier VHS print that what's in Stan's face is not him sometimes "giving a toss" but burning, simmering indignation. Also, it's nowhere near as Stan and Ollie centric as I made out, but rather the "hilarious" adventures of Arthur Space the Ker-azy inventor, with the duo doing turns as second bananas to the convoluted, exposition-crammed "plot". Like The Bullfighters after it (how did the same team who did the almost mediocre Jitterbugs and weak but watchable The Dancing Masters sink to this?) I've reassessed the film by a star. It gets now gets just one bowler hat as a nadir of the team. Compared to this, the following year's effort was a mild step up, with only Utopia seriously challenging it as Stan and Ollie's worst-ever movie.
