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"

Block-Heads Year: 1938 Written by: James Parrott, Charles Rogers, Felix Adler, Harry Langdon and Arnold Belgard Directed by: John G. Blystone Duration: 55m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Gee, Ollie, you know, this is just like old times!" The final Hal Roach-Laurel and Hardy feature to be released under MGM, Block-Heads could almost be subtitled “Stan and Ollie’s Greatest Hits”. That’s not a criticism in the least, more of compliment really. While the Roach-United Artists works (A Chump At Oxford/Saps At Sea) had their moments, this is perhaps the last Laurel and Hardy feature to really feel like a Laurel and Hardy film. And that feeling is aided by them looking back upon their careers and reutilising many of their best situations. There’s the core of their very first talkie, Unaccustomed As We Are (1929), as well as the middle sequence – featuring Stan and Ollie trying continually to walk to the thirteenth floor only to have fate constantly bring them back down again – is, in many senses, the logical extension of The Music Box (1932). Only here, for me at least, it’s far, far funnier. Particular highlights include the receptionist getting hit in the face with the ball and Stan, Ollie and a tenant taking it in turns to kick each other up the backside. There’s even throwbacks to silent shorts, with the “Stan mistaken as a cripple” gag a lift from his 1923 solo film White Wings, and Harry Langdon’s Soldier Man (1926) reputedly providing the opening premise. Finally, the climax was a direct reproduction of that of We Faw Down (1928). The website The Laurel and Hardy Annex has a great feature on Stan’s “freak” endings, and here he’d intended to have his and Ollie’s head made into living trophies – a scene that was vetoed by Roach, who despised such things. If this isn’t Laurel and Hardy’s most laugh-out-loud movie, then there’s an amiable, pleasant atmosphere to this one that later works could never quite capture. Standouts in addition to the stairs sequences include Ollie carrying what he believes to be a crippled Stan; Stan having the ice water slapped out of him with perfect timing; Stan’s magic pipe; and all the recreated scenes from Unaccustomed, which are honed to perfection here. In fact, there’s so many you can’t even list them: the bit where Ollie thinks he’s having a telephone conversation only for it to be Stan talking behind him had me in hysterics. Block-Heads was purported at the time to be the final Laurel and Hardy picture, and, while this didn’t turn out to be the case, it does in some way feel like it. Stan remarks to Ollie at one point about how much fun they used to have, a poignant statement as their best days were now behind them, and, unbeknownst to the makers of this film, World War II was just around the corner…