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"

Men O'War Year: 1929 Directed by: Lewis R. Foster Duration: 19m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Can’t you grasp the situation? You must re-fuse!" The majority of Laurel and Hardy shorts were very much done “on the fly”, with production time frequently just a month and many of cinema’s new techniques still being developed and learnt. As a result, it’s not surprising that not all of their work is as developed as it could have been, or that with their high output (in 1929 they made eleven shorts) not all of them are as consistently funny as each other. From 40 sound shorts, this site rates 18 of them above average or classic status, while only 8 are regarded as being below par. That’s a pretty good hit rate, and there were even one or two (County Hospital particularly) that I was a little hard on. However, Men O’War is an example of it not quite clicking. In technical terms it’s hard to believe nowadays that Blotto was actually filmed the same year, just seven months down the line. With sound still being developed (this being only their third film in the medium) there are constant dips in sound during shot cuts, and edits to close-up usually see continuity errors. There’s the sense that the boys are still only just getting comfortable with their new talking personas, and that the verbal byplay and escalating war at the end could have been improved by future remake. Yet despite all this, it’s still pretty funny stuff, with Stan and Ollie as two sailors so inept they can’t row a boat. Just small things, like Ollie’s impulsive nickname for Stan – “the General” – being constantly repeated by the girls, amuse. There’s also the routine about knickers which shows that the arguably more risqué nature of the silents still hadn’t been phased out, and the reworking of the “fifteen cents” scene, improved upon from Should Married Men Go Home? (1928). A good piece of work.