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"

Saps At Sea Year: 1940 Directed by: Gordon Douglas Duration: 55m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Horns! Horns! Horns! HORRRRRRRRNS!" A final goodbye to the Hal Roach era, and the final appearances of James Finlayson and Charlie Hall in a Laurel and Hardy movie. As the end of an era, it does kind of make you wonder whether they would have gradually sunk to the depths of the post-Roach movies even if they’d remained with him. Stan’s looking old here, and Ollie’s arguably the largest he ever was in a Hal Roach picture. The first half of the film sometimes has me roaring with its full-on slapstick surrealism, other times it leaves me cold with the obnoxious musical soundtrack that accompanies it. Either way, whatever mood I’m in to receive the film, it’s clear that they’d seen better days. While his role as stress victim in this one calls for it, it’s an extremely brash, OTT performance from Ollie, while Stan seems jaded and slightly off character. It’s as if he’s trying to be Stan, rather than just simply being. There’s also the whiff of times gone by, as situations and scenes are reprised from earlier movies, most notably the debt to the silent Angora Love. One notable progression is a scene where Ollie objects to Stan trying to share his bed… something Stan had done for most of their films together. Intriguingly, the colorized version of the movie runs 2’18m longer than the original, despite appearing to contain no extra material. Presumably the inferior quality masters used for the conversion ran slightly slower. The final section with Rychard Craymer on the boat is – like his role in Pack Up Your Troubles - a little too realistic to be genuinely funny, and perhaps lessens the reception this film has. For while the adventures of “Nick and Nick Jr.” is the most memorable, it’s also the least successful. As with the 1932 feature, there’s a hint of unpleasant spite in the scenes, with Ollie and Stan planning to poison their tormentor, then throwing boiling liquid in his eyes and Ollie repeatedly slugging him in the face. On the same theme, then Stan and Ollie having to eat their own synthetic concoction seems curiously bereft of a punchline somehow. Maybe it’s following the surreal first half, making it seem oddly literal and overlong. It also has to be said that the film does, undeniably, look like it was done on the cheap. Not a high point then, though not awful. After this the boys would go on to spend six of the following twelve years having to endure a form of cinematic purgatory, as they undertook filming of nine features without Hal Roach, the best of which were scarcely adequate, the worst of which could make you cry in despair.