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"

Their First Mistake Year: 1932 Directed by: George Marshall Duration: 20m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "I'm all fagged out!" Far from their funniest film, yet Their First Mistake presents one of the most interesting Laurel and Hardy subtexts. The notion of Ollie as mother to Stan's irresponsible husband is a strong one, albeit overegged a little. "You're just as much responsible for it as I am […] you were the one that wanted me to have the baby. And now that you've got me into trouble you want to walk out and leave me flat. […] What will my friends say? I'll be ostracised.") With Ollie pushed into the submissive role, his looks into camera seem out-of-place, but no matter. The humour is adult, too. Not necessarily in terms of sophistication, but in its subversion of their usual innocence. Yes, Stan is looking for the bottle of milk in his shirt, but the clear reference (lost on me as a child) is that he's wondering why he hasn't got breasts with which to feed the baby, a practise he's presumably seen before. This is one of the few times homosexuality is (arguably) directly referenced. Ollie leaves his unloved wife with the claim "She says that I think more of you (Stan) than I do of her." Stan replies certainly "Well, you do, don't you?" "Well," comes back the reply, "we won't go into that." The introduction of a wife claiming for divorce and who is after "the alienation of Mr. Hardy's affections" needs no explanation for real-life parallels. Maybe it's easy to read too much into this, but with Stan in bed with Ollie, being fed milk, this has a myriad of Freudian connotations that reward further viewing. A scene was actually filmed yet deleted, with Mrs. Hardy returning with her mother and two new babies, hoping to patch things up. Sadly, while this omission does keep the film a purer narrative, it means it concludes without a real punchline. And that's it I'm afraid. My poorest review? (What do you mean, "there's such a choice"?) When I saw Their First Mistake I was blown away by all the different subtexts on offer, a feast of double meanings that demanded an in-depth appraisal. Sadly, I could never really find the words to give it one, but I'm placing this review up anyway just to let you know how good it all is. A lame development, for which I can only apologise. Though I'll say one thing - seeing it again for choosing the images, I liked it so much I upgraded it another bowler hat star...