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"

They Go Boom! Year: 1929 Directed by: James Parrott Duration: 19m DVD Availability: Try sendit.com (region 2 only) Viewpoint: "Why don't you do something to help me?" Pure textbook Laurel and Hardy, almost everything you could want from them is here. There's the basic situation: Stan tends to a sick Ollie, only succeeding in making him worse. Add to this some trademark touches of surrealism (Ollie being inflated like a balloon, the final scene) and some adult references in the humour (look at Ollie's expression when Stan interferes with his rear). There's nothing especially outstanding about this one, it's generally just Stan and Ollie doing what Stan and Ollie do best. It is interesting to see the duo in the early, primitive stage of their career. While they had appeared together in forty films before this, They Go Boom! Was only their fifth sound picture. The lack of stock incidental music is refreshing in this regard, though in retrospect Stan still hasn't completely found his voice. Notable is that the sound effects on the violence here are naturalistic (in particular, Ollie's landlord kicking him up the backside) and not yet exaggeratedly overdubbed for humorous effect.