Charles Rogers Movies

In this B-picture western,Anthony Dexter, plays Billy the Kid, the outlaw of the title and a victim of society. The parson of the title is {%Jack Slade (Sonny Tufts). Billy the Kid tries to mend his ways thanks to the intervention of Slade, but he winds up plugged and planted trying to avenge the preacher's murder. The cast features supporting actors including Marie Windsor, Jean Parker and Bob Steele. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Allan Dwan directed this light-hearted service comedy starring William Bendix (best known from the television series The Life of Riley) and Dennis O'Keefe as a pair of Marines stationed in Australia. As might be expected, the two soldiers fall for the same woman, a pretty Australian named Joyce Stuart (Helen Walker), and comic misadventures ensue. John Loder, James Flavin and Arthur Hunnicutt are among the familiar faces in the cast. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Misbehaving Husbands was intended as a comeback vehicle for silent-film comedy great Harry Langdon, who after his fall from grace in the 1920s had to content himself with cheap 2-reelers, featured roles and screenwriting assignments. Langdon plays henpecked store-owner Henry Butler, who decides to save money by designing his window displays himself. When Henry's wife (Betty Blythe) spots him in an innocent but compromising situation with one of his underdressed models, she walks out on him and files for divorce. Making matters worse, poor Henry is accused of murder when he's seen carrying a store dummy into his house. It's all strictly short-subject material, but Langdon carries off his assignment with finesse, proving that he was still capable of carrying a feature film if given half a chance. Others contributing to the general merriment are statuesque Esther Muir, Langdon's longtime screen partner (and close friend) Vernon Dent, Ralph "Dick Tracy" Byrd and veteran western heavy Richard Cramer (who'd previously appeared in the Langdon-scripted Laurel&Hardy vehicle Saps at Sea). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Back at Hal Roach Studios for the first time since 1938's Block-Heads, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star in the uneven but generally rewarding A Chump at Oxford. The boys are cast as street-sweepers who hope to better their lot in life by attending night school. Fate intervenes when Stan and Ollie are instrumental in the capture of a bank robber, whereupon they are rewarded by the bank's grateful president (Forbes Murray) with an all-expenses-paid education at England's Oxford University. Arriving on the venerable old campus dressed in Eton jackets, our heroes are pounced upon by a group of prankish students and subjected to all manner of practical jokes. After spending most of the night trying to escape from a maze, Stan and Ollie are installed in their "new quarters"-which turns out to be the bedroom of the Dean (Wilfred Lucas). This sort of collegiate nonsense comes to an end when it is discovered that simple-minded Stan is actually Lord Paddington, the brainiest student and finest athlete that ever attended Oxford. According to Meredith the valet (Forrester Harvey), His Lordship wandered away from the university upon being rendered an amnesiac by a blow on the head. An accidental tap on the noggin restores Stan to his aristocratic Lord Paddington status, whereupon he beats up a crowd of bullying students and deposits them one by one in a nearby ditch. Though Ollie is aghast to learn that Stan-er, His Lordship-has no recollection of their previous friendship, he decides to stay on at Oxford as Paddington's manservant. After having been humiliated once too often by his vain and condescending employer, Ollie angrily packs his bags and prepares to head for home, when yet another bop on His Lordship's skull causes him to revert to lovable, bumbling old Stan again. Originally intended as a four-reeler (running approximately 45 minutes), A Chump at Oxford was completed in the spring of 1939, whereupon Laurel and Hardy were loaned out to producer Boris Morros to star in The Flying Deuces. When shooting was finished on the latter film, the team was summoned back to Roach to film a 2-reel "prologue" for Oxford, bringing the film's running time up to 63 minutes. The new footage consisted of a reworking of the boys' 1928 comedy From Soup to Nuts, with temporary servants Stan and Ollie unintentionally wrecking a dinner party held by Mr. and Mrs. Vandevere (played by veteran L&H supporting players James Finlayson and Anita Garvin). The patchwork stucture of A Chump at Oxford works against its overall effectiveness, but the scenes in which Stan Laurel undergoes a complete change of character as the genius-level Lord Paddington more than make up for the film's earlier shortcomings. One of the students (the tall, mustachioed one) is played by Peter Cushing, in his second Hollywood film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

American mousetrap salesmen Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy journey to Switzerland, reasoning that where there's cheese, there's mice. When they innocently try to pay their dinner bill with phony money, Stan and Ollie are put to work in the kitchen of the Alpen Hotel. Their enforced stay coincides with the visit of famed composer Walter Woolf King, who has come to Switzerland to soak up "local color." He also hopes to write an operetta that will succeed on its own merits, without the lovely voice of his lovely actress wife Della Lynd winning over the audience. But Lynd is determined to star in King's latest opus, and to that end she finagles Stan and Ollie into getting her a job as a hotel chambermaid. As the plot rolls along its merry way, Ollie labors under the misapprehension that Lynd is in love with him. Swiss Miss is, on the whole, one of Laurel and Hardy's weaker feature films, with far too much emphasis on the romantic leads and way too many forgettable songs ("Crick Crick Crick Here the Cricket" is a particular low point). But the team's individual scenes save the show, even though Stan Laurel, who'd been ill during production, looks like he's about to fall asleep at any moment. Best bits: Stan hoodwinking a St. Bernard out of a cask of brandy; Ollie serenading Lynd while Stan accompanies him on tube; and the legendary sequence, immortalized by film critic James Agee, wherein Stan and Ollie try to transport a piano across a rope bridge high above an alpine chasm--only to confront a gorilla! One of the screenwriters of Swiss Miss was Jean Negulesco, later the director of such memorable films as Mask of Dmitrios, Three Strangers, Titanic and How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Prospectors Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy head to the western town of Brushwood Gulch, two men on a top-secret mission. The boys have been entrusted by their recently deceased partner Cy Roberts with a deed to a valuable gold mine, to be delivered in person to Roberts' daughter Mary (Rosina Lawrence). Stan inadvertently spills the beans to crooked saloon owner Mickey Finn (James Finlayson), who proceeds to pass off his own wife, saloon chanteuse Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynne), as Mary Roberts. The ever-trusting Stan and Ollie fall for the subterfuge hook, line and sinker, handing the deed over to Lola. Upon running into the real Mary, who slaves away in Mickey Finn's kitchen, Our Heroes vow to retrieve the deed. A battle royale ensues, with Stan, Ollie, Mickey and Lola passing the deed around like a football. Ultimately, Lola manages to wrest the deed away from Stan by tickling him into helpless submission. Chased out of town by the sheriff (Stanley Fields), who harbors a grudge against the boys from a previous misunderstanding, Stan and Ollie sneak back to Brushwood Gulch in the dead of night, hoping to break into Finn's saloon, steal back the deed, and place it firmly in the hands of Mary Roberts. Upon this foundation is built Way Out West, arguably Laurel & Hardy's best feature film (many aficionados prefer Sons of the Desert). Highlights include the aformentioned tickling and burglary scenes, Stan literally eating his hat after losing a bet, Ollie's perennial plunges into a pothole, and the boys' charming singing-and-dancing interludes. Also take note of Marvin Hatley's Oscar-nominated musical score, and the presence of a young, thin Chill Wills as one of "The Avalon Boys". Even if you're not a fan of The Thin One and The Fat One, you'll be limp with laughter at the end of Way Out West. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stan and Ollie play proprietors of an electric store, anxious to make friends with neighboring grocer Charlie Hall. Unfortunately they'd already earned the enmity of Hall in a previous two-reeler, Them That Hills (34), and he is in no mood to bury the hatchet. When Hall accuses Hardy of fooling around with Hall's wife (Mae Busch), the mortified Ollie demands an apology. In the battle that follows, Laurel and Hardy take turns with Charlie Hall in wrecking each other's business establishment--an orgy of destruction which is carried out in a calm, orderly, and hilarious "tit for tat" fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is an especially violent -- but very funny -- Laurel and Hardy two-reeler. It opens in a courthouse where the vicious Butch Long (Walter Long) is being sentenced for murder. After the judge commends Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy for providing the evidence necessary for the conviction, he gives Long a life sentence. "Aren't you going to hang him?" Stan asks. Long swears revenge on the boys, promising to track them down, break off their legs, and then tie their legs around their necks. With this threat hanging over their heads, the boys decide to leave town. Since they need help financially, they put an ad in the paper for a third party to travel with them, and the ad is answered by a woman (Mae Busch). While Stan and Ollie are on their way to pick her up, her boyfriend shows up -- it's Butch Long, escaped from jail. Quickly, she hides him in the trunk, unaware that he's looking for the guys who are on the way to her home. When the boys arrive, Mae explains that her "friend" fell in the trunk. But the lock is stuck, so Stan and Ollie bore holes in its sides so he has more air. That, and the various ways they attempt to get the trunk open, are all injurious to the ever-angrier Long. Finally, in a rage, the killer bursts open the trunk and sees who his "helpers" have been. Meanwhile, the police have uncovered Long's whereabouts, and they arrive at his girlfriend's apartment to apprehend him. Unfortunately for Laurel and Hardy, the cops are a few minutes too late, and Long has already exacted his promised revenge. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

In this comedy, a convict uses his skills as a masseur and a fight manager to get out of prison and become the private gym coach for a powerful oil magnate. When the instructor's little brother gets involved with his employer's daughter and they learn that the oil baron is trying to pull off shenanigans with the government all heck breaks loose so the ex-con enlists the aid of two other former inmates to help him set things right. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A man finds he's torn between two women -- which isn't a good state of affairs for a man who just got married -- in this romantic comedy-drama. Not long after Bill Truesdale (Robert Ames) ties the knot with his girlfriend Sarah Jaffrey (Ina Claire), he happens to meet Evie Lawrence (Myrna Loy), a woman he was once involved with. Bill soon discovers he's still in love with Evie, and finds himself pursuing her, even though he's pledged his heart to Sarah. In time, Bill comes to his senses, but he's not sure if he's given up on Evie in time to keep Sarah from finding the love she needs with another man. Hedda Hopper highlights the film's supporting cast, several years before she became one of America's best known show-biz gossip columnists. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi