H.M. Walker Movies

Although this comedy was hailed as Harold Lloyd's first feature, at four reels, it's really more of a glorified short. It was originally meant to be a two-reeler (the previous film, Never Weaken, was considered an anomaly at three reels), but Lloyd and his crew wound up with too many good gags and decided to leave them all in. Unlike Lloyd's subsequent films, this picture is light on characterization and relies more on its wild gags than on the star's winning personality. Lloyd plays an insufferable rich young man. The father of his sweetheart (Mildred Davis) does not approve of him, and insists that he must do something with his life if he is to be worthy of the girl. Harold's answer is to join the Navy. His dream of being an admiral contrasts sharply with reality, where he is at the bottom of the pecking order. His ship lands on the coast of a fictional Middle Eastern country, Khaipura-Bhandanna. The girl and her father have also sailed there and a wicked Maharaja (Dick Sutherland) kidnaps the girl from her father's yacht. It is up to Harold to rescue her, which he does with his famed athletic skills and a lot of humor. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The 1930 Laurel & Hardy 3-reeler Another Fine Mess is a remake of the team's 1927 effort Duck Soup--which, in turn, was based on "Home from the Honeymoon", a vaudeville sketch written in 1908 by Stan Laurel's father. Escaping from an angry cop, Stan and Ollie take refuge in a posh East Side mansion. It turns out that this is the home of great white hunter Colonel Buckshot (James Finlayson), who has just gone on an expedition to Africa, leaving his butler and maid with instructions to rent the mansion in his absence. But the servants have snuck out for the weekend, leaving Laurel & Hardy alone to contend with potential renters Lord Plumtree (Charles Gerard) and his sexy American wife (Thelma Todd). To avoid being arrested, Ollie poses as Colonel Buckshot, while Stan does double duty as both butler and maid (complete with flaxen wig). Originally lensed in black and white, Another Fine Mess was computer-colorized in 1986, but you'll enjoy it anyway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Laurel and Hardy two-reel silent involves the boys' attempts to repossess a radio from Collis P. Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy). A barking toy dog scares them off at first, but they come back with a borrowed Great Dane. The Great Dane is also scared off by the toy. Ollie apprehends Kennedy while Stan breaks for lunch, but escapes when Stan hands him a sandwich instead of the summons. Finally the paper is served and the boys have to take the radio. This they do after a number of pratfalls. The radio, however, ends up being run over by a steamroller. Kennedy finds this hilarious until his wife appears and informs him that she just paid for the radio; Stan and Ollie find this funny until the steamroller runs over their car. This unfairly-overlooked Laurel and Hardy film makes use of the boys' classic technique of building gag upon gag through a battle of wits. Big Business is a more well-known example of this strategy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

While this isn't one of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's best shorts, its premise is very similar to one of their finest features, Sons of the Desert. In both films, the hapless duo is trying to sneak around their wives' backs to join a group of club mates. In Sons of the Desert, they're going to a convention; in Be Big, it's an evening in their honor. The boys have just agreed to go to Atlantic City with their spouses (Isabelle Keith and Anita Garvin), but one of the club men calls Ollie with such enticing details of the celebration that he just has to attend...with Stan in tow, of course. With the help of some talcum powder, Ollie looks pale enough to convince the wives to leave on the trip without him and Stan. Then they hurriedly get into their club outfits, but trouble ensues when Ollie puts on Stanley's much smaller boots and can't get them off. The pair's various attempts to get the boots off Ollie all but destroy Ollie's apartment -- and Ollie. The wives miss the train and return home to discover that they've been tricked. Their panicked husbands try to hide in the folding bed, but the wives pull out their shotguns (a common prop for Laurel and Hardy wives) and start blasting away. Originally filmed in black & white, a colorized version was released in the late 1990s. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This Laureland Hardy four-reeler is very loosely based on Beau Gest. It opens with Oliver Hardy singing a sweet love song. He's feeling sentimental because he's about to marry his girl, Jeanie-Weanie who, he tells his friend Stan Laurel, "has been all around the world and everyone loves her." Unfortunately, a "Dear John" letter arrives from the girl just then. In misery, Ollie decides that he -- and Stan, of course -- must join the Foreign Legion so they can "forget." Once they get to the camp, they discover that Ollie's not the only one forgetting Jeanie -- the other new recruits are all weeping over the same girl's picture. Ollie decides that perhaps the young lady wasn't worth all his trouble, but the irascible commandant (Charles Middleton) informs him and Stan that they're in the Legion for life. As Ollie and Stan leave his office, they see a photo of Jeanie-Weanie on his wall, too.

The boys, along with the other recruits, are sent to Fort Arid, which is under siege by Arabs. Even though Stan and Ollie get separated from the rest, they are the first to arrive and are promptly used as sentries. They handle this, and their other duties, in their usual inept way, and the Arabs sneak into the Fort. A knife-wielding Arab chases the boys into a storage room, where Ollie accidentally overturns a barrel of tacks and the Arab is rendered helpless when he steps on them with his bare feet. So Stan and Ollie take more tacks and spread them out at the Fort's entrance. This keeps the Arabs hopping (literally) until the rest of the recruits arrive. When they capture the Arab leader, there is one thing he has that he does not want to give up -- a photo of Jeanie-Weanie.

The photo of Jeanie-Weanie is actually a picture of Jean Harlow from her days at the Roach Studios; in fact, the outfit she's shown wearing is a costume from the 1929 Laurel and Hardy film Double Whoopie. The actor portraying the Arab leader is credited as Abdul Kasim K'Horne. This is an alias for director James Horne, who did the role as a cameo. Laurel and Hardy made one other Foreign Legion film, Flying Deuces, in 1939. Once again Charles Middleton plays the Commandant. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Laurel and Hardy's second two-reel talkie is made up of a few very simple scenes -- Oliver Hardy goes to meet his partner Stan Laurel at the train station. They have a vaudeville act which involves a bass fiddle and are on their way to their next performance. They just barely make the train and are led to their berth, wreaking havoc amongst the other passengers in their wake. With much difficulty, they undress in their berth. As soon as they're ready for bed, they arrive at Pottsville, their destination, and have to hurry off. Once the train has left the station, they discover that they have left their bass fiddle on board. But the situations aren't important, it's what the boys do with them -- the way Ollie wanders around the station in search of Stan, just missing him several times, and the various contortions the pair try to get into their upper berth -- that give the film its fun. Especially nice is the interchange between the boys and the conductor. When Ollie describes himself and Stan to the trainman as a "big-time vaudeville act," the old man dryly replies, "Well, I bet you're good!" Originally filmed in black & white, a colorized version was released in the late 1990s. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

An angry divorce is the curious source of humor in the offbeat "Our Gang" comedy "Big Ears." Though little Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins loves both his father and mother (Creighton Hale and Ann Christy), he wishes that they would stop quarrelling. Overhearing their plans to split up, Wheezer is at first delighted, assuming that a divorce is some sort of present. Learning the truth, he begs his pal Matthew "Stymie" Beard for advice. Stymie suggests that, if Wheezer were to get a bellyache, his folks would forget their differences. Acting upon this, Wheezer consumes vast quantities of lard and soap, then samples the entire contents of the family's medicine chest! Fortuately, he survives, whereupon his parents promise to stop fighting --- at least for now. Originally released on August 29, 1931, "Big Ears" is absent from the "Little Rascals" TV package, but is, however, available on home video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Silent screen cowboy Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and lovely Kathleen Collins (Mrs. Williams in real life) take a back seat to an unusual equine love triangle in this off-beat action thriller. Rex the Wonder Horse is really the film's leading "man," with the mare Lady as the "damsel in distress" and a black horse named "Killer" "acting" the "other man." Comedy producer Hal Roach dabbled in the western genre during the final years of silents, and Black Cyclone was perhaps his finest. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Accustomed to being the center of attention in his family, little Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins is upset when the spotlight is stolen by his new baby brother. Envious of the new arrival, Wheezer scheme to take the infant back to the maternity hospital whence he came. But Wheezer's sister Mary Ann Jackson and the kids' mother concoct a scheme that is guaranteed to teach the "little rascal" a good lesson. Originally released on October 12, 1929, this "Our Gang" comedy is seen at a disadvantage today due to a substandard soundtrack. Nonetheless, "Bouncing Babies" contains a generous supply of laughs, thanks largely to a typical Hal Roach running gag wherein Wheezer practices an ingenious method of "traffic control." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the livelier late-silent entries in the "Our Gang" series, Cat, Dog & Co. begins with the kids thoughtlessly abusing or overworking their pets. But thanks to the gentle admonitions of a lady from the Be Kind to Animals Society (played by future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper), the kids tearfully vow to change their ways. Determined to extend kindness and generosity to all forms of animal life, the youngsters set loose all the critters in town, including a rather fearsome collection of oversized rodents and amphibians from a local experimental laboratory. The film's strangest sequence finds a conscience-stricken Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins imagining that he has been put on trial in an all-animal court for being cruel to chickens! Upon its original release on September 14, 1929, "Cat, Dog & Co." came equipped with a sound-on-disc musical score, played on a pipe organ by future Hal Roach composer-arranger LeRoy Shield. This score has been restored for the film's reissue as part of the VHS/DVD "Little Rascals" package--necessitating the interminable stretch-printing of one dialogue subtitle in order to achieve proper synchronization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally released on May 7, 1932, the "Our Gang" comedy "Choo-Choo!" was a loose remake of the 1923 two-reeler A Pleasant Journey. Exchanging clothes with a group of mischievous orphans, the Our Gang kids end up on a train headed for Chicago. Pressed into service as the kids' supervisor, effeminate Travelers Aid attendant Mr. Henderson (Dell Henderson) suffers the torments of the darned, especially when he tries to prevent three-year old George "Spanky" McFarland from punching the nose of every adult in sight. Things to come to a head when the kids manage to get hold of some fireworks, at the same time accidentally releasing a menagerie of circus animals from the baggage car. Listen carefully and you'll hear the voice of Oliver Hardy as the fireworks salesman yells for help. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stan Laurel arrives at the hospital to visit his friend Oliver Hardy. It takes him more time to locate Ollie's room than it does for him to destroy it completely. That happens when the doctor (Billy Gilbert at his most fulsome) enters to see how his patient is doing. Ollie, his broken leg elevated, tells him how nice it is to have some peace for once, and that's about when Stan decides to use the counterweight attached to Ollie's leg as a nutcracker. In the blink of an eye, Ollie is smashed up on the ceiling and the doctor is out the window, hanging onto the counterweight for dear life. The rope breaks, Ollie falls and breaks the bed and the doctor just barely escapes being flattened on the sidewalk far below. As a result, Ollie's hospital stay, which was supposed to last two months, has been shortened to just enough time for him to get his clothes and leave. Stan cuts off the leg of Ollie's pants so he can get them on -- the trouble is that the wrong leg was removed; what's more, the pants aren't even Ollie's, but his roommate's. Then Stan accidentally sits on a hypodermic needle that was left in the room. The needle was loaded with sedative, so when Stan gets behind the wheel to take Ollie home, it turns into a wild ride that goes on for a surprisingly long time before the inevitable accident. The first half of County Hospital is classic Laurel and Hardy fare, but the second half is marred by bad back projection. The Roach Studio was having some financial difficulties at the time, which had an affect on the quality of its releases. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide