For the only time in their joint careers as a comic team, Stan Laurel slips out of character and into another guise. That's an integral part of A Chump At Oxford where the boys get a chance at the best kind of college education.
No doubt that Hal Roach got the idea for this film from the highly successful MGM film A Yank At Oxford where Robert Taylor was an American fish out of the water across the pond. Of course Taylor was there on a rowing scholarship, what brought Stan and Ollie there was something quite different.
On the jacket cover of my VHS copy of A Chump At Oxford, Hal Roach had a featurette film of about 40 minutes and decided to add on those extra 25 minutes at the beginning where Stan and Ollie are first serving as butler and maid as temporary help at a society bash. I did say maid because that was what the job required. It was Ollie's bright idea to put Stan in drag as a maid to get the job. Well, it worked for Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Anyway the highlight of that part of the film is Stan merely following orders to the letter and serving the salad undressed. It was an interesting end to that little bash.
Their next job is as street cleaners and while sitting down just having their lunch in the doorway of a bank, they foil a bank robbery and in gratitude the bank president asks them what they want. Since right before the two had concluded their lack of education has held them back, they ask for an education.
The bank president must have been David Rockefeller because he buys them an Oxford education. That's where Stan discovers that he's really Lord Paddington who got hit on the head several years ago and lost his memory. It turns out that Stan was the greatest scholar and athlete Oxford ever produced. And for a while Ollie is completely frazzled at the prospect of becoming Stan's lackey.
Stan does go into an entirely different character than the sweet innocent we all know and love. Because of that A Chump At Oxford ranks among the best of their feature films. Ollie contributes his share as well, we've never seen Ollie before or since flumoxed the way he is in this film. A must for Laurel and Hardy fans.
No doubt that Hal Roach got the idea for this film from the highly successful MGM film A Yank At Oxford where Robert Taylor was an American fish out of the water across the pond. Of course Taylor was there on a rowing scholarship, what brought Stan and Ollie there was something quite different.
On the jacket cover of my VHS copy of A Chump At Oxford, Hal Roach had a featurette film of about 40 minutes and decided to add on those extra 25 minutes at the beginning where Stan and Ollie are first serving as butler and maid as temporary help at a society bash. I did say maid because that was what the job required. It was Ollie's bright idea to put Stan in drag as a maid to get the job. Well, it worked for Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Anyway the highlight of that part of the film is Stan merely following orders to the letter and serving the salad undressed. It was an interesting end to that little bash.
Their next job is as street cleaners and while sitting down just having their lunch in the doorway of a bank, they foil a bank robbery and in gratitude the bank president asks them what they want. Since right before the two had concluded their lack of education has held them back, they ask for an education.
The bank president must have been David Rockefeller because he buys them an Oxford education. That's where Stan discovers that he's really Lord Paddington who got hit on the head several years ago and lost his memory. It turns out that Stan was the greatest scholar and athlete Oxford ever produced. And for a while Ollie is completely frazzled at the prospect of becoming Stan's lackey.
Stan does go into an entirely different character than the sweet innocent we all know and love. Because of that A Chump At Oxford ranks among the best of their feature films. Ollie contributes his share as well, we've never seen Ollie before or since flumoxed the way he is in this film. A must for Laurel and Hardy fans.