ANYONE (and this would include about everyone) who has ever watched the Films of Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, generally loves the team and can watch and re-watch their works again and again; only to put them away for a time and repeat the process over and over again many times. The films are just that good and one can see that there was real care and affection for their production that was a driving force in their inception and realization to screen.
STARTING with their accidental teaming on the lot of Hal Roach Studios in (Circa) 1926 to the sound movies they made in 1940, the tally board shows one great and memorable comedy short or feature after another. To be sure, some of their films were a cut above the others and others are not quite up to their standards; but overall, they were among the best comedies in the world.
THEN something happened. The team left the hallowed sanctuary of Hal Roach for some seemingly greener pastures on just the other side of the fence. The result was they didn't make the films the way that the two comedians were used to. Instead of feeling their way through a basic premise, with a highly flexible and briefly written script, they were given their assignments to do Picture "A" and then they'd do it. There was very little wiggle room at the two studios in which they worked; being 20th Century-Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. No longer could Stan Laurel work out a gag and shoot it from a variety of angles in to get the gag just right visually. The new order of the day called for getting the movie done in as little "takes" as is possible.
NOW we are talking about today's 'victim', GREAT GUNS (20th Century-Fox, 1941). Other than THE FLYING DEUCES (Boris Moros/RKO Radio Pictures, 1939), this is the first movie made by the Laurel & Hardy team outside of Hal Roach Studios. Not that the movie is all that bad as a wartime comedy (even tough it was released two months before the Pearl Harbor Attack of December 7, 1941) which it is not. It's just that it is a terrible Laurel & Hardy Film. (Get it, Schultz?) BASICALLY it is much like the Abbott & Costello vehicle, BUCK PRIVATES (Universal Pictures, 1941), which was released January 31, 1941. These and other films were Hollywood's way of getting the country in the cooperative mood to accept the National Conscription Act which had brought about the first Peacetime Draft in the History of the United States.
ONCE again, GREAT GUNS isn't really a bad movie. It's just that it's not a good Laurel & Hardy outing. While it is probably not the worst, it was mainly all down hill from that point on. The best of the Post Roach L & H's is said to be JITTERBUGS (20th CEntury-Fox, 1944) with Vivian Blaine; but that's another story, Schultz!
POODLE SCHNITZ!!
STARTING with their accidental teaming on the lot of Hal Roach Studios in (Circa) 1926 to the sound movies they made in 1940, the tally board shows one great and memorable comedy short or feature after another. To be sure, some of their films were a cut above the others and others are not quite up to their standards; but overall, they were among the best comedies in the world.
THEN something happened. The team left the hallowed sanctuary of Hal Roach for some seemingly greener pastures on just the other side of the fence. The result was they didn't make the films the way that the two comedians were used to. Instead of feeling their way through a basic premise, with a highly flexible and briefly written script, they were given their assignments to do Picture "A" and then they'd do it. There was very little wiggle room at the two studios in which they worked; being 20th Century-Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. No longer could Stan Laurel work out a gag and shoot it from a variety of angles in to get the gag just right visually. The new order of the day called for getting the movie done in as little "takes" as is possible.
NOW we are talking about today's 'victim', GREAT GUNS (20th Century-Fox, 1941). Other than THE FLYING DEUCES (Boris Moros/RKO Radio Pictures, 1939), this is the first movie made by the Laurel & Hardy team outside of Hal Roach Studios. Not that the movie is all that bad as a wartime comedy (even tough it was released two months before the Pearl Harbor Attack of December 7, 1941) which it is not. It's just that it is a terrible Laurel & Hardy Film. (Get it, Schultz?) BASICALLY it is much like the Abbott & Costello vehicle, BUCK PRIVATES (Universal Pictures, 1941), which was released January 31, 1941. These and other films were Hollywood's way of getting the country in the cooperative mood to accept the National Conscription Act which had brought about the first Peacetime Draft in the History of the United States.
ONCE again, GREAT GUNS isn't really a bad movie. It's just that it's not a good Laurel & Hardy outing. While it is probably not the worst, it was mainly all down hill from that point on. The best of the Post Roach L & H's is said to be JITTERBUGS (20th CEntury-Fox, 1944) with Vivian Blaine; but that's another story, Schultz!
POODLE SCHNITZ!!