Call of the Cuckoo (1927) User Reviews

Some at times good slapstick moments in an outdated, not entirely great movie.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 6/10 · 24 March 2006]

This is a fairly decent, typical Hal Roach slapstick comedy, which guest star's Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson as Asylum inmates.

Real main characters of the movie though are played by Max Davidson and Lillian Elliott and with Spec O'Donnell as their stupid looking son. Especially Spec O'Donnell is great in his role who carriers the brilliant name 'Love's Greatest Mistake' in the movie. Basically all he does in the movie is look stupid but he does this extremely good and because of that he is really fun to watch.

The movie has some typical slapstick moments that are most of the time fun to watch but never truly hilarious. The way it is brought to the screen is simply too outdated for todays standards, also compared to other slapstick comedies made from the same time period. Especially the editing is lacking. There lies the main problem of the movie; it's too lacking in it's humor and style.

It certainly does have its moments but it is no essential viewing for the fans of slapstick comedy from the '20's. Perhaps still only for some, for the fairly small Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson roles in the movie.

6/10

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Not Very Funny Comedy from a Forgotten Comedian

[JoeytheBrit · 5/10 · 19 August 2009]

Laurel and Hardy appear in supporting roles in this short Max Davidson comedy, playing two of a quartet of loons living next door to the hapless hero. I've never seen a Davidson film before – or heard of him to be honest – and judging by this effort, it's no surprise that he's now largely forgotten. He strokes his beard a lot and holds the side of his face but rarely does anything remotely funny. In the film he's so desperate to get away from his mentally challenged neighbours that he agrees to swap houses with a stranger. He takes his long-suffering wife and heavily freckled (and rather gormless-looking) son with him and soon finds out that the new family home is about to fall down around his ears. Everything that can collapse does so, flames come from a tap while the cooker sprays fountains of water, and the pattern on the kitchen floor disappears when Mrs Max wipes it with a mop. Despite none of these escalating series of mishaps being particularly funny, they are nearly all repeated two or three times.

Call of the Cuckoo

[jboothmillard · 5/10 · 27 May 2009]

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are not the leading actors, but this is pretty much seen as their film and included in their collection. Basically Papa Gimplewart (Max Davidson) wants to sell his house because it is next door to an insane asylum, and the inmates (Charley Chase, James Finlayson, Laurel and Hardy) are getting on his nerves. The first house buyer is almost immediately put off by the neighbours, but the next one comes to trade his house for theirs, no questions asked. So Papa, Mama (Lillian Elliott) and Love's Greatest Mistake (Spec O'Donnell) move to the new house, and all sorts of problems come along. These include mixed switches for lights and the shower, the kitchen floor patterns being mopped away, the floor cover rolling, tap water mixed with oven gas fire, the ceiling cracking holes when Papa above is having a bath with soapy water coming through over guests' food, and the film ends with new neighbour moving in, the asylum inmates! Laurel and Hardy with their limited time do pretty well, there are some funny moments, so it is quite a fun silent film. Worth watching!

Hilarious Sideshow

[tedg · 3 December 2005]

The main story here is the standard stuff of destroying a house and car, with some pretty offensive antisemitic stuff as the center.

Both of those elements are pretty disposable, a worthless film, except for the side story.

The reason for the destroyed house is that Mr. Gimplewart traded his house for this one because he couldn't stand the neighbors. In the credits, they are called "asylum inmates," but there is nothing in the movie that imposes this sense on them.

Anyway, we see them early in the thing generally acting nuts. I've been watching a lot of Laurel and Hardy recently. I don't expect to see everything — they are just not that interesting.

But the few moments they are on screen have to be the funniest I have ever seen of them. It makes it worthwhile. Just watch that part.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Going insane

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 8 August 2018]

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

Their previous short films were variable in quality, a couple decent and most average or just above, only '45 Minutes from Hollywood' misfired. 'Call of the Cuckoo' is not a step backwards but not a return in the right direction either like their previous three efforts were. It is nice and entertaining, more than watchable in an inoffensive way, but later offerings make far better use of Laurel and Hardy and their partnership and are much funnier, including its remake as mentioned by a few here. 'Call of the Cuckoo' felt like they were not yet fully formed and yet to properly find their feet.

'Call of the Cuckoo' looks quite good and hardly the work of an amateur. The performer who comes off best is Laurel who is great fun, 'Call of the Cuckoo' is worth watching for him alone.

There are very amusing, like the flames from the taps, and charming moments and the pace is generally very energetic.

Hardy however deserved more to do and much funnier material, and even more so that 'Call of the Cuckoo' misses the chance to utilise their chemistry properly. 'Call of the Cuckoo' doesn't really feel like Laurel and Hardy, due to Hardy having little to do and their chemistry barely existent.

Not everything is funny, too much of it being predictable and not being sharp enough in timing. The story is very slight, barely existent in fact, and erratically paced, sometimes too busy while not getting going soon enough.

In summary, worth a look but hardly a Laurel and Hardy essential. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Cukoo film of a cukoo house

[thinbeach · 4/10 · 29 December 2015]

Desiring to sell their house due to cukoo neighbours, a family buys a large house sight unseen (except a photograph). Upon arrival they quickly learn why they got it so cheap - despite a nice appearance, it is falling apart, lights switches turn on water and taps turn on fire.

In it's faultiness the house is something that seems out of Keaton's imagination, but in both 'One Week' and 'The Electric House' he got far more laughs out of similar subject matter. There are some light chuckles here but once you've seen the first joke you know what's coming and everything else is entirely predictable. The freckled son, with his dorky blank expressions, is the best part of the film, despite his small role and a title card describing him as 'love's greatest mistake'.

Those coming for Laurel and Hardy need look elsewhere - they only play minor bit parts.

Strange comedy, guest starring Stan 'n' Ollie

[Libretio · 3/10 · 12 March 2005]

CALL OF THE CUCKOO

Aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Sound format: Silent

(Black and white - Short film)

Desperate to escape their crazy neighbors, Max and his family accept a house-swap sight unseen, but their new home turns out to be a dilapidated wreck...

Though headlined by silent star Max Davidson, Clyde Bruckman's unusual comedy opens with second-billed Laurel and Hardy performing strange, child-like mimes with James Finlayson outside Davidson's property, rather like circus clowns dressed in regular outfits! Once the action shifts to Davidson's new home, however, the movie becomes less interesting, as the building collapses around him at every turn. Davidson's bearded appearance and overcooked performance suggests - intentionally or not - some kind of appalling Jewish caricature, which taints the entire movie. One of the intertitles describes his nerdish son (Spec O'Donnell) as 'Love's great mistake!', a pre-Code insult which just about takes the biscuit, even today!

This really is NOT a Laurel and Hardy film--and in some ways that's not a bad thing

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 October 2008]

Despite this Hal Roach short being in a collection of Laurel and Hardy films, it's not really one of the boys' films. Instead, they are tiny bit players along with some other famous Roach stars (such as James Finlayson and Charley Chase) who play lunatics in only a few very brief scenes. The real star is Max Davidson who plays his very funny "Papa Gimplewart" character--a man he played in three films for Roach. I've seen two of them (this film and Jewish PRUDENCE) and they were very, very funny comedies--at least as funny or perhaps funnier than the average silent Laurel and Hardy film. Sadly, however, today he's pretty much forgotten and his Jewish ethnic humor probably would be seen as politically incorrect as well--even though it's very funny.

The film begins with the Gimplewart family trying to sell their home. That's because they live next to a bunch of lunatics who really ham it up in the film. You're not sure if they live in some asylum or perhaps the crazies are just roommates--either way, they're driving the Gimplewarts crazy! Because of this, Papa quickly accepts the first offer he gets without even questioning why the guy wanted to trade houses sight unseen! Well, when the Gimplewarts arrive to inspect their lovely new home, you soon see why it was such a "bargain"--and much of the next 10 minutes is made up of some very imaginative and clever gags. You just have to see the home to believe it. To top it all off, the film ends on a very funny note.

The bottom line is that this film has aged very well and is still very enjoyable today. Plus, it's a rare chance to see Max Davidson in all his glory. In fact, when you see this film, you'll probably see more of his than you'd expected.

FYI--Since the last Gimplewart film, Papa seems to have lost or misplaced two of his kids, as here in CALL OF THE CUCKOO he seems to only have two while in Jewish PRUDENCE he had three!

Am I cuckoo for liking it?

[hte-trasme · 8/10 · 7 January 2010]

In some ways it's a shame that this Hal Roach short comedy is best remembered today for fairly brief guest appearances by Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, and James Finlayson in a few scenes, since on its own it is a very funny Max Davidson comedy that can stand with the work of the stars that make guest appearances in it. On the other hand if it weren't for them, it might be largely forgotten today like most of Max Davidson's work.

Davidson is dismissed as an outdated ethnic comic today for performing in a Jewish persona, but he really got his laughs, like another silent comedian who rose to popularity in the mid to late twenties but projected a very different personality, Harry Langdon, with his humorous responses to the madness going on around him. Every pained wince and grimace from Max could be its own film.

There's nothing specifically ethnic, though, about his performance here as he plays a man who can't sell his house because it is next door to the insane asylum where his Roach costars live, performing some very funny bits of improvised "crazy" comic business in cutaways as a prospective buyer looks on. They're the punchline to an extended running gag, really, and it's a good one.

So Max trades the house sight unseen for one that is poorly built to put it mildly, and the laughs are virtually without pause as more and more absurdly bad points about the house's construction come up -- and Max's reactions become more and more baleful. In my favorite gag, after Max has been doused with water because the bathroom's light switch controls the shower head, his wife mops up the water he leaves in the kitchen -- and the linoleum itself with it! The gags are great, the comedy is finely timed, and it looks great, with a whole house set apparently being destroyed for the purpose. Well worth watching for more than just Laurel, Hardy, Chase, and Finlayson.

Two L&H shorts

[Michael_Elliott · 13 March 2008]

Call of the Cuckoo (1927)

** (out of 4)

A man (Max Davidson) swaps houses, sight unseen, due to his wacko neighbors. When he moves into the new house it turns out the thing is falling apart in every way possible. The only real highlight is the few scenes with the neighbors who are played by Laurel, Hardy and Charley Chase.

Second Hundred Years, The (1927)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Laurel and Hardy play convicts who make an escape but they find themselves in a more dangerous place than prison. There's small laughs scattered throughout this short but in the end the only real highlight is seeing boys with shaved heads.