BLOCKHEADS-1938-Laurel & Hardy are Dough boys in the trenches during WW 1. Ollie goes off to fight and Stan is left to guard the trench. Unfortunately, no one tells him when the war ended so he stands guard for 20 years! Ollie, happily married but under the thumb of his wife (Minna Gombell), sees a newspaper article about Stan and he goes to the hospital to bring him home. Along the way, they get into various jams. First, Ollie thinks Stan has one leg. Then Stan dumps a truckload of sand on his friend. Stan eventually wrecks the car and garage. Ollie has a fight with an uppity tenant (L & H regular James Finlayson) and runs afoul of a bratty kid (Tommy Bond; Butch from “Our Gang” shorts) and his bully father (William Boardway). When they finally get to the apartment, Mrs. Hardy gets mad and leaves. Ollie tries to cook dinner but thanks to Stan destroys the kitchen. Next door neighbor Mrs. Gilbert (Patricia Ellis) tries to help but she winds up in Ollie's pj's pretending to be a chair. Then Mrs. Hardy returns. Billy Gilbert appears as big game hunter jealous husband.
Director James Blystone, who kept the team from ad-libbing too much, died suddenly of a heart attack four days after completing BLOCKHEADS. He was 43. He had previously directed the team in SWISS MISS (also 1938).
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment