People are voting emotionally.

Boring

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Stan Laurel is the number one star in this Laurel and Hardy entry from producer, Hal Roach. Not only is Laurel the instigator of the plot, and not only does he have a champion share of the funny business in the hilariously daffy three-handed jape with the "ghost", but for the first of only two occasions in his entire sound career, he essays a character role. And he plays this one most effectively too! (The other occasion was his Don Sebastion in 1945's The Bullfighters). Lord Paddington is no mere impersonation, but a complete reversal of Laurel's customary character. Speaking in a splendidly snooty, upper-crust accent, Paddington puts the maladroit Hardy through some marvelous paces. Even his dialogue is urbanely droll and keenly condescending. He argues, for example, that Hardy's ineptitudes "break the monotony" and that Babe "helps fill up the room, you know." There was never a funnier or more perfectly attuned team than Laurel and Hardy. Even when the situation is more piquant than usual, both can rise to the occasion. For personality, charisma and sheer vitality, they leave all the other twosomes far behind. I can never forget Paddington instructing Fatty in the proper deportment of a valet: "Lift up that chin! Both of them!"; and Babe's final, wildly exasperated response: "And another thing: I didn't like that double chin crack either!" Now that's acting!

Since in a couple of days, school would be in session again (though here in Baton Rouge, it had already started in mid-August), I thought I'd watch a couple of comedies that take place in the institute of higher learning. So it is that I just watched A Chump at Oxford again which has Stan & Ollie going to that English university after foiling a robbery and the bank head wanting to give them a reward. Plenty of fun follows especially when some students (L & H regular Charlie Hall, Peter Cushing in an early role as Johnson before his horror movie fame) plan some pranks on them with the dean (Wilfred Lucas, previously the warden in the boys' Pardon Us) a victim and then Stan getting his memory back from previously being Lord Paddington, an Oxford alumni. That last bit is a rare instance of Stan playing someone other than himself during the years of his teaming with Babe (Ollie's nickname). He's hilarious playing the complete opposite of the usual dumb characterization for that role but when things switch back, it's great having Ollie overjoyed at the result especially after having to suffer the humiliation of being called "Fatty"! When first released, this was originally a "streamliner"-40 minutes in length-producer Hal Roach made in his dealings with the double feature program. But he decided to add a couple of reels in order to give it a more respectable length in Europe. So the movie now begins with Stan & Ollie being hired as a butler and a maid (Stan plays Agnes without changing his voice!) for Baldy and Mrs. Vandevere (James Finlayson and Anita Garvin in her last L & H role). This reworking of their previous short From Soup to Nuts is almost as funny here with the ending gag of this sequence having cop Harry Bernard suffering the same indignity as in another of the boys' short, Wrong Again! So on that note, I highly recommend A Chump at Oxford. P.S. The VHS tape I viewed from Video Treasures had some extra rarities of Lois Laurel, Stan's daughter, narrating some photos and home movie footage of her as a young child and her mother, Lois Neilson, with Stan. Of her playing in the snow in early '30s Los Angeles. Of James Finlayson, in glasses and clean-shaven, with companion Stephanie-perhaps the one with the last name of Insall that he often had breakfast with. And a color one of Stan at his home after receiving his honorary Oscar-which he dubbed "Mr. Clean"-at his desk where he wrote to his many fans.

This is Stan Laurel's show all the way, sure enough Ollie plays his part, but in this double package it's the genius of Laurel that comes to the fore. The double package in question is the now widely available European release of this film, the first 20 minutes sees the boys making their way to an employment agency where they jump at the chance of a job as maid and butler to the Vandevere family. Yes, this sees Stan dress up as a woman {Agnes} with hilarious results, not only does he buffoon his way thru serving dinner, he gets drunk into the bargain as well !. After being chased off the property by Mr Vandevere, the guys end up road sweeping and whilst taking a break they inadvertently foil a bank robbery and as a reward they get to fulfil their wish of a better education.This sends the guys to England and a place at Oxford, the fun starts straight away as they are dressed for Eton !, upon seeing that these two are candidates for pranks being played on them, some of their fellow students send them into a big maze on the bluff that it's the way to the Deans office. This sets us up for a number of great sequences, most notably a brilliant set of events that sees Stan with three hands, from here we see the boys set up {as a prank} in the Deans own quarters and this of course causes much mirth when the Dean shows up to find the guys boozing away in his bedroom. Roll onto Stan banging his head and suddenly being transformed into an aristocrat called Lord Paddington and you just know that Laurel is getting a pure mania role to get his teeth into, the results are excellent, especially as Stan gets to boss Ollie around.One of the best films the boys ever did in my honest opinion, 9/10.

As if Stan Laurel were not sufficiently funny in character, in this film a knock on the head turns Stan into his look-alike Victorian uncle who was one of the most brilliant Oxfordians ever in attendance at the fine school. Unbeknownst to the school rowdies who had elected the famous duo for a hazing, when the knock on the head changed Stanley it also gave him the peculiar ability to wiggle his ears and assume super human strength. As might be imagined he decided to teach the rowdies a lesson and the rest is hilaric history. This flick is a must for any classic American film library.