Best movie of this year hands down!

Memorable, crazy movie

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

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Two cleaners (Stan & Ollie) pretend to be private detectives and turn up for duty at the house of an inventor (Arthur Space). They must protect a new bomb that he has invented from being stolen before he takes it to Washington. Next door are a gang who are planning to steal the jewels of Aunt Sophie (Esther Howard) who lives with the inventor, Grandpa and a young brat. Once they learn that the inventor has made a new bomb, they change their plan to steal this instead of the jewels. The arrival of Evelyn (Doris Merrick) allows them an invite into the inventor's house, but when this is cancelled, 2 of the gang break in to find the bomb themselves.......Stan & Ollie look old in this film but it still has a few funny moments, eg, the meal scene and the scene where Stan is playing the accordion where we focus on Ollie's annoyance as he keeps playing wrong notes. This is, however, balanced out with unfunny segments, the most notable being when they are undressing on the train and a 3rd person joins them in their bunk. It's tedious and too long and not at all funny. In fact, there are no funny moments once the action shifts away from the house, and overall, the film is a disappointment.

THE BIG NOISE has had an horrendous reputation with critics,film-goers and L & H fans in the past,dismissed by various film scholars,writers and journalists as "a groan","sublimely indifferent","sinking to a new low",and even receiving an entry in Michael and Harry Medved's notorious book,'THE FIFTY WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME'.The film is certainly no classic,and is pretty poor when even compared to their average efforts at the Hal Roach Studios,but for the standards of the L & H wartime comedies,this is actually one of the better,more tolerable films that were made,which isn't saying very much,though increasing numbers are recognising that some of the contemptuous comments made previously are somewhat unfair and out of proportion.The story itself is rather thin,but one plus factor is that there is a decent concentration on Stan and Ollie here,unlike their previous efforts for 20th Century Fox,and scenes which are thankfully more in keeping with their characters;it is pleasing to see the Hardy camera look in many scenes,for example.This essential trait of Ollie's behaviour was non-existent in their previous Fox features(the otherwise banal MGM vehicle AIR RAID WARDENS at least had several authentic stares to the camera),but after several unsuitable drafts,writer Scott Darling apparently watched a few vintage L & H shorts,and began in earnest to mildly understand their established characterisations,reworking routines from such films as HABEUS CORPUS(this very utterance is actually spoken in the film),WRONG AGAIN,BERTH MARKS,OLIVER THE EIGHTH and TWICE TWO. Some of the insertions of these routines work surprisingly well,best of all the train upper berth sequence borrowed from BERTH MARKS.The original routine was over stretched and strained,mainly because this was only the team's second talkie,and restrictions on technology at the time(particularly sound editing)led to tedium and repetition.This routine works rather better in THE BIG NOISE,with not as much footage, improved pacing and the amusing addition of a genial drunk,played by Hollywood favourite inebriate Jack Norton;Tinseltown's other regular drunkard,Arthur Housman,had worked with L & H notably several times before,and would probably have been cast for this sequence had it not been for his premature death two years earlier.That said,there is still too much straight,non-humorous exposition involving gangsters and would-be Nazi spies,an all too common problem in these post-Roach L & H features,and Bobby(later Robert)Blake is something of an irritation as the inventor's misbehaving son.But some of the support cast aren't bad at all,especially the elderly Robert Dudley and an amusing bit from Francis Ford.Several supporting players from their Hal Roach days also turn up;the brief appearance of motorcycle cop Edgar Dearing(memorable in their silent classic TWO TARS)is a welcome diversion;a previous occasional foil,Del Henderson,can also be briefly glimpsed at the end of the upper berth sequence. The eminent L & H expert and writer Randy Skretvedt has admitted on a commentary accompanying this film's recent DVD release that his previous highly negative opinions on THE BIG NOISE were somewhat wrong,and that it's nowhere near as bad as he originally thought,rating this only under THE BULLFIGHTERS as the best of their Fox-MGM wartime features.I more or less agree with him.RATING:5 and a half out of 10.

Another of the infamous "Fox Laurel & Hardy" latter comedies, and in the running for one of the most enjoyable of the bunch in my book. Here, the older but no less amusing duo are hired to guard a bomb christened "The Big Noise" by its zany inventor. Some old tried and true classic funny routines are trotted out and revamped, with generally satisfactory results. Stan and Ollie seem like their old selves again in this, thankfully getting more screen time together.After enjoying this I just had to post a positive show of support and say that I think it's vastly underrated. This was echoed on the DVD's commentary track by author Randy Skretvedt, who actually apologized for trashing it once upon a time in his book entitled LAUREL AND HARDY: THE MAGIC BEHIND THE MOVIES, and now admits that during the '70s and '80s, this was a rough film to see in good quality or in its entirety, and so a lot of critics relied only on memory and reputation. THE BIG NOISE has been one of the most unjustly maligned movies in history (Michael Medved even had the gall to list it among the "Worst Films Ever Made" in his dispensable GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS book). Luckily, the tide is presently turning for the better as moviegoers and Laurel and Hardy aficionados everywhere are finally giving the movie its due. *** out of ****

This is one of Laurel & Hardy's later Twentieth Century-Fox films and it is not one of their best. However, it is an upbeat and fast-paced effort that shows signs that they put some effort into it. THE BIG NOISE has some good bits: the dinner with the inventor, the bunk bed scene in the train, and the constant threat of the bomb going off with Stan transporting it carelessly. The only part of this movie that seems weak is the Nazi segment and the scenes with a very annoying little kid. Other than that, this is recommended for all L&H fans, especially younger fans. 7 out of 10.