Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The comedy short One Good Turn stars Laurel and Hardy as victims of The Great Depression, more specifically, poor beggars trying to live life in the middle of nowhere. They cook their own poorly-prepared food, they wash the two pairs of clothes they have, and they simply try to make it to the next day alive and well. The two manage to muster up the courage to ask a friendly old lady for some food, and she kindly provides food for the both of them. While inside, eating at her kitchen table, Laurel and Hardy overhear the woman talking to the landlord, who threatens to throw her out of her home if she cannot pay her mortgage. However, the lady was robbed and doesn't have the funds to pay for overdue bills. Feeling the need to repay the woman for her kindness, Laurel and Hardy attempt to sell their automobile in town square.One Good Turn functions more like a Three Stooges skit than one featuring the comic talents of Laurel and Hardy, featuring more of an emphasis on slapstick humor than verbal wit and situational escalation. This is especially surprising given the presence of director James W. Horne, who finds inventive ways to conjure up situations for Laurel and Hardy to haplessly fall into. The humor of One Good Turn is present on occasion, but one finds it treading far too close to familiar territory that is often explored by the aforementioned comedy troop. Our senseless heroes are always fun to spend time with, but here, it feels as if they are forcing themselves into a box they can't quite fit into.Starring: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Directed by: James W. Horne.

As others have pointed out, this Laurel and Hardy short is mainly memorable for an uncharacteristic - and truly hilarious - worm-turning sequence when Stan, outraged at being wrongly accused of stealing from an old lady by Ollie, terrorises his friend with righteous anger and a boot up the backside. Although this is a highlight, the film is consistently funny throughout, even though there isn't much of a story to speak of. The film also starts strongly with Stan trying to put out a burning tent with cups of water fetched from a nearby river much to the puzzlement of Ollie who is washing their smalls at the time. All you see is Ollie's reactions as Stan's legs run back and forth in front of him, but the timing and Ollie's expression are spot on. Be sure to catch this one.

One Good Turn (1931) ** 1/2 (out of 4)L&H set out to raise $100 when they overhear an elderly woman say she's going to be evicted. Not too many laughs in this one outside the opening sequence in the woods. Leave 'Em Laughing (1928) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel is suffering from a toothache so Hardy takes him to the dentist who accidentally fills them with laughing gas. The early gags of Hardy trying to pull the tooth are funny but the ending with the cars goes on a bit too long and gets rather tiresome.They Go Boom! (1929) *** (out of 4) Hardy has a cold so it's up to Laurel to try and find a cure so that they can get a good night's sleep. Highlights include the mustard bath and the exploding mattress.Thicker Than Water (1935) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Laurel and Hardy waste $300 on a grandfather clock so Hardy's wife hits him with a frying pan and sends him to the hospital. Again, not too funny and the worst part is the ending where the two change personalities. This here should have been a lot funnier than it turned out.

****SPOILERS****YOU WERE WARNED****Another great from Stan and Ollie's salad days.We find the boys, as usual, down on their luck. Of course, this was filmed during the Great Depression, when it wasn't uncommon for able-bodied men to beg meals. One of the qualities I've always respected about The Boys is that, no matter how depressing their circumstances, they never played it for maudlin sympathy. A movie about two men with no homes, no jobs and nothing to eat is kind of hard to envision as a comedy, on the surface, but The Boys pull it off grandly. Most of the great comedians of this era at least occasionally portrayed characters in dire straits - Chaplin did it almost constantly. I find it interesting to look at their disparate approaches to the same type of character.For instance, Chaplin, 'The Little Tramp', WAS a tramp. He could be sneaky, and would even steal if need be. Harold Lloyd could always be counted on to rise from poverty by his own brashness and go-getter personality. Keaton's character was half-sleepwalker, often stumbling into what he needed through a combination of bluff and sheer luck. I wonder how each of these characters would have faced the situation the boys find themselves in, when they discover that the nice old woman is apparently about to be put out on the street.Laurel and Hardy, they of the sincere, childlike ways, resolve to help the lady by selling their car, their last possession on earth. This, also could have been played up for schmaltz and sympathy, but instead the film takes this touching gesture and uses it as the springboard for the farce to follow.The film contains some of The Boys' trademark physical comedy, not slapstick or pantomime, but a dialogue of sight gags without a single word spoken. Two that come to mind are the sandwich-eating scene in the kitchen, and right after Stan manages to set their tent on fire. For me, the biggest laugh in the film was seeing a more and more-concerned Ollie watch Stan rush out of the bushes, grab a teacup full of water and rush back, again and again, until finally the tragedy is revealed.A real gem.