Some weeks, I feel like I have so much more to say than the guys at Laurel and Hardy Central and other weeks I feel like they say it better than I ever could.
It's too bad that site is now kaput.
If I remember correctly, they said this short is great the first time you see it, but grows tiresome on repeated viewings. I agree.
Thelma Todd is lovely here, as usual, and her and Stan do their best with what I consider to be tired material.
This is the highlight of the short for me. I don't find this scene tired at all, since as you imply it is much better than having someone like Lord Plumtree hit on Stan.
Ultimately, again we have a film where I give this a respectable rating because the comedians involved are fun to watch, and if you threw in lesser comedians, this film would be a real chore. I do enjoy the histrionics of James Finlayson in this one, think the soundtrack is quite good (the musical scores are getting better and this one syncs up well with the film), and the intro where the twin girls speak the credits was fun. This way of doing the credits was done in a few other Roach films at the time.
This is the first L&H film with the familiar LeRoy Shield background music. One of the themes is actually titled "Colonel Buckshot", so yes at this time they did put thought into having the music fit the actions and/or characters. Later they would be what I call "needle drops."
This is the only L&H film with the credits spoken. Not sure why they didn't do more. Our Gang had 3. I'm pretty sure Charley Chase had more than 1.
A lot of people like this film, it even got some audio commentaries on the DVD set. I'll just chalk this up to not my kind of Laurel and Hardy film, and again, click on the Laurel and Hardy Central link above. Those guys do a great job.
7/10
It's hard to not like this film, its weakness being it doesn't hold up on repeated viewings, as I've mentioned. But for a L&H aficionado like myself, "repeated viewings" is relative. I've only seen this one a thousand times, whereas other films of there's that I like better it's more like 2 thousand!
There's a lot of good stuff during the set-up right until the Plumtrees arrive, and the whole business Ollie dreams up of making Stan play 2 roles is very clever and funny. Ollie showing Plumtree around the house is a bit dragged out, though, I agree.
The boys running away from the cop at the beginning, hiding in a cellar, then in the house, is all very funny stuff, and well up to their standards. A full 8 minutes of the film goes by until Stan let's the Plumtrees in. Then it still very amusing and funny as Ollie comes down in his tight fitting Col. Buckshot clothes (Finlayson was much thinner!) Then Ollie forcing a bewildered Stan to go get Agnes the maid! A full 12 minutes have gone by until we get Ollie talking with the Plumtrees, and for some reason the writers decided to have Ollie attempt to play the piano. That "gag" was uneccesary and slows the film down. Then we get Ollie showing Lord Plumtree around, but actually not knowing his way around. Mixed in with this scene is Stan dressing up as Agnes, and meeting the Lord.
At the 16 minute mark give or take, we get the highlight of Stan and Thelma having their risque conversation. That's priceless stuff in my book. It lasts approx 2 and a half minutes.
We then get about another minute of Ollie and Plumtree exploring the house. Then all 4 actors are back together. Then Thelma leaves with about 8 minutes left in the short. For about 3 minutes we get a dragged out conversation between Ollie and the Lord about rent and pay for the maid and butler. The only funny part is having Stan get dressed back as Hives the butler, but leaving his wig on.
Then with about 5 minutes to go, Finlayson (the real Col. Buckshot) shows up. The film really starts to move, but unfortunately the chase scene finale has 2 stunt doubles in a goat suit(!) riding a tandem bike chased by cops -- the real L&H nowhere to be seen, in a decidely weak ending that could have been much better and funnier.
I go into that kind of detail with the timing since I find that about 8 of the films 28 minutes are dull and somewhat unfunny. That's mostly just the scenes with Ollie and the couple, or with Ollie and Lord Plumtree alone (both without Stan). Take those out, and you would have a very funny, fast-moving and well-paced two-reeler, rather than a dragged out three-reeler that weakens the short.
I still stand by my view that I have professed before, that if you can cut a film down to improve it, that's much better than a film where there's nothing much good in it at all. This scenario happens with a few of their three-reelers, such as BE BIG. Many of those old-time book writers on L&H have similarly expressed their dissatisfaction with lengths beyond two reels for L&H shorts, with BEAU HUNKS being the extreme example with a full
four reels!
THE L-H MURDER CASE has absolutely nothing going for it, and as I said before, BE BIG should have been a two-reeler. I do feel that their other 2+ reel shorts work very well as is, including BEAU HUNKS, which I consider more as a "streamliner," as Roach would call it when he produced the original version of A CHUMP AT OXFORD.
BTW, I do find it odd, or perhaps coincidental, that this is one of two films (that I know of) from 1930 where one of the main comedians is an African explorer/game hunter, and the films starts with a close-up of a newspaper ad telling us so, and providing exposition for the rest of the film. The other film is of course ANIMAL CRACKERS with the Marx Brothers.
