Topic: Any Old Port (1932) - Laurel and Hardy

[metaldams]

http://www.lordheath.com/index.php?p=1_173_Any-Old-Port
http://www.laurelandhardycentral.com/anyport.html

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26g4k5_any-old-port-b-w-1932-laurel-hardy_shortfilms

Watch ANY OLD PORT in the link above



      On a personal level, this was at one point the only Laurel and Hardy film I never saw.  A bit disappointing it is so mediocre considering it is sandwiched between HELPMATES and THE MUSIC BOX.  Really, the problem with this film is Walter Long's character is so despicable, basically treating marriage as rape, that the majority of the first reel is a complete horror to watch.  Fortunately, the second reel's mood recovers just a tad, but as far as the first reel goes, the saving grace is Stan and Ollie milking a simple gag like signing a guest book for all it's worth.  After that, pure horror.

      The second reel we get the boxing match, which is fun.  Watching Stan get the loaded glove, jump in the air, and chase Walter Long around is fun, though the ending of this short seems a bit sudden for a Laurel and Hardy film.  Mediocre effort all around, I'll be more enthusiastic next week.

6/10

[Paul Pain]

Wowza!  This sucked badly.  There is little to no justice dished out, and Walter Long's character may be the most hatable I've ever seen in a comedy after Captain James T. Kirk.  The first 12 minutes felt more like a drama that was being lightened up with comedy than a comedy.  The guestbook was pretty good, but beyond that the only other good bid was Stan's two baby reactions: when he realizes he's fighting at the restaurant, and when he realizes who he's fighting in the ring.

I will like never be watching this one again.

4/10

[Umbrella Sam]

Yes, a lot of this is hard to watch because of Walter Long’s character, though even without that this does feel like one of the weaker shorts. The addition of Long’s character makes it almost unwatchable. The scene with Laurel attempting to sign the guestbook is amusing, but it is the kind of thing we’ve seen before and beyond that a lot of the first reel is basically about getting the girl away from Long. The chase between Laurel, Hardy, and Long is something that should be funny, but too much is at stake in order for it to work; a woman’s life is literally on the line and that’s not something that should be laughed at.

The main portion of the second reel is the boxing fight, which is once again something we’ve seen before in THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY. Long’s character goes from being a hotel manager to being a boxer so suddenly and this weak plot device is the only connection between the two reels. I guess one thing I kind of like is when Stan attempts to knock out Ollie for betting against him; once again, another moment of bravery for Stan that is interesting to see. Unfortunately, the rest of this film is just Laurel and Hardy going through the motions with routines that have been done much better elsewhere. I don’t think I can say it’s quite as bad as BERTH MARKS, and at least the girl does get away, but this short is definitely among their worst. Another short to stay away from.

3 out of 10

[Tony Bensley]

I'm a bit surprised at the low ratings for this short, but the reasoning is sound.  It isn't among my favorites, at any rate.

ANY OLD PORT (1932) was originally a three reel short, but the first reel, presumably with Stan & Ollie at sea, was cut after the preview.  I sometimes wonder how it would have played with a different opening preceding the thematically horrific first reel that we have today?  One brief bit of footage from the cut first reel, featuring an ostrich is in the unreleased 1 reeler titled THAT'S THAT, which is occasionally presented at Sons Of The Desert events.  With Stan's daughter Lois having passed on, I do wonder whether this short might finally see home video release (Although anything "new" with Laurel & Hardy getting released seems rather dicey, these days.  Take the complete Reel 2 of THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, for instance!), as she considered this home movie material, and didn't wish to have it released during her lifetime.

Metal's 6 out of 10 seems about right to me, as the 2nd reel does somewhat redeem the preceding scary goings on that occur in the 1st.  Perhaps ANY OLD PORT might play better as a one reel comedy, instead?

CHEERS! 

[metaldams]

If you guys were around when I initially did these Laurel and Hardy reviews, I would have probably kept going.  I stopped at THE MUSIC BOX, and when we finish Keaton, I will restart Laurel and Hardy.  Thanks Umbrella and Tony, as well as Paul, for your thoughts.  I enjoy reading them.

[Umbrella Sam]

If you guys were around when I initially did these Laurel and Hardy reviews, I would have probably kept going.  I stopped at THE MUSIC BOX, and when we finish Keaton, I will restart Laurel and Hardy.  Thanks Umbrella and Tony, as well as Paul, for your thoughts.  I enjoy reading them.

Likewise, I also enjoy being able to read other opinions on here. It’s been a very interesting journey so far, seeing how much Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton have changed throughout the years.

I'm a bit surprised at the low ratings for this short, but the reasoning is sound.  It isn't among my favorites, at any rate.

ANY OLD PORT (1932) was originally a three reel short, but the first reel, presumably with Stan & Ollie at sea, was cut after the preview.  I sometimes wonder how it would have played with a different opening preceding the thematically horrific first reel that we have today?  One brief bit of footage from the cut first reel, featuring an ostrich is in the unreleased 1 reeler titled THAT'S THAT, which is occasionally presented at Sons Of The Desert events.  With Stan's daughter Lois having passed on, I do wonder whether this short might finally see home video release (Although anything "new" with Laurel & Hardy getting released seems rather dicey, these days.  Take the complete Reel 2 of THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY, for instance!), as she considered this home movie material, and didn't wish to have it released during her lifetime.

Metal's 6 out of 10 seems about right to me, as the 2nd reel does somewhat redeem the preceding scary goings on that occur in the 1st.  Perhaps ANY OLD PORT might play better as a one reel comedy, instead?

CHEERS! 

I remember at one point while watching, I was wondering if this was supposed to be longer, though I thought that the material would be between the first and second reel of the existing print. Looking into it, it seems the first reel featured James Finlayson as their captain, so I am curious to see what would have happened, though I imagine this would have made the plot even more messy than it ended up being anyway, since it relates even less to the remaining two reels than they do with each other.

[HomokHarcos]

The first half seems to be more serious, with an abusive man that Stan and Ollie try to protect his woman from. It kind of reminds me of the beginning of the short where The Three Stooges try to get money for a poor child in that it sets up a more comedic second reel. The second reel in this one I think is supposed to be a remake of the first reel from The Battle of the Century. It is kind of a coincidence that he happens to be fighting Walter Long, but a lot of times comedy is based around contrived coincidences. The boxing battle is fun, I will never get sick of seeing people beat each other up (unless it's real).

[Dr. Mabuse]

Walter Long provides the ideal comic menace in this underrated Laurel and Hardy two-reeler. Somewhat schizophrenic, "Any Old Port!" begins as a grim melodramatic parody of D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms" and ends with a hilarious boxing match between Battling Laurel and Mugsie Long. Regardless of the disjointed storyline, Stan, Ollie and director James W. Horne keep the laughs coming. Second-tier L&H is definitely better than none.

7/10

[Samurai]

As this doesn't seem to be a favorite to most, myself included, I'll stick with the moment that made me loff out loud (and some trivia).

In order to save Miss Wells, Stan beans Mugsy/Walter in the noggin with a pool ball...with zero effect. Ollie follows suit (after checking to ensure the ball is solid, and with surprisingly good form), by pitching a perfect strike into Mugsy's skull. Again, it fails to make an impression... figuratively and literally. Ollie's reaction of shock quickly followed by fear truly made me loff, even if he oversold it.

The trivia portion involves Jacqueline Wells, and her daughter Pamela (Schoop). Any fan of Magnum PI will recognize Pamela from the debut two part episode. If not, you may recognize her from the hot tub scene in Halloween II (SCHWING!!).

[metaldams]

As this doesn't seem to be a favorite to most, myself included, I'll stick with the moment that made me loff out loud (and some trivia).

In order to save Miss Wells, Stan beans Mugsy/Walter in the noggin with a pool ball...with zero effect. Ollie follows suit (after checking to ensure the ball is solid, and with surprisingly good form), by pitching a perfect strike into Mugsy's skull. Again, it fails to make an impression... figuratively and literally. Ollie's reaction of shock quickly followed by fear truly made me loff, even if he oversold it.

The trivia portion involves Jacqueline Wells, and her daughter Pamela (Schoop). Any fan of Magnum PI will recognize Pamela from the debut two part episode. If not, you may recognize her from the hot tub scene in Halloween II (SCHWING!!).

Never in a million years would I have guessed the hot tub girl/nurse in Halloween II (the only sequel worth seeing, IMO), was Jacqueline Wells daughter.  Thanks for that, that is great trivia.

[NoahYoung]

Walter Long provides the ideal comic menace in this underrated Laurel and Hardy two-reeler. Somewhat schizophrenic, "Any Old Port!" begins as a grim melodramatic parody of D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms" and ends with a hilarious boxing match between Battling Laurel and Mugsie Long. Regardless of the disjointed storyline, Stan, Ollie and director James W. Horne keep the laughs coming. Second-tier L&H is definitely better than none.

7/10

This is an example of a L&H short that can't be summed up in a short sentence usually turning out to be one of their lesser ones. I agree that it is second-tier L&H. Which means it is still pretty darned good compared to, say, an episode of FRIENDS. Any episode -- even ones considered by fans to be "the best." (Spoiler -- I never liked that show!)

Like PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES, it's like they passed a piece of paper around the table, and asked everyone to write down an idea for the next L&H film, and then combined all the ideas into one picture.

It's starts out great, and you think you are in for 20 minutes of hilarity, then after they sign-in at the desk, it goes downhill. Their outfits are unusual (seafaring "garb"), which offers a nice change of pace, but then they are quickly back in their traditional suits and derbies. In the LIVE GHOST, I wonder if Walter Long had remembered them as seafarers, that being the reason he asked them to help him shanghai a crew. 

After the sign-in scene, the next (and only other) great scene is the boys stopping for a bite to eat at a mobile diner, complete with a counter and stools! (Did they really have those in 1932? They show up in a few Our Gangs around that time, too.) I like how he pawns off Stan to fight promoter Harry Bernard for cash so he, and only he, can enjoy a nice meal. (Well, as nice a meal as you can get from a mobile diner, I guess.)

Scenes like that are very Abbott and Costello like, even though they preceded A&C. It is more typical for Bud Abbott to risk the welfare of Costello for his own gain as opposed to Ollie taking advantage of Stan. Since he does basically the same thing in THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY -- though that time Stan was already a fighter, but Ollie risks Stan's well-being to collect on an insurance policy -- perhaps Lou Costello got the idea for it there, which is a valid theory considering that Costello appears as an extra in that film. The best, and funniest example, occurs in their very first starring picture, BUCK PRIVATES. The only hole in my theory is that I've never read about Costello contributing ideas to their films, but it is still a strong possibility that the concept of Bud always taking advantage of him might have been developed by him when they first started working in burlesque. In any case, though this was not a concept that was followed very often by the boys, it did show up in a few of thier pictures over the years (e.g. OLIVER THE EIGHTH -- Ollie's subterfuge in not mailing Stan's letter to Mae Busch, THE DANCING MASTERS -- which repeated the bits with Ollie trying to collect on Stan's insurance policy by forcing him to get injured.)

Our Gang also borrowed the concept in GLOVE TAPS. Alfalfa is convinced that Spanky will fight Butch, but Spanky has other ideas -- Alfalfa will fight him!

So 2 great (yes, great) scenes in a 2-reeler is still pretty darned good, if you ask me.

[NoahYoung]

      On a personal level, this was at one point the only Laurel and Hardy film I never saw.

People in your age group just missed the short time-frame that this short was readily available on the Nostalgia Merchant tapes, unless you started watching them at a very young age. Interestingly enough, this was one of the few shorts I caught on TV in the mid-70s when L&H were shown on Saturday mornings for an hour. That scheduling lasted barely a year, and they mostly showed edited features for the whole hour, or 2 Regal or Governor cut-downs of the features.

Around 1985/86, when the syndicated L&H Show (still shown on MeTV) was launched, this short, and a handful of others, was inexplicably left off the roster. It was also not included years later when AMC started showing the RHI versions of the films.
So I assume you have seen HATS OFF and THE ROGUE SONG. Please review them.