Topic: The Midnight Patrol (1933) - Laurel and Hardy

[metaldams]

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      This week we return to a 2 reeler and pure Stan and Ollie.  A basic premise here in that the boys are incompetent police officers on their first day on the job, and hilarity ensues. Not much more to it than that.

      I think Stan is excellent in this one.  I love his interaction with the two tire thieves.  Now, these two thieves aren't just stealing anybody's tires, but they're stealing the tires on Stan and Ollie's police car!  Stan simply threatens them with arrest if they try it again, and the way the parties mock each other and throw objects at each other's cars is a highlight.  These thieves show Stan zero respect as an officer.  Stan's lack of awareness with the safe cracking thief in the store is another highlight as is his taking down an address on two pieces of paper absent mindedly while only taking one piece of paper.  When Ollie gets in, all they can do is schedule a court date with the thief, and their overly trusting nature that the guy will show up, plus the mere chaos in trying to organize the date is another highlight.  Really a great short if you enjoy Stan and Ollie, but especially Stan, at their naive and stupid best.

      A slapstick highlight is them taking the top of the heavy marble seat as a battering ram to break into the house to catch a mistaken thief.  You see, when they encounter an actual thief, they're clueless, but they easily get suckered into a fake thief.  Ollie telling Stan they'll count to three and do it his way leads to the slapstick highlight which involves them breaking through the door, charging through some stairs and landing in the basement in a tub of sauerkraut.  Huge belly laugh there for me.  Let's just say Stan and Ollie don't get a happy ending in this one without giving it away, but overall, a very funny short.

[Umbrella Sam]

Pretty solid comedy for the most part. Laurel and Hardy give outstanding performances as always and I especially love their interactions with the safe cracker. Not only is Stan unable to figure out that he’s a thief, but they also try to work around his schedule for a court appearance, and even after he tries to steal their car, they still expect him to show up without their having to take him in. I also really like the scene with them attempting to use the seat as a battering ram, allowing for some great physical comedy.

The one thing I don’t like about this short is the ending. I know it’s short and it probably shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but this ending just feels way too cruel. Remember that Laurel and Hardy are responding to a call from their bosses and it seems that they did pick the correct address. They were simply doing what they were told and they got punished in a very unsettling way. They even admit that they just started that morning, so it’s completely understandable why they wouldn’t know what their boss looks like. That’s pretty minor, though, and the rest of it is so fun that I don’t think the ending ruins the short as a whole.

9 out of 10

[HomokHarcos]

When people think of incompetent police in old comedy, they think of the Keystone Cops. However, the Keystone Cops were usually ensemble cast and not part of the lead. Here, Laurel and Hardy are definitely the leads, and the idea of them being police is funny enough. The two most memorable moments are when a man is cracking a safe, and Stan thinks he's an innocent man (Ollie actually realizes what's going on). It reminds me of The Three Stooges in the Hold That Lion remake when they get fooled and help somebody break open a safe. The other part is when they see a man breaking into a house not realizing it is their boss who lost his key. A similar plotline is also used in that same Stooges short, but the difference being that he was actually breaking into the home there. Strangely, it is actually not Stan and Ollie's fault that they make the mistake, they are just responding to a phone call. I think the nighttime urban setting is fantastic.

[Dr. Mabuse]

Hilarious change of pace for Laurel and Hardy . . . and the only time the Boys were cast as police officers. Classic slapstick and dialogue make "The Midnight Patrol" one of Stan and Ollie's most underrated two-reelers. Another pre-Code gem from director Lloyd French.

9/10

[Allen Champion]

MIDNIGHT PATROL is a hilarious L & H comedy, but then, hilarious L & H comedies are as common as windy days in Ulverston, Lancashire.   The funniest moment however, is provided by the poofter posturing of The Little Menace when he mocks Officer Stan.  Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.   

[NoahYoung]

Considering the 40 talkie shorts the boys made, this one is just average -- maybe a bit below. As I've said before regarding ratings, that doesn't mean it's a bad comedy; it's just not as good as many of their other shorts.

I've always felt that it is missing something -- perhaps not having one of their top-notch co-stars. Frank Terry/Natt Clifford (who shows up briefly in THREE LITTLE BEERS), is funny enough, though. This was his biggest role in a Laurel and Hardy film. His appearances with them seem to be limited to 1933, although he was also in HUSTLING FOR HEALTH, a Stan Laurel silent short. He was also a member of their gag team, but I don't have the specific years.

To me, this short never really "takes off", although their attempts to break into a house to stop it from being broken into are amusing. The boys were never averse to morbid or freak endings, so I've never really given the ending much thought other than characterizing it as fairly typical for them.

While this is the only film where they play police officers, they did play private detectives in DO DETECTIVE THINK?, and were bogus private detectives in THE BIG NOISE.

If I didn't know better, this one could fool me into thinking it was made a few years earlier. It just kind of has that "feel" for me.

BTW, there is a possible goof in the film. Earlier, they talk about where they spent their day off, yet at the end of the film they say they just started "this morning." Perhaps they were talking about a day off on their previous job. Rumor has it that their next job was for the Secret Service.