Yes, this is a very well-made short. I mean, considering that they made a sequel, you’d expect that to be the case anyway.
It’s interesting because it’s actually been quite a while since we’ve seen one of these reciprocal retaliation endings. What seemed to be really common in the silent era actually wasn’t utilized as much in the sound era as you’d think, so perhaps that’s why this and TIT FOR TAT both feel so special. That’s not meant to knock this short in any way; the reciprocal retaliation, though not quite as large-scale as the ones in the silent era, is still paced very well here and you can tell they had a lot of fun making it (literally, there’s a part where you can see Charlie Hall cracking up over the antics happening to him).
The reciprocal retaliation only takes up part of the short, though. The rest of it mainly relies on Laurel and Hardy’s work as a duo and, unsurprisingly, they handle themselves very well. The whole bit with them humming the song while trying to make something to eat, which takes up a good of amount of the runtime, is very good and I also really like the part at the beginning with Laurel attempting to carry Hardy. And, of course, there’s always the minor recurring gags in the Laurel and Hardy series, like Hardy insisting on entering the trailer first, which have been used so much throughout the years, yet are still just as funny as the first time.
Agreed, this definitely deserves to be regarded as a classic.
10 out of 10
