JohnHowardReid A Hal Roach Production. Copyright 17 August 1938 by Loew's Inc. A Hal Roach Feature Comedy released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at the Rialto: 29 August 1938. U.S. release: 19 August 1938. Australian release: 1 June 1939. 6 reels. 57 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Mislaid for twenty years after the Great War, Stan is finally re-united with Ollie, but wreaks havoc on the Hardy home. NOTES: It's hard to believe, but Marvin Hatley's incessantly inappropriate music score was nominated for an Academy Award, losing out-and rightly so!-to Korngold's The Adventures of Robin Hood. Stan bitterly disapproved of the film's ending. He wanted a two-shot of himself and Babe, mounted as trophies over Billy's fireplace. Ollie turns to his partner and declaims with all his customary exasperation: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"COMMENT: Any film with Patricia Ellis is infinitely worth looking at, even when she's stooging for that delightful threesome, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Billy Gilbert. In fact, it's nice to find the boys with two leading ladies worthy of their talents. Misses Ellis and Gombell are both expert comediennes. Block-Heads provides all five principal players with many opportunities to shine and is one of the funniest of the L&H features. After a splendid introduction (using spectacular stock footage from The Big Parade), Laurel and Hardy each have a winning solo scene before destructively joining forces in some cleverly engineered, hilarious mayhem. We love Stan jumping into Babe's arms to be carried, Billy cleverly inverting Frank Buck's celebrated boast to the reporters ("I don't bring them back alive. I bring them back dead. I bring myself back alive!"), Babe huffing and puffing endlessly down the stairs (with Stan's magic window shade), and the king-pin domestic squabble that rages as Stan sits up and down in the "chair". Block-Heads rates as a very amusing entry indeed. Proficiently directed and produced, it thoroughly deserves its high popularity with L&H fans.

JoeKarlosi ***1/2 out of **** One of Laurel and Hardy's funniest comedies. It begins in 1918 during WWI, where Stan and Ollie are in the trenches with their army mates and the whole entourage goes over the wall to do battle, leaving Stanley with orders to remain alone in the trench and guard the fort. The next thing you know, twenty years go by and it's 1938, but nobody has told poor Stan the war's ended, so he's still marching back and forth in the same old trench! Eventually, Stan gets rescued and is taken to an Old Soldier's Home where he is visited by his old pal Ollie. Ollie decides to bring him home to his place to meet the wife and have a nice home cooked meal with a nice juicy steak, topped off with a delicious seven layer chocolate cake, with typical mishaps along the way! BLOCK-HEADS is a fast-moving joy that clocks in at under an hour's running time. The laughs are pretty steadily spread throughout, and there are a lot of them. My favorite scenes occur mostly during the first three quarters of the film, especially at the Soldier's Home where Ollie reunites with Stan, who just happens to be reading a newspaper while sitting in a wheelchair with one leg tucked under -- Ollie thinks Stan lost his leg in the war and proceeds to carry him in his arms around the grounds! Hilarious!! The end of the film loses just a touch of steam, which is the only reason I hesitantly pause in giving this a full four stars. But all fans of Laurel and Hardy must seek this Comedy out, and new first-timers would do well to use this movie (and SONS OF THE DESERT) as their introduction to Stan and Ollie. ***1/2 out of ****

jraskin-1 I just watched Block-Heads as part of the newly-released "Essentials" DVD collection, and thought it was very enjoyable. Although it was one of the boys later efforts for Hal Roach, the energy and slapstick were still to be seen in full force. I have scanned the user reviews for Block-Heads on IMDb, and did not see any reference to something that I believe slipped by the censors, and obviously most viewers. I was a bit startled to notice that at the 54:50 mark of the film, as Mrs. Hardy slams the non-working phone down, she seems to utter the s-word! Check it out, and see if you hear what I hear. This curse word seems to be quite audible, more so than Edgar Kennedy's s-word slip in "Perfect Day." Minna Gombell, playing Mrs. Hardy, had obviously worked herself up into such a state of agitation, that this word just seemed to slip out, and strangely, no one seemed to notice!

Robert J. Maxwell There's nothing rough-edged about this feature film. By this stage of their careers, Laurel and Hardy knew pretty much exactly what they were doing, and it works as well here as anywhere else.It's 1917, World War I, and Hardy and the rest go over the top while Laurel is left behind in the trench to guard his post until relieved. Laurel is forgotten by the Army.Twenty years pass and Laurel sticks to his daily routine, marching back and forth in the trench, throwing his empty bean can on a mountain of empty cans. Finally he's discovered and taken to an Army hospital in Los Angeles, where he winds up squirming into an amputees wheelchair so that it appears that he has lost a leg.Hardy sees Laurel's photo in the newspaper and rushes to the hospital. Seeing Laurel with only one leg, Hardy offers to carry him home and give him a good meal. In the movie's funniest scene, Hardy is hefting the compliant but stupid Laurel along the sidewalk. At one point Hardy drops his hat, falls down trying to retrieve it. Laurel gets to his feet, helps Hardy up, hops back into Hardy's arms, and the trek continues all the way to the car before Hardy realizes what's up.Back at the apartment, the Army theme is dropped and it becomes a familiar tale of Hardy getting mixed up with his own wife and a pretty next-door neighbor who is married to a blustering big game hunter. "I don't bring 'em back alive. I bring 'em back dead. I come back alive!" It's certainly one of their better features.