Horst in Translation ([email protected]) Here we have "Our Wife", another Stan and Ollie short film from their sound days and Horne and Walker worked with them on several occasions like they did here. It runs for 20 minutes like some of the others and it is in black-and-white of course as it is over 85 years already,. Don't be fooled by versions where color was added later on. This one here goes more into situational comedy like the long Stan translating/interpreting scene than into (violent) slapstick Stooges style like some of their others and I liked it. I also liked that romance played a bigger part here than usual with Laurel and Hardy films as normally you just see their mean bullying wives, but there seems to be some real affection for the chubby chick by Hardy. Now they only need to overcome some truly high obstacles like the girl's father not too amused about her man of choice and eventuallöy in a brief sequence a short-sighted priest. Sure there are some unrealistic and unfunny reactions like the woman in the end punching Stan and the film goes over the top at times too, which was a common problem for movies back then, but I still believe that story-wise and comedy-wise this one has to offer more positive than negative. That's why it is among the works from S&O's sound days that I like more than other and that I also give a thumbs-up. Sure greatness may not have been achieved here and it is a relatively simple story, but we need to keep in mind it also is just a 20-minute movie. Overall a positive recommendation for this one. Go see it if you are into old movies, unless you already did as this is certainly not among Stan and Ollue's least seen, not among their most known either though.

Robert J. Maxwell Oliver Hardy is in love and is going to be married to Babe London, who is almost the same size. Laurel is to be best man. While Hardy tries to dress for the occasion, some flies begin to light on the elaborately prepared wedding cake. Laurel is irritated by this and spritzes the entire cake with flit. There's a conspicuous close up of the can of Flit. It was a real product, and some people still call the old fashioned sprayer with a reservoir a "flit gun." Murphy's Law applies. Everything that could possibly go wrong, goes wrong. Hardy inevitably winds up falling face-down into the wedding cake. The apartment is ruined by falling furniture and decorations. Babe London's father, James Finlayson, objects to the wedding and Hardy and his bride must try to elope in a clown car. The preacher performing the wedding ceremony is cross-eyed and marries Hardy to Laurel.It's one of the better-known shorts from the team, partly because of the climactic gag about the cross-eyed preacher. Some of the gags are adventitious -- a window slams down on the back of Finalyson's neck without any set up -- but it's still funnier than many of the other episodes.When Finalyson, a Scot, showed up, it brought to mind the varied backgrounds of the cast, with Laurel from England's Lake District and Hardy from small-town Georgia with a father who'd been wounded at Antietam. And I began to think of how NICE it must have been to make up stories and jokes with the same people over the course of so many year, and without having to take anybody else home at night. There were abrasive moments. There always are. Laurel had some problems with producer Hal Roach. Yet, being part of a team like this and working with such amusing material, must have been reasonably pleasant overall. So much more satisfying than sitting in a cubicle, at an office desk on which the most interesting object is a Boston stapler.

rsyung Our Wife is one of those Laurel and Hardy comedies that at first seem so broad and farcical (it is) but upon multiple viewings, reveal a surprising number of beautiful subtleties. I know, because my two-year- old son loves it and constantly requests it…sometimes twice a day. Look at Stan, re-entering the room after having been quickly ushered out by Ollie, who wants some privacy to talk to his beloved. It is a completely guileless gesture, just like(need I say it) a two-year-old's response to a restriction he doesn't recognize as such. And Stan's satisfied smile when Ollie explains "Why, you're the best man!" And no small credit goes to Babe London as Ollie's betrothed. Just look at her expression of guarded optimism as Justice of the Peace Ben Turpin goes through his auctioneering gibberish during the ceremony. Then, notice Ben at the fadeout. After mistakenly marrying Stan to Ollie, all he seems interested in is pushing through the group in his living room and rushing back to bed. Even their struggles to get into that 1930 American Austin Coupe, the depression era's version of the Mini-Cooper, is doubly funny when considering the context, that of a rushed getaway. The time-space continuum "takes five" as they try to maneuver themselves into the car. Ollie's exasperated query: "What did you want to hire a thing like this for?" goes unanswered, hinting at an excised shot or two, but it also signifies the boy's quick acceptance of obstacles thrown in their path and their earnest attempts to overcome them. The whole movie is a series of set pieces in which the boys go through the minimal obligatory motions of an adult rite-of-passage: the one-layer cake, frosting peeling off like a tree shedding bark, the minimal wedding decorations, the quick spray of dried rice and a shoe to the head, the mumbled wedding vows, the pro-forma "Congratulations, my boy, you've married the sweetest girl in all the world!" from the justice of the peace… it's all about two little boys playing grown-up, and overcoming the brief lacuna of adulthood and ending up back together again.

Jackson Booth-Millard Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Ollie is preparing to get married to his beloved Dulcy (Babe London), while Stan is setting the table, and filling a mouth spray squirter with bug spray to kill the flies on the cake, which Ollie puts in his mouth, needing ice, which he slips on and crashes into the table, his face landing in the cake, and causing many room objects to drop. Dulcy's father (James Finlayson) has forbidden her to marry Ollie after seeing his picture, so Ollie and Stan go to her house to take her and get eloped (secretly married), which the father manages to find out about from Stan. There is a big fuss trying to get a ladder, get Dulcy's luggage, and especially squeezing into the small limousine, but they eventually get to the Justice of the Peace, only to have a cross-eyed official (Ben Turpin) shaking hands with and kissing Stan and Ollie. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!