Laurel and Hardy are police officers on the night shift patrol. They get a call about a robbery, only to find that two men are trying to steal the spare wheel from their car. They get past this to find they have forgotten the address. Laurel goes to find a phone to ring the station but gets involved in a safe cracking. When they eventually get to the address of the reported robbery things go from bad to worse.
Opening with a rolling title sequence, this short made me think I had walking into the wrong screen, however, despite the gritty noir opening, this is Laurel and Hardy. The actual plot is filled out by several scenes on their way to the robbery, before eventually getting to the scenes of them trying to get into the house. All of these work quite well and all scenes make good use of their physical comedy skills the scenes involving a locked door and a pond being the best.
The low point of the film is the final shot (literally!) which is probably the worst judged ending of any short of theirs I've seen. Basically the film ends with the Police Commissioner borrowing a gun, firing two shorts at the backs of our fleeing heroes and then saying `call the morgue'. I was waiting for the final short of L&H holding their backsides in pain or something, but no, so the end of the film sees them shot dead! I couldn't help feel that this was totally against the idea of the comedy that had gone before.
Laurel and Hardy both do good work and make the physical stuff look easier than it really is. The support cast of criminals are amusing although the tyre thieves are just tough, the safe cracker has his share of disbelieving double takes.
Overall this is an amusing little short. The major downside here is the fact that the ending leaves a sour taste and is very badly done.
Opening with a rolling title sequence, this short made me think I had walking into the wrong screen, however, despite the gritty noir opening, this is Laurel and Hardy. The actual plot is filled out by several scenes on their way to the robbery, before eventually getting to the scenes of them trying to get into the house. All of these work quite well and all scenes make good use of their physical comedy skills the scenes involving a locked door and a pond being the best.
The low point of the film is the final shot (literally!) which is probably the worst judged ending of any short of theirs I've seen. Basically the film ends with the Police Commissioner borrowing a gun, firing two shorts at the backs of our fleeing heroes and then saying `call the morgue'. I was waiting for the final short of L&H holding their backsides in pain or something, but no, so the end of the film sees them shot dead! I couldn't help feel that this was totally against the idea of the comedy that had gone before.
Laurel and Hardy both do good work and make the physical stuff look easier than it really is. The support cast of criminals are amusing although the tyre thieves are just tough, the safe cracker has his share of disbelieving double takes.
Overall this is an amusing little short. The major downside here is the fact that the ending leaves a sour taste and is very badly done.