Sometimes even an out of their prime Laurel and Hardy flick can fill the bill, like it did this morning on the Fox Movie Channel. I haven't seen one of their features in a while so this was a welcome treat. Yet even though they're both top billed in the credits, you somehow get the feeling that they have a support role in this story about con men out-conning each other with the boys as willing partners. As the story progresses, a host of characters slip in and out of the action, and one of the puzzlers is how a couple of the original grifters named Corcoran (Robert Emmett Keane) and his wife Dorcas (Lee Patrick) simply drop out of the picture, even though Corcoran was a partner of the main villain Bennett (Douglas Fowley). Oh well, not to worry too much about figuring that out.
In some respects it appears that Twentieth Century Fox was attempting to follow the Universal formula of Abbott and Costello's successful early films by supplying a host of musical numbers performed by the pretty Vivian Blaine. Her character is Miss Susan Cowan, who's aunt had been swindled using the old bait and switch envelope trick. Rounding out the main quartet, Robert Bailey portrays another grifter named Chester Wright, and when he's stricken by Miss Cowan's looks and charm, he's a goner. If there were only enough pretty women in the world, maybe there wouldn't be any bad guys.
You know, I've been thinking about that gas pill gimmick. Recall how Ollie was offering the bargain price of one dollar for the five gallon pills and two bucks for ten gallons - that would have worked out to twenty cents a gallon to manufacture gasoline out of water. Well I recall buying gas at twenty eight cents a gallon when I first started driving in 1967, so I just looked it up, and a gallon of gas in 1943 cost about ten cents. I wonder what they were thinking when they put the script together.
Anyway, as con man Chester puts it - "Money lost through larceny can often be recovered the same way". And so it goes, as Stan impersonates the dowager Aunt Emily Cartwright, and pulls off the envelope switcheroo against the bad guys. If you're attentive, you'll catch a quick line from Stanley stating "I feel so gay" when he first puts on women's clothing. It kind of makes me wonder what he'd say if he were around today.
In some respects it appears that Twentieth Century Fox was attempting to follow the Universal formula of Abbott and Costello's successful early films by supplying a host of musical numbers performed by the pretty Vivian Blaine. Her character is Miss Susan Cowan, who's aunt had been swindled using the old bait and switch envelope trick. Rounding out the main quartet, Robert Bailey portrays another grifter named Chester Wright, and when he's stricken by Miss Cowan's looks and charm, he's a goner. If there were only enough pretty women in the world, maybe there wouldn't be any bad guys.
You know, I've been thinking about that gas pill gimmick. Recall how Ollie was offering the bargain price of one dollar for the five gallon pills and two bucks for ten gallons - that would have worked out to twenty cents a gallon to manufacture gasoline out of water. Well I recall buying gas at twenty eight cents a gallon when I first started driving in 1967, so I just looked it up, and a gallon of gas in 1943 cost about ten cents. I wonder what they were thinking when they put the script together.
Anyway, as con man Chester puts it - "Money lost through larceny can often be recovered the same way". And so it goes, as Stan impersonates the dowager Aunt Emily Cartwright, and pulls off the envelope switcheroo against the bad guys. If you're attentive, you'll catch a quick line from Stanley stating "I feel so gay" when he first puts on women's clothing. It kind of makes me wonder what he'd say if he were around today.