Review of The Midnight Patrol

"The Midnight Patrol" is an American black-and-white short film from 1933, so this one has its 85th anniversary this year. The title sounds a bit like a Hollywood full feature film with Oscar attention, but no, this is another of oh so many Stan and Laurel short films and even given how old it is, it is still not one of their earlier career efforts, but from the days of the duo making a successful transition to sound motion pictures. And it does not sound bad at all, I have seen and heard worse. Well, the running time is typical for them, around 18-19 minutes and so is the action. The duo plays police officers in here. Oh my who gave them guns??? But yeah, this should not be a subject here as it is rather about solving burglaries and crimes. The film already starts with a highlight that the two don't recognize that somebody is stealing their tires while they are actually sitting in the police car, but need radio police channel to inform them before messing up the way they always do. Afterward, the film can be divided in two parts: the first where they let a criminal get away thinking he is the owner and eventually the other way around when they arrest a burglar not knowing he is the one who owns the house and as if that wasn't enough already, he is their boss, the chief of police even. I think this was a good funny movie. The quantity of screen time given supporting actors was enough to add quality, but not too much to take attention away from this oh so talented comedy duo. They were already in their early 40s here by the way, but yeah both have a tendency to look older anyway, at least during their earlier films. The slapstick scenes are funny like the running gag with Ollie falling into the pool, usually casued by Stan, even if it was only really funny the very first time it happens. The plot was okay for such a short film, even if the story did not always feel plausible. But yeah it is a comedy movie. You can forgive them, it is still really entertaining. I like these two, even if I do not adore all their movies I have seen, also some of their big hits, but this one here is a winner and I think it should be seen by more people as it is far from being among the group of their most known efforts. I hope the new movie about them starring Coogan and Reilly can get this film some attention too. I think it deserves to be seen and I was well-entertained.