Sixty years ago and more, when I settled in for the afternoon with Officer Joe Bolton on WPIX hosting the Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, and Laurel & Hardy, this ran a few times a year. I didn't know that Stan & Ollie had been in the movies for a decade and more, had been a comedy team for two years, and this was their first sound film I didn't know that the other members of this cast -- Edgar Kennedy, Mae Busch, and Thelma Todd -- were accomplished farceurs. I didn't realize that major stars were being destroyed in the changeover from silent to sound movies because their voices didn't match the silent personas. All I knew was that the Boys seemed to arise out of nowhere in 1929, in a world that still made sense to me, fully formed and extremely funny.
I don't know what people born more recently than I think of these shorts, this one in particular. Tastes change. The way people relate to each other changes. This short comedy was not produced to be seen ninety years later. All I know is that sixty years after I first saw this movie, it is still very very funny to me.
I don't know what people born more recently than I think of these shorts, this one in particular. Tastes change. The way people relate to each other changes. This short comedy was not produced to be seen ninety years later. All I know is that sixty years after I first saw this movie, it is still very very funny to me.