User Reviews

This film marked the end of shorts, and the end of a fine tuning technique. Most of the features that followed, at least at the Roach Studios, would remake many of their gags from old shorts and in truth Way Out West, Blockheads, and A Chump At Oxford remain their best efforts after 1935. It's as if they reached their peak between 1933-early 35 and digressed.

"Thicker than Water" begins with classic Laurel & Hardy innocence. Each scene builds upon the next beautifully. I especially enjoy the transitions of each scene. Either Stan or Ollie will "pull" or "push" the new scene into place. Pretty good effects for the 30s.

The initial argument about money to accidentally buying a clock at an auction builds beautifully, but the last 5 minutes seem awkward. In a heated argument with his wife, Ollie is hit on the head, passes out, and Stan screams and takes his pal to the hospital. A bit much for a bump on the head. Then they need a transfusion (which doesn't make any sense whatsoever), and so Stan gives his blood. Something goes wrong and Stan becomes Ollie & Ollie becomes Stan.

One almost wonders what Stan, the writers, and director were thinking. Maybe because Hal Roach hated trick endings and this was their last short, Stan could justify a trick ending because Roach either wouldn't care and leave him alone (yet this type of thinking led to the end of their relationship in 1940).

All in all, though, it is a very fine short. Not one of their best or funniest, but a great film to watch.

This is another nice comedy short from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Oliver is marries and Stan has a room in the house of Oliver and Mrs. Hardy. After dinner Laurel & Hardy want to go to a ballgame, but Mrs. Hardy does not allow it. They have to do the dishes instead. Of course that does not go very well.

Minor spoilers.

They also have some trouble with a man who comes to collect some money because they have bought some furniture. Laurel thinks it is a good idea to use the saving money, but Mrs. Hardy thinks it is a stupid idea. Hardy does it anyway, but instead of paying the furniture guy he spends it by accident on a clock. Mrs. Hardy is not happy and smashes Hardy in the hospital. What happens there is not for me to reveal but it is one of the funniest scenes I have seen in a Laurel & Hardy comedy short.

Other moments are quite funny as well. Although some of them are predictable, especially the scenes that deal with the clock, they do work. The final moments make sure this is better than average. Recommended.

Let's get straight to the point. Ask anyone to pick the best ever team at anything. The answer is simple Laurel & Hardy (even better than Brazil 1970) The wit about the money that he gave to her etc captured my imagination as a child and still has me in its grip today.The casting of the support player are very good especially the actress who plays Ollie's wife. There should be a national if not international day for broadcasting films and documentaries about Stan & Ollie. It would lift the worlds gloom as all would revel in laughter at their simple world class GENIUS

Thankyou Mr Laurel & Mr Hardy

While this is far from the best of Laurel and Hardy's short films it's still an amusing comedy with a rather bizarre ending that is guaranteed to stick in your memory.

Stan lodges with Ollie and his domineering - and diminutive - wife in this one. The boys obviously understood the comic value of playing opposites off one another - after all, their entire act was based upon it. Here, though, there's a second opposite in the form of Ollie's wife, who barely reaches his chest (at one point she has to stand on a chair to belt him with a frying pan). Both Stan and Ollie live in abject fear of this little battle-axe and it's funny to see.

Two things stand out about this film. The first is the clever use of screen transitions. A couple of times Stan or Ollie will run to the far right of the screen and 'pull' the next scene across the screen behind them as they exit stage left. Stan even manages to fumble it in a moment of panic and the next scene goes zipping back across the screen. The other moment is when the boys play each other after a botched blood transfusion - it's not particularly funny, but you can tell the duo are having a hoot mimicking one another.

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. Stan is living with Ollie and his wife Daphne (Daphne Pollard) in the boarding room, and when they plan to go a ball game, she instead wants them to do the washing up, which of course becomes chaos. After this is done, an Auction Manager (James Finlayson) comes round to get payment for furniture, and their is a mix-up over the money Ollie gave Stan to pay for it, and paying for the boarding room. After his wife is mad at him, Ollie gets the idea from Stan to withdraw all money out his account, $300, to buy the furniture outright, but they instead squander it on an antique grandfather clock for $290, and from the Auction Manager. The clock ends up being crushed by a passing truck, and Ollie ends up in hospital after his wife bashes his head with a cooking pan. Ollie has a relapse, so it is up to Stan to give some blood to him, and unfortunately, after taking too much blood, the nurse gets the bloods mixed up, and the film ends with Stan as Ollie, and vice versa. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" was number 60 on 100 Years, 100 Quotes, and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!

"Thicker Than Water" is an American 20-minute short film from 1935, so over 80 years ago, that stars the perhaps greatest comedy duo in film history: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and it is a work from their sound film days. Director James W. Horne is not too unknown either and this b&w film here is certainly among his more known films. The duo in the lead struggles to get along with many folks as usual, including auctioneers, doctors, Mrs. Hardy and, last but not least, each other. I found it interesting how characters are referenced by the actors' real names here like Mr. Finlayson for example and Mrs. Hardy's name is Daphne too. It was an okay movie as a whole I'd say stuck tightly between a thumbs-up and thumbs-down until the really funny final part and the outcome of blood transfusions between our "heroes". A really funny and creative idea executed well here and it was nice for once to see them portray the other, even if it was just for such a short time. So yeah, in conclusion, it gets a positive recommendation from me and I think you should watch it, especially if you are into very old (comedy) movies. Sometimes the script may let you down, but in terms of acting these two never do. Go watch them here.

This is the last comedy short than Laurel and Hardy starred in, after surviving quite a few in English, as well as several other, languages. It's a pretty good one, with a special surprise ending.........First, we have a dispute between Stan and Ollie's wife Daphne about whether Stan payed his monthly room and board. He claims he gave it to Ollie instead of her : a no no. Then , we have a dispute between Daphne and the boys whether they are going to wash the dishes or go to the ball game. Daphne wins, but ultimately loses all her dishes in a mishap, as we might expect. The kitchen scene involves some initial slapstick, followed by a sight gag, as Ollie does the dish washing and rinsing, while Stan does the drying. But, absent-minded Stan puts the dishes back in the wash basin, while Ollie is rinsing another. Eventually, Ollie catches this, and corrects Stan, who, then puts them on the lit stove burner to further dry them. Ollie doesn't see this last step and burns his hands when he picks them up.......Next, bill collector Jim Finlayson comes to collect a late payment on some furniture. Daphne says she gave the money to Ollie, who gave it to Stan, who gave it to Ollie, etc.. Daphne summaries the said transactions in a hilarious run that much reminds me of the later famous performance by Abbott and Costello: "Who's on First?" This drives Finlayson out of his mind! .......Later, Ollie suggests he withdraw all of the $300. in their bank account and pay off the rest of their furniture bill. Daphne says "No!". She rightly doesn't trust him with that much money. Bad boy Ollie withdraws all that money anyway. On the way to paying for the furniture, they chance upon an auction. Very inadvisably, they enter and sit down, not expecting to buy anything. The woman next to them very much wants the grandfather clock currently being bid on. But, the bidding has gone too high, and she wants to go home, and get more money. She asks Ollie to keep bidding for her until she returns. Foolishly, Ollie agrees. In fact, she never returns, and Ollie keeps bidding up the price. Toward the end. Ollie is only bidding against Stan! They stop at $290. The auctioneer requires them to pay for the clock, even if they were bidding for someone else. Also, they have to take the clock now. So, they carry it along the streets until they are tired and decide to set it down for a bit. Very stupidly, they set it down in the middle of a street! A truck comes along and smashes it to bits. The boys are forced to return home and make up a lie about what they have been doing. But, Daphne has been to the bank, and happened to come across Finlayson, who was at the auction, and knows what happened. So, after everybody gets home, and Ollie has told his lies, 4'9" Daphne gets a big frying pan, then gets on a chair and beans Ollie, who just stands there , expecting it.........In the final section, we see Stan coming to the hospital to visit Ollie. But, he is collared to give Ollie some blood. At first, he refuses, saying he's not a bloodworm. But, he's finally coerced. But, during the transfusion, the valve on the transfuser becomes stuck, resulting in Stan giving too much blood. Now, Stan has passed out, and the flow of blood is reversed, so that he gets some of Ollie's blood. We skip some time, and see the 2 leaving the room. But, Stan now looks and dresses like Ollie, has his mannerisms, and talks like him (clearly dubbed by Ollie). For Ollie, it's the reverse. I found it hilarious and think it was a fitting way to end their comedy shorts career. See it at YouTube, where there is a B&W copy, as well as a copy of the colorized version. I found the latter too blurry for my liking.

OPERATING as a team for close to a full decade, Laurel & Hardy had made a goodly number of the most successful of 2 Reelers; peppered with an occasional Feature. The system had worked out quite well; but alas, it was now 1935 and there were many changes taking place in the World; including tastes in Hollywood's Movie Manufactories.

MUSIC, situations and the subjects used as fodder for building comedy routines were morphing rapidly from what they had been only a few short years earlier. Small wonder that it should be so; for the Nation and the World had now endured the cross of over 5 years of the Great Depression. Tastes of the public and tolerance for certain Comic Story lines was now more somber than that which had been present during the Roaring 20's Jazz Age.

OVER at Hal Roach Studios, the attempt to meet the new popularities and demands of the mass audience, the Studio initiated a sort of hybrid film form. It was dubbed "the Streamliner"; being a short feature that came in at about 50 to 55 minutes in length and was designed to play as a second feature on the Double Bill, Matinée and the emerging movie house sub-species, the Drive-In Theatre.

THE immediate consequence of this move was to eliminate the Short Subject. Ironically it was the Comedy Short that made Roach & Company a serious movie production outfit by bringing us an overall outstanding product using the talents of such luminaries such as: Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase, Max Davidson, Our Gang, Snub Pollard, the Taxi Boys (Billy Gilbert & Ben Blue), Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Zasu Pitts and others. The past successes not withstanding, they were out, kaput and left to the likes of Columbia Pictures' and RKO Radio Pictures' Short Subjects Departments! EVEN in bringing the Laurel & Hardy Shorts Series to a halt (the last of the Hal Roach Shorts Series), the gang at the Roach Lot weren't afraid to try some things a little different; or, off-beat, even.

STARTING out in typical enough fashion, THICKER THAN WATER (Hal Roach Productions/MGM, 1935) includes a typical non-tranquil domestic situation for Mr. Hardy. Ollie is wed to diminutive, though totally bitchy, spouse. Complications are rendered by having Oliver's friend, Mr. Laurel, as a boarder. Additional support comes from such familiar Hal Roach Players as: James Finlayson, Charlie Hall, Bess Flowers, Harry Bowen and Baldwin Cooke; although only Finn gets to perform to any measure that was equal to what had been before, dating to the Silents.

GOING beyond the usual realm of the L & H comedy, with their slow burns, takes & double takes, Ollie's pomposity and Stan's chronic propensity for malapropisms; the folks in the production team attempted to be more than just a little off the beaten path. They offered us both a super sight gag concept and a sort of science fiction/fantasy sort of a gag to wrap it all up.

THE super sight gag was the "ability" of Stanley to "grab" onto the edge of the screen image and to seemingly pull it off; revealing the next scene. This is mildly amusing at best and is really sort of a derivative of the World of Mr. Disney and the Brothers Fleischer, the Animated Cartoon. Predictably, once it slips from Laurel's hand; forcing him to hurriedly scamper back and grip it again.

SECONDLY, the final gag has a Laurel to Hardy transfusion go bad; mixing and co-mingling not only their plasma, but also their personalities. A clean shaven Hardy with Laurel's voice and mannerisms and a mustachioed Laurel with the inimitable voice of Oliver walk off the last scene; with Stan grabbing the edge of the frame, of course.

THICKER THAN WATER is far from being a top Laurel &Hardy entry; but it doesn't deserve to get some of the criticism that we've read. Let us explain.

HARKING back to 1935, not 1960, '70, '80, '90 or the 21st Century even, we would not have the luxury of contrasting the picture to the entire output of the comedy team; as the L & H Series was then still an ongoing work. There was no thought of "Comic Genius" or "Cinematic Immortality". Getting "Today's" laughs in their current movies was the sole objective. Then they would move on to the next project.

AND, of course, no one would ever want to have been accused of being "behind the times." DOES this make any sense to anyone out there in our Cyber Space Audience? POODLE SCHNITZ!!

With an extremely funny gag involving Mrs. Hardy giving Mr. Hardy money to give to Mr. Finlayson to pay the furniture bill, then Mr. Hardy giving it to Mr. Laurel (and its convoluted way back to her to give to Mr. Finlayson, this ends up being a very funny way to end Stan and Ollie's long career in short films. Diminutive Daphne Pollard is the harsh Mrs. Hardy, a little ball of fire who has a heck of a temper. The boys end up at an auction, bidding on a grandfather clock for another patron, and this creates more hilarity. Closer to an Edgar Kennedy or Leon Errol short than the type of comedy they did, this ends up being a refreshing change. From here on in, it was odd to the features for the duo, a decade of hilarity that was even better than even their very best two reelers.