Dick und Doof - Die Doppelgänger (1936) Online

OUR RELATIONS is probably the most classiest production Laurel and Hardy were involved with because of the great cinematographer-director Rudolph Mate (who worked on Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928)). Mate was a talented cinematographer who knew how to use lighting to enhance the scenes of Laurel and Hardy's comedy. Harry Lachman, a talented director, kept the complicated story line under control very well. The whole story is a kind of updating of William Shakespeare's COMEDY OF ERRORS. The story was actually based on THE MONEY BOX by W.W. Jacobs, author of the Grand Guignol classic THE MONKEY'S-PAW. The supporting cast is great, especially Daphne Pollard, Betty Healy, Sidney Toler, and Alan Hale. The whole film maintains laughs. Unfortunately, it rarely shows up anywhere today, although I do have a copy on video. It is probably the least-seen of Laurel and Hardy's major features.

This is the first feature-length Laurel and Hardy movie I'd seen. Before this I'd only caught bits and pieces of the shorts if they happened to be on TV while I was waiting for something else. It made me decide to watch as many of their movies as I can.

Our Relations is an inventive comedy, and made me realise how lazy slapstick has become - someone simply falling over is now thought of as enough to raise a smile from the audience. Here, every scene and every prop has its potential realised completely. What surprised me was how violent some of it was (setting someone's chest hair on fire, putting a light bulb in someone's mouth and punching their jaw so it explodes) but it is done more in the spirit of Tom and Jerry than Itchy and Scratchy, and throws in some cartoon sound effects just to make sure.

It's no revelation pointing out that Laurel and Hardy have real charm and great timing, but I want to point it out anyway. I found it impossible to take my eyes off them regardless of who else was on screen, and they work so well as a double act and are so great individually that I couldn't decide on a favourite.

I'm glad I finally watched one of their movies, and I feel now like I felt when I watched my first Hitchcock; that there's all those movies waiting for me, and all I have to do is work my way through them.

This has got to be one of the better 'long' Laurel & Hardy pictures. Reason why this movie is better than most of the other Laurel & Hardy comedies is that this movie has a very well written story, that at times gets a bit confusing but remains solid, enjoyable and funny all at the same time throughout its entire running time.

It isn't really a comedy with many slapstick moments or other silly events. It's more a movie that relies on its story, that might not be 'hilarious' but it remains consistently funny all the time. It makes "Our Relations" one of the more consistent Laurel & Hardy movies to watch and because of that it also becomes one of the most enjoyable ones.

Yes, it really is the slick tight story that is filled with some good comical moments that made this movie such a good and pleasant one to watch. Especially toward the ending the movie becomes really good, although also a bit confusing at the same time. It's very hard to tell who is Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy and who is Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy (the twin brothers of the two boys, who are of course being played by Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel as well.) and who is being chased by who and why. It makes the movie a bit too hard to follow in the end but the good comical moments and situations compensate this more than enough.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy really show their acting skills in this movie. They have more lines and interacting with other characters than usual. It's good to see that James Finlayson also shows up again in a fairly big role. Other fine roles are being portrayed by; Sidney Toler, Arthur Housman and Alan Hale.

OK so the movie might not be 'hilarious' by Laurel & Hardy standards but the story is extremely well written and has some well timed and executed comical moments in it, which will surely make you laugh.

9/10

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Because of the nature of this comedy, where the duo have twin brothers, who, are getting mistaken for them/each other it was a good vehicle for total confusion that works well.

The 'respectable' Ollie and Stan and their twin bad-boy sailor brothers, 'Bert and Alf' get into these scrapes. Ollie and Stan decide NOT to tell their wives that they have no-good twin brothers though, leading to more confusion. So much so, it is hard to explain away the gags - it's far better to watch this film and enjoy it. 'Bert' and 'Alf' naturally will try and pick the girls up, only for the married Stan and Ollie, with their wives in tow, who get split up from the boys allowing further confusion, to be accused later of philandering and so the situations continue.

This was well written with plenty of gags. It was nice to see Betty Healy as Stan's missus, as according to IMDb she hadn't had much in the way of acting roles and intentionally or not, she looked a good, gangly and scatty partner to Stan.

Of course, the great Jimmy Finlayson played the boys' foil well with some good lines coming his way too.

Very good and it reminds us all of why the boys are the greatest comedy duo of all time and rightly so!

Is this the most violent Laurel and Hardy film ever made? Surprisingly, while Stan and Ollie's twin brothers – Bert and Alf – are described as "bad lads", it's the originals that are the most malicious, in this sadistic – yet very funny all the same – Laurel and Hardy showcase. Stan gets to headbutt a barman and set fire to another man's chest hair, while Ollie, for his part, sticks a lightbulb in a man's mouth (James Finlayson, a regular stooge for the boys in 35 movies) then punches him in the face so he swallows the broken glass. Their supposedly rogue twins, meanwhile, merely try to save money and treat some ladies to a meal. In order to distinguish between the twins (other than the level of violence they display), musical cues are used – a sea shanty for the sailors Bert and Alf, and the Laurel and Hardy theme for Stan and Ollie.

There are lots of great sustained jokes in this movie, such as Ollie's broken spectacles, and the ultimate in a sustained gag is the mistaken identities between the sets of twins. This joke is taken so far towards its logical conclusion that the duos don't discover each other's existence until the final ninety seconds of film. This causes the plot to be far more imaginative, whereas a lesser film would have had greater reliance on the two pairs meeting. Arthur Housman is also good as the drunk, a role he seemed to make a career out of playing in many of his 159 film roles. It was a also a role he reprised with Laurel and Hardy, having played both "drunk" and "drunk sailor" in Scram!, The Live Ghost and The Fixer Uppers.

The direction by Harry Lachman is well above average for the pair. Some scenes are shot through a fish tank or the back of a bed's headrail, and there are lots of aerial shots. The split screen technology, while used sparingly, was extremely proficient for the time. One thing of note is that a couple of the sequences, such as the crushed in the telephone box scene, are slightly similar to sight gags in the Marx Brothers film of the previous year, A Night At The Opera. It's not that obvious, and may just be coincidence, but I'd rather hoped that Laurel and Hardy had inspired the Marx Brothers, and not the other way around. But it's probably funnier here anyway, particularly poor old Stan with a boot on his neck. Finally, one of the concluding scenes – Stan crying hysterically as he rolls around on concrete boots – is a real winner.

Is there a more appropriate way to inaugurate a much-hankered weekend, than to slightly overindulge in a bag of chocolate as Laurel & Hardy, meanwhile, do their funny business in your very home, thanks to home video technology? As a child of ten or eleven years old, I would have barely cared to question the superiority of this pastime to almost anything else, at least as far as plain, uncomplicated coziness was concerned. My local video store had quite a few of the boys' titles for rent, and OUR RELATIONS may have been my favorite at the time. Part of the reason why just this film appealed so much to a youngster, was probably that it provides, literally, a non-stop feast of fast-paced, rather violent antics guaranteed to not make anyone sleepy; the mayhem is not hampered by the fact that we are here introduced to t-w-o sets of Laurel & Hardy's, as their quite identical twin brothers suddenly turn up in town. Whereas their next feature, WAY OUT WEST, would offer several sequences which, if compared to standard slapstick farce, come off as rather subtle, this tale of mistaken identity leans more towards the broad and blunt approach. Tender moments such as the boys doing an impromptu dance, as seen in the later film, are here absent.

However, it must be stressed that Laurel and Hardy are not being deprived of opportunity to develop more spontaneous, less frantic routines in this film. In the very first scene, we are introduced to our familiar Stan and Ollie having a (relatively) quiet breakfast with their wives, establishing to us viewers that the boys here, for once, seem to be (relatively) happily married. As the wives leave the room, Ollie suddenly receives a telegram from his mother, reporting that his and Stan's respective twin brothers, Bert and Alf, have been hanged due to involvement in a mutiny. Before these sad (though inaccurate, as it turns out) news are unveiled, an hilarious quiet routine develops, as Ollie orders Stan to clean his glasses, so he can read the telegram properly...and, expectedly, such a supremely simple foundation for a joke turns into one of the highlights of the film, which depends not so much on the material in itself, but instead on how it is executed by these two very distinct characters. Almost any pair of comedians could have thought of and performed the jokes in this scene; but few others than Stan and Ollie could have dared to let the effect of these jokes depend so seamlessly on their individual on-screen personalities. The routine does not merely give the boys opportunity to do funny stuff; the funny stuff in this opening sequence is used as an opportunity to truly define these gentlemen to us viewers, with Stan scratching his head in mystification as Ollie turns increasingly impatient (yet perhaps less so than is to be expected; he must, after all, be quite accustomed to Stan's notable sense of logic by this time).

The aforementioned routine, simple though it may seem, stands as one of my favorites with the boys. Even so, I'm surprised that it tends to disappear from my memory after each repeated viewing of the film. One explanation to this may be that the plot of this film is rather complex for a Laurel & Hardy-vehicle (or for a 73-minute-long comedy film in general), making a viewer more apt to recall the significant turning points in the story rather than stand-alone sequences. The two sets of Laurel and Hardys make the tale somewhat hard to follow at times, if one doesn't pay quite enough attention; especially so towards the end of the film, where even Stan and Ollie themselves, still unaware that their twin brothers are very much alive, mistake the other's brother for being his own pal. Wow, I get somewhat confused myself, just trying to write about this. However, it could be argued that a somewhat complicated plot was required for in order to do this kind of film; more simple, traditional Laurel & Hardy-predicaments would possibly not have justified, in the eyes of the public, the somewhat obvious device of serving the duo with a set of "doppelgangers." In any case, I find it quite fascinating how Laurel & Hardy, throughout their 13-year long stint as a team at Hal Roach's studio, made a point of often experimenting with their own concept; in an earlier film, the two-reeler BRATS, they were blessed with offspring completely identical to themselves, while in another short, TWICE TWO, they have taken the bold (?) step of marrying each other's strikingly similar, respective sisters! I guess it was just a matter of time before twin brothers had to be brought to the table, and the feature-length format does justice to the idea, whereas the plot of the aforementioned two-reelers would have come across as way too cartoonish for a journey of six reels.

In sum, though I've come to regard the more gentle WAY OUT WEST as perhaps my favorite feature of the boys in recent years, OUR RELATIONS still holds up as one of their better longer adventures; accolades should also be paid to James Finlayson, playing his usual, unforgettable villainous type ("I wouldn't say YES and I wouldn't say NO!"), as well as Alan Hale as the waiter and Arthur Housman as the "drunkard" (just try watching the scene in the telephone booth without laughing!). Though research will tell us that this film was not so literally a "Stan Laurel Production" as indicated in the opening credits, it is clear that the boys still had a great degree of creative control at this point.

OUR RELATIONS

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Sound format: Mono

(Black and white)

During an eventful day out, Stan and Ollie become confused with their long-lost twin brothers, with far-reaching consequences.

The first of two films co-produced by Hal Roach and Stan Laurel (the other was WAY OUT WEST), this entertaining farce has 'class' written all over it. Beautifully photographed by acclaimed cinematographer Rudolph Maté (later the director of WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, amongst many others) and written by a couple of newcomers to the L&H universe (Felix Adler and Richard Connell) from the story 'The Money Box' by W.W. Jacobs, the film's elaborate plot line revolves around a series of comic coincidences involving the boys' uncomprehending wives (Betty Healey and the diminutive Daphne Pollard), a couple of gold-diggers (Iris Adrian and Lona Andre), a belligerent sea captain (Sidney Toler) and an incredulous restaurateur (Alan Hale). Though uncredited on the print itself, Laurel appears to have bolstered the screenplay with a number of 'typical' L&H routines - the movie opens on a shot of the boys and their wives passing teacups in an endless circle around the dinner table, for example - but these items are shoehorned into an extremely busy scenario which ends in a frantic dockside encounter with a couple of smart-looking gangsters (the equally smart-looking Ralf Harolde and Noel Madison). While there's laughs to be had from the convoluted plot developments and farcical situations, the movie lacks some of the charm and intimacy of L&H's shorter entries. Also starring Arthur Housman (a fabulous comic drunk in many similar movies) and L&H regular James Finlayson. Directed by Harry Lachman (DANTE'S INFERNO).

Laurel and Hardy double the fun here as a pair of twin brothers separated at childhood, and the film does it's best to keep them apart as they manage to confound everyone in their immediate vicinity, including wives Bubbles Laurel (Betty Healey) and Daphne Hardy (Daphne Pollard). I was expecting the 'lost' Bert and Al to show up as a couple of villains since that seemed to be the set up with Ollie's letter from his Mother, but they wound up being as bumbling a duo as Stan and Ollie. Arriving ashore via the SS Periwinkle, part of their gag consists of investing their earnings with James Finlayson, and delivering a pearl ring for their Captain (Sidney Toler). As the pace of the picture quickens, it's easy enough to get the brother pairs mixed up if you're not paying attention, but the sound track helps out a bit, using the familiar Laurel and Hardy theme music when Stan and Ollie appear on screen, while a typical pirate tune heralds the seafaring duo. When I was watching these Laurel and Hardy flicks as a kid back in the Fifties, the pictures weren't quite twenty years old; now, they're not quite eighty years old! Still, it's easy enough to recall the better ones when you catch a scene like the cement tub gag at the end of the story, with the boys rocking back and forth in that impossible balancing act. All in all, a fun romp with one of the classic comedy duos from the early days.

While Stan and Oliver sit at home eating dinner they get a letter from Oliver's mother with a picture of them with their twin brothers. Deciding it best to keep their brothers a secret from their other halves, they burn the picture. Unbeknownst to them though, these very twins have just arrived in town on a boat. Albert and Bert are not the smartest though and, before hitting the town, they allow Chief Engineer Finn to take their money to "invest" it. This means that they have no real cash when they go ashore to deliver a valuable ring for the captain. However when they meet two young ladies with expensive tastes they find themselves in a bit of a pickle.

The old "twin brothers/mistaken identity" plot is hardly the stuff of narrative gold, so I was a bit concerned that the plot would be terrible with this film. However this is actually very precisely structured for a Laurel and Hardy film and, although the plot is hardly convincing, it is very neat and tidy and moves along well. Even if the plot had been poor though, it is the laughs that matter and this film consistently delivers amusing moments even if it doesn't have much in the way of standout scenes. I was tickled all the way through it rather than roaring with laughter but this gentle humour was still enough for me.

Laurel and Hardy are both good but they weren't totally themselves. Laurel enjoyed his usual character but Hardy was given fewer withering looks which is a shame as he does them so well. Finalyson has a bigger role than normal but really I felt him more effective in short film roles that relied on his physical work rather than his delivery. Hale is enjoyable as the waiter, while Housmann is a good drunk.

Overall a solid and enjoyable Laurel & Hardy film that is a pretty tight production by their standards. Not the funniest vehicle you will find for them but certainly more than enough to please their fans.

A variation on Shakespeare's 'COMEDY OF ERRORS' (there are occasional references to the bard through the film),OUR RELATIONS is one of Laurel and Hardy's better features.It is certainly the most stylishly-produced film they ever made,and arguably the best from a technical viewpoint.If there is a fault it is with the overly-complex and overly-plotted storyline;it does rather mitigate against truly classic and hilarious routines that were evident in SONS OF THE DESERT and WAY OUT WEST(their best feature films),because there is so much story conveyed.And it's debatable if the familiar 'double' device,which was becoming hackneyed even in 1936,can squeeze that much humour out of it's various confusions and mistaken identities.The large number of characters supporting Stan and Ollie are also something of a distraction;some are relevant to the story,others are not so and abruptly depart somewhat improbably during the narrative.

These quibbles aside,the film is consistently amusing throughout,with familiar L & H foils (Finlayson,Housman),and those not so familiar (Toler,Hale) giving fine support.The most impressive aspect of OUR RELATIONS is it's technical sheen;it is very handsomely produced;the nightclub set particularly is highly impressive,and possibly the most elaborate and polished production design ever seen in a Laurel and Hardy film.Behind the camera,aspects are pretty accomplished too.Director Harry Lachman,usually more comfortable with straight drama (DANTE'S INFERNO with Spencer Tracy was his other most notable cinematic achievement) handles the comic sequences nicely,and commendably directs with a slick,speedy pace.This quickness has a slight downside;it would have been better if Lachman had sat back on a few occasions to allow L & H to indulge in their slower,yet more nuanced and subtle routines.We do see this near the beginning when Ollie reads a letter from his mother,and Stan conspires to break Ollie's reading glasses.This familiar and intimate bit of business is possibly the funniest scene in the film;the welter of plot complication after means we see virtually none of this well-versed style of theirs from this point on.Their encounters with the various many characters are amusing alright (especially Fin,who is well and truly savaged in his battle with the boys on this occasion),but OUR RELATIONS may have been even superior if Lachman had utilised a more methodical pace and concentration on L & H.Rudolph Mate,one of Hollywood's best Black and White cinematographers of the 30's and 40's, does a very accomplished job on the visuals,with some unexpectedly dramatic lighting,especially with the latter gangster sequence.This scene itself is rather over-stretched and perhaps even a trifle intimidating,with Tiny Sandford,in his final L & H film,not entirely comfortable as a brutish thug here.After being dispatched(entirely by mistake)on the dockside,the gangsters involved unconvincingly vanish from the scene,though Stan,Ollie,Alf and Bert finally meet at the end after all these complications.

OUR RELATIONS is not quite the best Laurel and Hardy feature,but only a small handful(WAY OUT WEST,SONS OF THE DESERT,BLOCKHEADS)could probably regard themselves as superior.There are no musical numbers or romantic sub-plots,perhaps because there's so much plot and incident abound! It would have been preferable had there been more emphasis on just L & H themselves,but from a technical and production point of view,OUR RELATIONS is Laurel and Hardy's most polished film;and while not their funniest,is still very amusing.

Rating:7 and a half out of 10.

Stan and Ollie also play their twin brothers Alfie and Bert in Our Relations which is their own particular spin on Shakespeare's A Comedy Of Errors.

Laurel and Hardy are both a pair of henpecked husbands in perpetual trouble with their wives and also a pair of sailors who just find trouble wherever they are. The sailors are on leave and get a job from their captain Sidney Toler to pick up a ring. They also have their usual run-in with perpetual nemesis James Finlayson who is intent on fleecing them out of their pay on shore leave and good thing he's as dumb as they are.

Our Relations is more a comedy of the usual mistaken identity situations with twins than it is a series of comedy bits that usually characterize a Laurel and Hardy short. One exception to this is a bit with Stan and Ollie getting into a crowded phone booth with movie inebriate Arthur Housman. No need for description, especially with the diet challenged Ollie as one of the people in that phone booth.

Alan Hale is also in this doing a very nice bit of slow burn comedy as the owner of a waterfront dive who runs into both sets of Stans and Ollies driving him a bit crazy. Of course no one is driven crazier than the wives of civilian Stan and Ollie, Daphne Pollard and Betty Healy. You know how these two are with the women in their lives from The Sons of The Desert. That goes double for Iris Adrian and Lorna Andre the two bimbos the sailors pick up at Alan Hale's joint.

Ironically the Comedy Of Errors would make it to Broadway two years later as Rodgers&Hart did a musical adaption of it as The Boys From Syracuse. Our Relations doesn't have the great Rodgers&Hart songs, but it sure doesn't lack for comedy with Stan and Ollie.

Stan's and Oliver's long lost twin brothers, sailors Alf Laurel and Bert Hardy are on shore.Lots of misunderstandings happen, when there are two Laurels and two Hardies in town.Our Relations is a classic L&H film with many funny scenes in it.Many scenes that make you laugh at loud.The movie offers you many funny situations from the beginning to the end.A must see for Stan and Ollie fans.It offers you double fun with the boys.

At this point in the history of Hal Roach Studios, Mr. Roach wanted to progress beyond the "two reeler" concepts and begin to compete with MGM and the other large studios by making feature films exclusively. His main concept was to produce what he termed "streamlined" comedies which would run just about an hour or a little more. The purpose being that he could produce feature length films on a shoestring budget and therefore be more competitive with the large studios. Not a bad idea, in concept. With "Our Relations" Stan Laurel wanted to show that if Roach would allow them to spend more money on production, that he and Ollie could make "A" grade comedies instead of just the quicky type two-reelers. Stan produced this film and the next one to follow, "Way Out West", and it shows what he had been after for a very long time. "Our Relations" is a breezy, fast paced comedy that shows L&H not only capable of the 'ol slapstick bits but also most capable of handling situational comedy as the type Cary Grant and other similar stars were performing at this time. There's lots of original gags and lines in this film demonstrating the apt writing of one of the old masters by this time, Felix Adler, who also wrote for numerous Three Stooges shorts. In a way I'm saddened by this film because it was one of the very few times in L&H's careers that production values were not a concern and they obviously had absolute creative control over their performances. It's a shame that Hal Roach didn't appreciate them enough to keep them on past 1940 and continue with their logical progress toward even greater things. Had he done that, there would have been much more to enjoy from them and maybe they might have even given Abbott & Costello a real run for their money. Whatever the case, if you enjoy L&H, don't miss this one!

This and its companion were the only projects the boys ever said they didn't like. And it has fallen to the bottom of the listings, in part because of limited availability.

But I like it because I am particularly attuned to self-referential films. Explicit self reference (outside of shows about shows) was already becoming a fashionable idea in Hollywood. In this case, we have a plot taken from Shakespeare and characters (as always) inspired by Longfellow.

So a running joke, repeated 6 or seven times, has (at key points) one of them saying "Shakespeare" and the other responding "Longfellow." Also, there's a developing joke from Lewis Carroll about what goes up a chimney? Developing jokes depend on the thing being said differently each time. (The play is on flew/flue.)

I consider this their second best because there's more effort than just the stock physical comedy.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This film has an unusually complex plot for a Laurel and Hardy film. It is reminiscent of A Comedy Of Errors. In addition to playing Stanley and Oliver, the pair also play their long lost brothers Alf and Bert. The comedy fizzes along nicely although the film overall is lacking in classic moments. The main problem is that the characters of the two pairs of brother are not sufficiently differentiated so the viewer is often as confused as the characters in the film between Stanley and Oliver and Alf and Bert. The new print is generally excellent, although there are a few lapses of continuity.

This is another take on the plot of a couple of men having long lost twin brothers. Stan and Ollie have Bert and Al who they know are bad news. Well, those two are working on a ship and are on shore leave as our heroes take their wives out for dinner. This is a series of mistaken identity things where the good guys appear to be crooked and vice versa. Even the wives are confronted by a couple of sailors on the make. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie are seen to be jewel thieves. Jimmy Finlayson is superb as the long suffering ship's captain. This, of course, is a take on the Shakespeare play, "A Comedy of Errors." There is great fun and some of the encounters are wonderful. One of the best things is the boys got to be "bad" once in a while. One of their better efforts.

The sudden arrival of long lost twins creates a crisis for the clumsy but staid Laurel and Hardy that creates instant war in their marriages. Their brothers are irresponsible seamen whose inability to pay a restaurant check results in trouble for their twins when they show up at the same restaurant. The presence of the two young opportunistic females whom the other brothers wined and dined is issue enough, but when seaman James Finlayson shows up with an incriminating picture, the situation gets out of hand. It's only a matter of time before the wives encounter the twins, and more confusion explodes.

Finlayson, with thick Scottish accent, is hysterical, while Alan Hale Sr. gets to take on the Edgar Kennedy slow burn as the restaurant owner. Arthur Housman adds more fun as a drunk who instantly considers sobriety when he begins seeing seeing double of everybody. Diminutive Daphne Pollard, a comic genius in her own right, is hysterical as Oliver's hot-headed wife, while Betty Brown is perfectly cast as Laurel's equally nitwit wife. Some of the gags are taken out of their classic shorts, but make sense in the context of an expanded storyline. Zany comedy rarely gets better than this.

While this full-length Laurel and Hardy film is far from their best, it is very watchable and a lot better than such films as SWISS MISS, BABES IN TOYLAND or their films for RKO or FOX. The film is a cute story about mismatched twin brothers--in addition to Stan and Ollie, the both have identical twins (Alf and Burt) that went off to sea. While this didn't provide any serious belly-laughs, the situation was cute and the performances were engaging when the four men all come to the same town--not realizing their twins were there as well. There were many, many mix-ups and in the process, Stan and Ollie were thrown out by their wives who saw Alf and Burt flirting with some hussies, and Alf and Burt were accused of stealing something that was accidentally given to Stan and Ollie. In addition to not having the usual number of laughs, this film also hinged on one premise that became a bit old after a while. It was almost like one of their short films had been stretched to feature-length. Not bad stuff at all, but a bit ordinary as well. A must for Laurel and Hardy fans, but pretty forgettable for everyone else.

Stan Laurel's first shot at producing eventually becomes a truly enjoyable experience, and one that is certainly more fun than William Shakespeare's Comedy Of Errors, from which this film obviously takes its cue.

Here fans of the dynamic duo get double value as the boys play twin brothers with naturally mirthful results. Stan & Ollie are mischievous sailors on shore leave who are entrusted with the safe delivery of a diamond ring, knowing their personal penchants for blowing all their cash they have left their cash with Captain Toler under strict orders not to let them have it until they are at sail again. It just so happens that the town they are visiting is also the place that their twin brothers {Alfie & Bert} live as henpecked but happy husbands, they may look the same but each respective set of twins are polar opposites in how they live their lives.

The plot takes all four men and hurtles them into scenario after scenario of confusion with great results, the spouses, the villains, the captain, the drunk {a wonderful Arthur Houseman}, and a number of fun characters all get mixed up in the confusion. The film is slow for the first part because we are introduced to a number of characters, but it's really just a question of time before it all comes together, and it certainly does. If you aren't holding in your sides come the wharf finale then you have had a sense of humour bypass !, 9/10.

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 and Ollie don't realise their twin brother, Alfie (Laurel) and Bert (Hardy) are in town on shore leave, carrying a valuable pearl ring entrusted to them by their ship's captain. So begins a case of multiple mistaken identity, with Ollie and Stan's wives Daphne (Daphne Pollard) and Betty 'Bubbles' (Betty Healy), some girls Alfie and Bert met in the bar, Alice (Iris Adrian) and Lily (Lona Andre), ship chief engineer Finn (James Finlayson), and of course, eventually, the Captain, SS Periwinkle (Sidney Toler). It all comes to a head when Stan and Ollie wind up with their feet in cement, dumped over the harbour by hoodlums who want the ring they don't have, luckily Alfie and Bert come along to rescue them, and they can all conclude the mistaken identity problems. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, at just over an hour, 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!

A couple of ordinary fellows find that life can get very complicated when they are mistaken for their long lost identical twins.

Laurel & Hardy are a delight once more in OUR RELATIONS, an enjoyable film which lets the Boys simply do what they did best - just act silly. Looking very much like an expanded short subject, the fast moving plot rushes from one absurdity to another, pulling the happy viewer along with it. Highlight: in the tiny phone booth.

Stan & Ollie are given great assistance from a supporting cast of old pros: Daphne Pollard & Betty Healy as their long-suffering wives; Arthur Housman in his familiar role of a hilarious drunk; Sidney Toler as a ferocious ship's captain; and no-nonsense Alan Hale, very humorous as a burly waiter encountered by the Boys at a local beer garden. Funny James Finlayson, the Boys' frequent foil, has a meatier role than usual as a parsimonious Scots.

Having elsewhere played their wives, or their young sons, in this film, Stan and Ollie eventually encounter their pair of seafaring twins, Alf and Bert, after the later have unknowingly been creating trouble, with their finances, and with a stolen pearl ring. In this mistaken identity farce, Jim Finlayson, as Finn, also plays a part in the first half, when he convinces Alf and Bert to hand over their savings to him, as their unofficial investment manager, claiming he will eventually make them millionaires. Finn gives them only $1. for spending money, which turns out to be woefully inadequate, when they meet a couple of gold digging cuties in Deuker's beer garden. They had stopped here for a beer, on there way to deliver a small package to their captain. Illicitly, they opened the package, to find a peart ring. This would come in handy when it was time to pay the exorbitant bill that the cuties had rung up, in ordering only the most expensive. They lend the ring to the waiter, Joe,(played by Alan Hale) on the condition that they would be back with more money to pay the bill. They went back to Finn to weasel more of their savings out of him. But, he refused. So, they took off his clothes and hocked them for S2., still not nearly enough. He tells them that he had sewn their money into the clothes he was wearing.(odd!) So, they return to the pawn broker and retrieve the clothes, and eventually their money,. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie and their wives: Bubbles(Betty Brown), and Daphne(Daphne Pollard) enter Deuker's. The two cuties are disturbed that the pair has ditched them for 'a couple of 'old crows', insult the wives, and walk out. Apparently, Stan and Ollie give the waiter the money owed for the cutie's expenses(why?) Apparently, because when they paid, the waiter gave them the ring, which they considered of greater worth than the money they paid. After the 4 leave, Burt and Alf return with the money and ask for the ring back. But, the waiter says he already just gave them the ring......Later, Stan and Ollie and the wives go to a high class restaurant, Alf and Bert and a drunk they picked up are there, as are the 2 cuties. The sailor boys talk to the cuties, but don't see their siblings. Somehow? , the ring gets transferred from Stan to Alf. The 2 gangsters take Stan and Ollie for 'a ride', thinking that Stan has the ring(he doesn't). Not finding the ring, Stan and Ollie's feet are encased in cement in semicircular containers, so that they rock back and forth on the edge of the pier, happen to knock all the gangsters into the water, and eventually fall off together. Now, the Captain shows up with police(How did they know where to go??). Also, Bert and Alf show up(Why, and how did they know where to go?, follow the Captain?)). While the captain is partially lifting and lowering the anchor that Stan and Ollie are clinging to, Alf surprisingly finds the ring in his jacket pocket, and he and Bert find the Captain, giving him the ring. The Captain and police freak out, and run out, leaving Alf and Burt to deal with Stan and Ollie, still in the water. See the ending, and, in fact, the whole fiilm at YouTube, both the B&W and colorized versions.........I wonder if the screenplay would have been even more interesting if Alf once thought Ollie was Bert, and Bert thought Stan was Alf. Perhaps that would be too confusing? I'm already confused enough.

It's a good half-hour before this LAUREL & HARDY feature goes into gear because it's a little more plot heavy than usual. "Here's another nice mess you got me into," wails Ollie when their plans to go on the town on shore leave are thwarted by a crooked mate who steals their money (JAMES FINLAYSON). The merry mix-up starts when the boy's twin brothers decide to go to the same beer garden they just exited.

Waiter ALAN HALE has a good line waiting for them when the twin brothers arrive at his beer garden. "I know what you boys will have," he tells them sarcastically. IRIS ADRIAN, as one of the girls the sailor boys picked up, confuses the other twins for the guys that stood them up. And so it goes. Alan Hale returns the diamond ring the sailors left for security, but to the wrong hands.

The wives, who know nothing about the boys having a twin brother, walk off in a huff when the misunderstandings keep piling up. The twin theme really gets a workout with a lot of gags and ALAN HALE is especially good as the exasperated waiter at the beer garden.

If you're a Laurel and Hardy fan, this one is highly recommended for some good chuckles.

Laurel And Hardy

Infamous for their witty sense of humor that whips you around for both, their verbal sparrings and physical sequences, this comedy duo has managed to entertain and inspire millions of viewers and comedians for their own personality and nothing else. The type of characters that they have shined their lights on, may not resonate on terms of their characteristics with you, but can easily be communicated by their deeds. And performing such simplistic persona, Laurel and Hardy has spoken a lot of the society that they resided at that era and the betterment that they seek at the end of it. Laurel using his body language often has the torch in his hand, he is a type-of-bully natured towards Hardy but in a brotherly way, he also plays the smarter cookie between them, the one who is more is touch with practicality. Hardy, on the other hand, has its own rhythm to beat, he lives on his own imagination, he is more emotionally fueled and often the butt of the joke. Teaming up for ensuing chaos for themselves, the writing has always explored the nature of a being, to its best and is its primary armor to draw in the dramatic impact on their audience. Their knack of animating themselves on the gags; something that comes up when they are deep into it and have been exaggerating for a while, doesn't come off as they anticipate every time.

Our Relations

Scamming and scheming its way up the ladder this Laurel and Hardy film is the least Laurel and Hardy-isc. With very little physical sequences, the verbal sparring that it is entirely brimmed of, is neither that funny or gripping enough to keep the audience invested in it. But what elevates the film every now and then, is, yes, a physical comic gag like trying to get out of a phone booth after struggling for life due to the suffocation and the climatic act that literally swings them off and on balance; a mediocre film considering the quality they have previously offered to us.