mark.waltz
You'd think that Laurel and Hardy would get the hint when somebody pays them to go away, obviously annoyed by their concertina. Others are just annoyed by repeat refrains of "In the Good Old Summertime" and sabotage them at every chance. Then, they offer to take a kindly police officer to dinner for "three nice juicy steaks smothered in onions" and can't pay the check. It's out in the cold for them, head first, one of them ending up in truly cold water in a really zany finale. This isn't at all sensible (especially the second half) or even a story, but it's difficult not to laugh. The final shot us truly one of their most oddball.
richard.fuller1
Below Zero, to me, is one of the strongest depictions of life and existence at the offset of the depression. I have always remembered this program for its opening of these two guys very unimpressively playing their street music in the cold. There is truly something effective about the cold look. The snow looks its usual fake, but the stillness and immobility seems to be clear and the unpleasant mood brought about, especially with the depression having just started less than a year earlier. The program enters other territory, but ends with the guys outside in the cold, in an alley, in a sense, worse off than when they began. The final joke was always a bit lame to me, but had the entire program dealt with existence on the street in the ice and snow, instead of venturing into the restaurant, the program would have been superb. An academy award was a brand new novelty at this time. Had the guys received one here, they wouldn't have known what it was for. So often we get unhappiness during the depression from the woman's perspective or a child's, but this one is unique being from the guy, who are simply doing the best they can. the only way this program could have truly been richer would have been if Stan and Ollie were street cleaners. But wayward street musicians was definitely enough.
rsyung
Although the subject of this short is particularly grim, I find myself constantly drawn to it. It has a certain minimalist attraction...very little dialogue and no underscoring(probably because of it being a relatively early sound subject and also so as not interfere with the boy's own music-making), and bleak and austere snow-driven sets. Stan and Ollie truly become victims of their dire circumstances and it is only the bizarre physical distortion at the end(Laurel was quite fond of such endings) that takes us out of our reality and back into theirs.
Ron Oliver
A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short.It's BELOW ZERO and the Boys' attempt to make some money as sidewalk musicians has proven to be a spectacular failure. Then Stan finds a wallet loaded with cash lying in the snow...A funny early talkie. Highlight: the snowball fight. That's Charlie Hall as the street cleaner & Frank Holliday as the friendly cop. Ollie sings `In The Good Old Summertime.'
AD
