Prismark10
Block-Heads is the last film Laurel & Hardy made for Hal Roach, it is longer than their normal shorts but at least it is not padded out with musical dance numbers.It starts off in 1917 with the duo in the trenches fighting in France during World War 1. Laurel has been left behind guarding the trenches as Hardy and the rest of the troops went over the top. The trouble is no one told Laurel that the war has been over for 20 years.At a veterans home Laurel is reunited with Hardy and that is when trouble begins as Hardy invites him home for a steak dinner but Oliver's wife has other ideas, before long their female neighbour comes to help but Hardy needs to make sure he does not get caught in a an uncompromising position.The film is a series of skits from Hardy thinking Laurel has lost his leg and carrying him home, to Laurel crashing a car in Hardy's garage, the lift not working so the duo climb the steps and get involved in disputes with the residents plus a lot, lot more.After this film the duo headed for a decline but this is one of the best.
classicsoncall
Lots of funny bits comprise this Laurel and Hardy feature, many of which could conceivably have been reworked into individual shorts. The story finds Stan discovered while still manning his sentry post from the first World War, but twenty years later! Subsequently, Ollie looks him up at the Old Soldiers Home and from there it's one disaster after another. I've always differentiated Laurel and Hardy from other comedy teams like Abbott and Costello in the sense that they do things funny rather than simply doing funny things. Although there are a fair share of funny things happening in this flick as well, with able assists from the likes of Billy Gilbert, James Finlayson and even former Our Gang bully, Tommy Bond. Stan's smoking pipe bit always manages to crack me up and the topper this time has him brushing the ashes out of his hand when he's done smoking. Minna Gombel is on hand as Ollie's less than understanding wife, but on the other hand, what's to understand? Rounding out the main cast is Patricia Ellis as Mrs. Gilbert, who's quite pretty while doling out her own share of laughs with the covered chair gimmick. A very funny treat for fans of the comedy duo that would please just about anyone.
tavm
Like their previous feature-Pack Up Your Troubles, this one has Laurel & Hardy in a World War I setting, only here while Ollie has gone back to a normal life, Stan is left still guarding his post 20 years after it ended! In the present time, Ollie has been married for a year to the day so he has an hour to go out. That's when he discovers Stan back from his duty at the soldiers home when someone shows his picture in the paper. I'll stop there and just say this was another of their hilarious movies from the late '30s complete with some of their regular supporting cast of James Finlayson and Billy Gilbert as well as some newbies like Minna Gombell and Patricia Ellis, who I just watched in Romance on the Run. I also liked Marvin Hatley's score as I always like his music in the other L & H pictures. So on that note, I highly recommend Block-Heads. P.S. This was Hal Roach's last film under his M-G-M contract before switching to United Artists afterward. He sold his Our Gang shorts series to his former distributor beforehand so this turned out to be one of those players-Tommy Bond's-last appearance for his former boss as he'd join the rest of the gang at his new Culver City neighbor. Also, if you'd read Randy Skretvedt's book, "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies", you probably know about Stan's original ending and his boss Roach vetoing it. Personally, I think I liked Hal's better.
bkoganbing
Do you have the feeling that the folks in the army deliberately forgot to tell Stan that World War I was over? Maybe they just didn't want the troop ship to sink on the way back from France.If that was the case Ollie made the mistake of his life when he decided to invite his long lost buddy Stan over to meet the wife and have a good home cooked meal. Ollie's happily married now to Minna Gombell and when we first meet them he seems to be one happy well adjusted man.Blockheads really starts when Stan is reunited with Ollie at the old soldier's home. I guess a grateful government is giving Stan free room and board for being the last man discharged from World War I. Still there's nothing like home cooking.I think Blockheads offers us the proposition that Ollie can be a well adjusted if somewhat fatuous individual by himself. It's only apparently when he interacts with Stan that things just seem to happen.And in fact that's what Blockheads is, a series of gags from the time that Ollie meets Stan at the home and just assumes he's an amputee because he's decided to sit a wheelchair rigged up for one. Right up to the point where big game hunter Billy Gilbert, the Hardy's next door neighbor chases the both of them out of the house because he catches Mrs. Gilbert in Ollie's pajamas. How she got in them? You have to see Blockheads to find out.Best gag I thought was Stan dealing with an obnoxious neighbor who has just bullied Ollie into fetching the neighbor kid's football. Very priceless bit of comeuppance. To see how in the space of an hour Laurel manages to literally become a home wrecker, catch Blockheads.
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