Robert J. Maxwell Stan and Ollie hadn't yet become Stan and Ollie. In this one, they're strangers. Stan is a taxi driver who finds himself unwittingly a stowaway on a cruise ship. Ollie is the Purser. Also aboard are a drunken millionaire and a lady con artist whose midget husband poses as a baby and helps her cheat at cards.Various gags follow, some slapstick and some an iota more sophisticated, as when the "baby" entices Stan into shooting craps and uses loaded dice. Do people still shoot craps? It seems a lost form of gambling, just as shooting marbles among kids has disappeared.It's a silent picture and it's interesting to see that Stan's character is far more assertive than it was to become in the next few years. Stan has also developed his "crying face" which seems only half there without the accompanying whine of distress.

Jackson Booth-Millard 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. Millionaires are boarding the steamship Miramar sailing to Monte Carlo, with girl obsessed first mate Purser Cryder (Hardy), second meanest man to keeping an eye out. Boarding the ship are con artist Madame Ritz (Anita Garvin) and midget husband Roger (Harry Earles) posing as a Baby, being driven by cab driver Chester Chaste (Laurel), who unintentionally boards, and as a stowaway has to work to stay aboard. He mucks about with passengers in the play room on a skipping room and with a ball, but he sets off to work. While Ritz goes off to set up a game of bridge and her husband smokes his cigar, the husband of Baroness Behr (Lupe Velez), the Baron (Will Stanton) is very drunk, and when Chester tries to help by putting him back in his room, he keeps getting chucked out. While Purser is trying to assist some women on the stairs, Chester, bringing drinks in, has a money and dice game with "baby" Roger, eventually realising he is using trick dice to always land on 2 and 5. Realising this he chases Roger under and over the board many times before Ritz returns with Purser behind her. At the swimming pool Chester pushes in the rude Baroness, and all the women want to soak him, but end up doing it to Purser. Ritz wants help getting "baby" Roger's pram down the stairs, Chester just pushes it down and Ritz punches him on the nose. During the bridge game, Chester can tell that Roger is helping Ritz out, so he helps one of the other female players win the game, and he ends up punched again. Roger steals some money and hides it in the back of his doll, and Chester wants his dice cash back, and he tosses the doll down a chimney to make sure he gets it. Roger is covered in soot, so Purser tells Chester to go and wash him, and after this is unsuccessful Chester takes the doll of cash and other valuables to Purser and a crowd. In the end, Madame Ritz and Roger are arrested, Chester throws down his has, and that of Captain Bull (Frank Brownlee) showing his quitting of his job, and Purser gets two black eyes from Roger. Filled with good slapstick and all classic comedy you want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable silent film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Worth watching!

MartinHafer Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were not deliberately planned to be a comedy team. They did several films together over the years starting with LUCKY DOG and Hal Roach Studios didn't realize they'd be a good team until they just happen to make about a dozen films together. The fact that they appeared together pre-official teaming wasn't surprising, as studios like Roach tended to use the same groups of actors again and again. It was only by chance that they slowly evolved into a team.SAILORS BEWARE is one of these earlier films where Stan and Ollie are not yet a bone fide team. Like so many of these movies, their parts are very separate and they play against each other more than with each other. Because of this their chemistry is all wrong compared to what we are used to and most of these earlier films are sub-par for the boys. However, in the case of SAILORS BEWARE, the film is still excellent--one of the best before they became an official team. In fact, it is better than quite a few of their later films as well due to an excellent and exciting script.The film begins with cabbie Laurel getting stuck on a cruise ship after bringing aboard a rich lady and her baby. Because Laurel isn't able to afford the fare, he is made to work on board--with Ollie as his not particularly nice boss. At about the same time, there are a number of thefts on the ship and it's up to Stan to get to the bottom of it.Seeing that the baby is played by Harry Earles--a somewhat famous dwarf who acted in several films--it isn't too surprising to guess who's behind the thefts. Interestingly, Earles plays much the same character he played in both the silent and sound versions of THE UNHOLY THREE (with Lon Chaney). Still, despite me recognizing him, it still was an exciting and funny film--one worth seeing by anyone--not just Laurel and Hardy fans.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared in a substantial number of films together before they were officially teamed by producer Hal Roach. In fact, Roach (a very shrewd businessman) always kept Stan and Ollie under separate contracts to his studio, intentionally dating the contracts so that Hardy's would expire (and be renewed) six months after Laurel's. This clever gambit prevented Stan and Ollie from leaving Hal Roach Studios simultaneously and negotiating a better deal for themselves as a team elsewhere. This also explains why Roach produced 'Zenobia' as a solo vehicle for Hardy: because Laurel's contract had expired and he had not yet renewed.During the period before their official team-up, the Roach shorts that co-starred Laurel and Hardy tended to give them separate footage (as in 'Flying Elephants'), or to feature them as rivals rather than allies. Still, the strong chemistry between Stan and Ollie shines through, often quite hilariously, even when they're foiling each other rather than working together.'Sailors Beware' is one of the "pre-team" Laurel & Hardy team-ups. Not only is this a very funny movie; it's also a very interesting example of how Stan and Ollie play *against* each other as antagonists. As they're not yet a team, they're still using 'funny' character names instead of their own monickers.Stan is Chester Chaste (ouch!), a cab driver who picks up a fare: a stylish brunette (Anita Garvin) with her baby in tow. Mother and infant are in a hurry to get to the quayside, to board the Miramar, a luxury liner. Stan's passengers board safely, but then Stan's cab gets caught in a cargo hoist -- with Stan inside, of course -- and gets yanked aboard the ship. By the time Stan gets out of his cab, the ship is underway ... with Stan shanghaied.Oliver Hardy, in a role definitely subordinate to Laurel's, plays the ship's pompous purser. As far as he's concerned, Stan is a stowaway. He puts Stan to work, to pay his passage.Meanwhile, it turns out that the brunette is Madame Ritz, the notorious jewel thief. And the 'baby' is in fact her husband and accomplice Roger ... a midget! Roger is played by midget actor Harry Earles. In several silent films, including this one, Earles played a midget who impersonates a baby ... and his disguise is astonishingly convincing. Just occasionally, the adult Earles actually did play a genuine baby on screen, sometimes as a stunt double. Regrettably, the arrival of talkies ruined Earles's acting career: he had a thick German accent, was getting a bit too old for nappies, and the talkies revealed that he had no real acting ability. He ended his screen career as one of the Munchkins: the one with the dark blue shirt in the Lollipop Guild trio.Madame Ritz and her faux infant have boarded the ship with the specific intention of robbing the wealthy passengers. If a baby gets caught in the act of snatching a pretty bauble and stuffing it into his pram ... well, surely it's an innocent mistake, yes? There are several hilarious set-pieces in 'Sailors, Beware' ... and the implausible comedy is made funnier by the fact that Earles's baby impersonation is indeed so realistic. In one scene, the 'baby' suckers Stan into a crap game and proceeds to swindle him. I laughed at this, but I found it too contrived: Stan's character in this movie doesn't seem *quite* dumb enough to fail to suspect that a baby who can shoot craps isn't really a baby.But this is the sort of humour that can't stand up to analysis. 'Sailors Beware' is very funny, and an interesting example of Laurel and Hardy -- as opposed to Laurel & Hardy -- playing against each other. It doesn't hurt that Anita Garvin is quite sexy here, as usual. I'll rate this comedy 7 out of 10.