MartinHafer First, a summary of what this wartime Laurel and Hardy film is about, and then some background information and my impressions of the movie.Stan and Ollie are janitors at a detective agency and are working late at night when a crackpot scientist calls them--asking for a couple of detectives to guard his new top secret bomb (I wasn't sure at first if he was referring to a weapon or the movie itself). Ollie announces that he and Stan are detectives and will be right over. Unknown to them, the neighbors who live next to the crackpot are crooks and two of them plan on stealing the bomb to sell to an enemy power.Once at the home of the professor, he entertains the boys by showing off his amazing space-saving room as well as feeding them a meal of food in pill form. Neither of these key moments in the film are funny, though it's obvious they were intended as laugh riots. I think showing a documentary on skin diseases would have been funnier! Later, after the crooks try to steal the formula, Stan and Ollie take off on a cross country chase. During this time, they board a train and they blatantly rip off one of their earlier films, BERTH MARKS. While I wasn't a huge fan of BERTH MARKS (it's not one of their better shorts), Stan and Ollie manage to redo it and take out all the humor and originality. Supposedly, Stan tried to get the director to change the scene and do it quite differently (on a plane), but Fox simply wanted to churn this out regardless of whether or not it was funny or a quality product. Stan and Ollie's lack of enthusiasm is quite evident in their delivery.Ultimately, the boys blunder onto a radio controlled plane and the movie ends with a scene that really seems to come from out of nowhere, as they parachute from the plane and drop this secret bomb on a Japanese sub. So, literally and metaphorically, the film ends with the team dropping a huge bomb.From 1941 to 1950 was the absolute low-point for the team of Laurel and Hardy. Following SAPS AT SEA (1940), the team no longer was under contract with Hal Roach Studios and became free agents--mostly selling their services to 20th Century Fox, but also to MGM and a French production company. None of these products remotely resembled the finely crafted films the boys made in the 1920s and 30s, but a few (such as JITTERBUGS) managed to be almost passable entertainment. A few, such as DANCING MASTERS, ATOLL K and THE BIG NOISE managed to mostly make fans of the team cringe--as Laurel and Hardy looked old and rather sickly, plus the films simply weren't funny. Most of this was because the companies had no interest in input from Stan--who often contributed ideas to the Roach films but was completely ignored by the other studios. Of all the bad films made by Laurel and Hardy, however, THE BIG NOISE must rank as the very worst--mostly because it doesn't offer a single laugh...not even one! This isn't to say the film is unwatchable--it is watchable--sort of like a train wreck. The main reason I saw it was because I have seen almost every available Laurel and Hardy film as well as almost all of their existing shorts before they teamed up--so I would eventually like to say I've seen every one of their films. I think I have at most 3 or 4 to go.There is one other reason I wanted to see THE BIG NOISE and that's because it managed to be listed in "The 50 Worst Films of All Time" book by Harry Medved. I have probably seen about 30 to 40 of these bad films and just like my quest for Laurel and Hardy films, I'd like to one day see them all. Now, having seen it, I can honestly say it is the worst Laurel and Hardy film but it isn't bad enough to make the list in the book--there are probably a few hundred movies worse than THE BIG NOISE--though this isn't much of a consolation!! My advice is that if you are obsessive-compulsive about Laurel and Hardy films or you also want to see the supposed 50 worst films ever made, then by all means watch it. Otherwise, with so many wonderful films to their credit, please see some other Laurel and Hardy film instead--any would be preferable to this unfunny pile of bilge.By the way, I have noticed in reviews for the later Laurel and Hardy films that most of the reviews were amazingly positive--so positive I either wonder if they never saw the earlier films (which deserve high praise) or if the positive reviews were really a vote to say "I love the team no matter what". Well, I love the team, but can't see how a sane person could like this mess of a film. It just isn't funny.

bakerd1-1 I don't know why this movie always gets such a bad rap. I think it is funnier than any of the other non Hal Roach films (this was a 20th Century Fox release.) It is considerably different than many of their other movies (no pies in the face, no cars sawed in two, and no vase smashing) because of ration issues during World War II. (Although it claims to have no destruction in it that's not entirely true because Ollie gets his pants ripped up in the hallway in one scene.) But you can definitely detect wartime feelings abounded during production. Indeed that's the story. Eccentric California Inventor has been driving the patent office in DC crazy with goofy prototypes. He finally may have struck a chord with a "blockbuster bomb that sounds like a popgun." DC is interested but they're not the only ones that are interested. Next door kniving neighbors who are mixed up with a cadre of gangsters are also eying the explosive to send to the Axis powers. In a telephone mix-up (purpetrated by the Inventors son, a very young Robert Blake) he is advised to guard the bomb with his life. The solution? Enter Laurel and Hardy. Two wannabe detectives working for a now vacant janitor office (all employees are on government business). With no options they accept the job to guard the bomb. The job is carried out in usual Laurel and Hardy fashion: first Ollie makes friends with a streetlight that has been freshly painted, then Stan wrecks havoc on an expensive painting, and the old codger father-in-law explains to Stan the dangers of his daughter who lives in the house. That's just the beginning... Some funny scenes to watch for- The light's out scene in the push button bedroom, the train scene, and the rigged poker game. Possibly the funniest moment in this movie comes when Stan is playing "Mairzy Doats" on the concertina accordion. One of the funniest scenes I've seen! This is a great movie, don't let others talk you out of seeing it.

NYCOPYGUY Here it is - the film that had the worst reputation for many years, due to several books about films in general and Laurel & Hardy films in particular that labeled it the team's "worst ever." Many fans who never had an opportunity to view the film took those books at their word... until they actually saw the film. Now they realize that not only is "The Big Noise" one of the best of the later films the team did for the big studios like MGM and in this case, 20th Century Fox (several of which admittedly were not among the best due to studio interference and such), but it also compares favorably to many of the classic films done during the team's golden years at the Hal Roach Studios (even besting a few of those gems, if you ask me).Find out for yourself. This film is now available on DVD as part of a 3-disc set that also includes two other Fox L&H features, "Great Guns" (their first for Fox, and one I dislike - it tries to take square Laurel & Hardy pegs and force them through round Abbott & Costello holes, in my opinion) and "Jitterbugs" (a slightly-above average film that shows how the team could have continued their careers as character actors)."The Big Noise" has a loopy charm that will just carry you away if you let it. It is filled with reprises of some classic L&H routines from yesterday (some think that's desperation, but I see it as an homage) and an absurd, farcical plot. This is a film that I had not seen in about 25-30 years, but had vivid memories of. When my Sons of the Desert tent (the Laurel & Hardy aficionado club) ran the film at one of our meetings, I was shocked: my memories were absolutely right on target! "The Big Noise" had stuck with me for many years. And rightfully so. One area in which it improves on a lot of the other '40s L&H films that it featured some supporting characters who were supposed to be comical, just like in the Roach films.I will forever be baffled over this film's bad reputation. If you stack it up against some of the other '40s L&H films, at least the boys are IN the action-- they're not taking a back seat. They're also not portrayed so much as doddering old fools ("Air Raid Wardens," "A-Haunting We Will Go") or servants ("Nothing But Trouble"). They are quite close to their Roach persona's, in my opinion. The only compromise seems to be less slapstick, but that is in obvious deference to their advance ages, it seems-- I think it's okay to have a "pill as a meal" gag instead of Ollie falling in the mud since they're older here. Also, it's just absolutely crazy (in a fun, entertaining way, in my opinion) that they happen to wind up parachuting over the water and somehow there's an enemy sub in it, but that's part of the loopy charm of this movie, and I feel it has one of the best closing shots of any of the "bizarre endings" Stan favored for a lot of the films. This is a really fun film that was perfect for the times in which it was made and still can produce laughs today.So don't believe the (negative) hype - this is NOT the team's worst. Save those darts for "A-Haunting We Will Go" and "Nothing But Trouble!"

theowinthrop In the Medved Brothers' usually on target book, THE 50 WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME, THE BIG NOISE is given a degree of prominence as the worst of Laurel & Hardy's films. John McCabe dismissed it in his MR. LAUREL AND MR. HARDY by saying the plot of the film can be described in one sentence - the boys are assigned to deliver a bomb and do so. Yet a number of people have also supported it as one of their cutest, if not funniest movies.When L & H left Roach in 1941, they had planned to do a production of the Victor Herbert's THE RED MILL as their next movie after SAPS AT SEA. They probably were picking up on their success in operetta films (BABES IN TOYLAND, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL, THE DEVIL'S BROTHER, even SWISS MISS) as a sure fire way of showcasing their humor. I have often thought about this project. No doubt the roles of Kid Connor and Con Kidder that David Montgomery and Fred Stone had originated would have been redone by the screenplay writer (with advise from Stan) to fit the person-as of Stan and Ollie. But by 1941 the cycle of films in Hollywood which were based on operettas had slowly collapsed (the last major ones were Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald's BITTERSWEET, as well as Eddy and Rise Stevens' THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER). Shows based on current stage hits were more likely to be made into films (the next and last Eddy and MacDonald film would I MARRIED AN ANGEL, based on the Rodgers and Hart stage musical). It seems doubtful that any of the studios would have been willing to finance a production of a 1905 operetta hit, whose major big-time number was "In Old New York".Yet that was what Stan was proposing (and Ollie would have supported him on that). William Everson has suggested that actually, by 1941, the boys were tired, and needed more time to rejuvenate their material. I end up feeling that this is true. The best of the later films, JITTERBUGS, has some nice moments (Hardy romancing Lee Patrick, and shepherding around Stan in drag as an old lady), and includes some rejuvenated material at the conclusion of the film from Alice Faye's movie, SALLY, IRENE AND MARY, but (as John McCabe suggested) it's plot does not make any sense (particularly as Bob Bailey's character, a major one in the plot, seems good natured one moment and opportunistic and crooked the next).THE BIG NOISE does have a straightforward plot, tied in with the current war effort. Arthur Space is one of those screwy scientist/inventors who crop up in many comedies of the 1920s to 1930s. He has invented food pills that replaced full course meals, and has an impossible push button modern house (after the 1939 - 40 New York Worlds Fair "push button" future space saving homes become a perennial joke in comedies - and a weak one at that - see the Marx Brothers contemporary film THE BIG STORE and the ethnic children in the disappearing beds scene).Space has, however, designed a new secret weapon - a highly powerful bomb. This is the "Big Noise" of the title. The government is testing it with the intention of using it against the Axis, but their agents are planning to steal it to use against us (shades of Lionel Atwill as Moriarty in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON). In need of guards for his weapons, Space hires L & H thinking they are detectives (they are janitors in a detective school).In reality the interplay of L & H with Space, Robert Blake (then Bobbie Blake), Esther Howard (who shows a sexual interest in Hardy - quite unusual for him, and very unsettling to him), and the cast is actually quite good. The result is that the material, even if reused from earlier films (the bit from BERTH MARKS about changing in the upper berth of a train) is quite well done. And since the film is actually keeping a coherent story for a change (as opposed to JITTERBUGS) the film is more than just tolerable.It is also nice to see that it did introduce one popular tune to movies: the tongue-twister tune, "Mares Eat Oats and Does Eat Oats and Little Lambs Eat Ivory", which is called "Maisey Doats" or "Maizy Doats" for short. Stan supposedly plays it on his accordion in the film.A nice movie, possibly the boys' last good comedy.