hausrathman
Despite their protestations of innocence, Laurel and Hardy find themselves on a prison working on a prison road crew where they make a shambles of an inspection visit by the governor."The Hoose-gow" was Laurel & Hardy's sixth talkie short and a step in the right direction in recovering the energy and verve of their best silent shorts. Shot almost entirely outdoors, this film doesn't have the claustrophobic, studio-bound feel that hindered some of their earlier talkies. The sound mix must have had some level of sophistication. Look at some of the road crew scenes. The wind is whipping up the branches on some of bushes right behind them. With the microphones of the time, that dialogue must've been unusable. The dubbing was fine.The plot of the film is simple but serviceable. Nothing new, but nice. It works its way to a nice, rice throwing battle, which, if not on the level of "Two Tars" or "Big Business," is certainly adequate. The supporting cast is good, featuring the always reliable Tiny Sanford and James Finlayson. Not a classic, but worth watching. Up to this point, their best talkie with the possible exception of "Men O'War."
MartinHafer
This is an okay Laurel and Hardy film--about average overall. While the plot is a bit different than most of their films, the team did do several films where they were convicts (such as LIBERTY and PARDON US). And, of these films, this is perhaps my least favorite. It isn't because the film is really bad, but a lot of the humor isn't all that memorable and the rice throwing at the end seems very derivative--throwing pies, etc. is almost a cliché since it's been seen a lot already in older comedies. I just don't see why throwing food is funny--it just seems like a cheap laugh. If you are a die-hard fan, then this IS a film for you. For others who are not familiar with the duo, find another film first--this film isn't magical or a must-see film.
Theo Robertson
As some people have already pointed out on this page THE HOOSE GOW isn`t by any means the best of the L&H shorts , and when I saw it last week BBC 2 made the error of showing it after THE LAUREL AND HARDY MURDER CASE which is my all time Stan and Ollie short Not to be too negative the action starts with a van arriving at a prison and thus we arrive at the start of the story . This is a better opening than a few other of these shorts where Stan and Ollie bumble around for a few minutes in a scene that has nothing to do with the rest of the story . I could be cruel and point out the character interaction is somewhat confusing since a fellow prisoner tries to get Stan and Ollie out of the clink then plays a practical joke on them with the warders table , but like I said that would be cruel and when you stop to think about it maybe the worst thing that could happen to someone in the American penal system in the 1920s is having Stan and Ollie as cellmates . Imagine Chris Keller and Vern Shillinger from OZ walked into this Laurel and Hardy story !
bob the moo
Despite claiming to be innocent bystanders when a raid occurs, Laurel and Hardy are sentenced to jail time along with the criminals themselves. Despite trying to reason with a guard they find themselves working a gang digging ditches all day every day.Any short film that needs a great deal of set up before it actually starts going anywhere, is asking for trouble. On the surface that may not totally be the case here but I suspect it is one of it's weaknesses. The plot here sounds good but it has a few little unnecessary things that are needed to get it to it's original idea (I assume) which is the prison gang.Once it reaches this stage it is funny but never feels like it reaches a peak. Individual moments are good but it doesn't have any really good sequences I found the rice fight to be so-so rather than hilarious I'm afraid.Laurel and Hardy are good of course but they seem to be hampered by a film that requires them to do things that aren't funny just to set up a joke that is funny. This split of time is almost 50/50 so the result is that the film doesn't seem to be as full and lively as their shorts are normally. Finlayson is usually my favourite support actor in the Laurel and Hardy shorts but here he doesn't get to do his trademark moves and is more of a straight man than a part of the comedy.Overall this is still worth watching but I thought it was one of those rare occasions where the duo simply couldn't stretch the central idea to cover the whole short.
AD
