classicsoncall I'm always learning something new when I research a film on the IMDb, like how this Laurel and Hardy short was a sequel of sorts to "Them Thar Hills". So now I'll have to search that one out to round out the experience.When I watch anything with Stan and Ollie in it today, I have to marvel at just what a pair of comic geniuses they were. As a kid, I always preferred Abbott and Costello, but I realize now that that with A&C, they did funny things, but Laurel and Hardy did things funny. As an example, just check out the timing involved whenever they leave Hall's grocery store and eat one of his cookies. They start out very simply and wind up after three or four tries in an increasingly complex choreography that's just brilliant to watch.There's also the misdirection with the pilfering customer in Stan and Ollie's electrical supply store, who starts out on foot and winds up hauling the entire store away in a moving van. With the boys none the wiser, they carry on their feud with Hall in an escalating series of comic encounters. And how about Ollie getting away with that line to Hall's wife coming down the stairs from the bedroom - "I've never been in a position like that before". I would never have picked up on that double entendre as a kid, but boy oh boy, it was right out there in plain sight for the alert viewer to pick up on and and go 'huh?'.In any event, just about any Laurel and Hardy short offers as much entertainment as anyone else's full length feature, so taking in three or four at a time can only quadruple your fun. And by the way, why is it you never hear about alum any more?

bkoganbing Stan and Ollie have gone into business with an electrical appliance store and it just happens to be located next to the grocery store of Mae Busch and Charley Hall. As fate would have it they've got a history with Mae and Charley going back to a previous short subject Them Thar Hills. Charley's of a suspicious nature, no doubt aggravated by seeing Ollie coming down the stairs of his apartment above the store and saying goodbye to Mae. There is an innocent explanation for it all, in fact it was caused by Stan, I won't say how.This gets Hall's back up and they start a war of pranks for the rest of the 19 minute short subject. Which are a series of slapstick gags the boys pull on Charley and he keeps retaliating. It escalates pretty good and they come, not fast and furious, but kind of slow cooked the better to savor.Though Tit for Tat probably should be seen back to back with Them Thar Hills, it's a good enough short subject to stand on its own. Why would it have gotten an Academy Award nomination if it wasn't?

Snow Leopard With a fine combination of both obvious and subtle laughs, "Tit For Tat" is one of the funniest Laurel & Hardy short comedies. It is a follow up to "Them Thar Hills", and it plays off of the memorable confrontation scene with Charlie Hall in the earlier movie - this time, Stan and Ollie open up an electrical supply store, only to find out that Charlie runs the grocery store next door. It doesn't take much for a full-scale battle to break out once again. It's very funny creative chaos - they make full use of the props in the two stores, and there is plenty of hilarious slapstick along with some more subtle humor (for example, watch for the running gag each time they go next door). Not to be missed for fans of these master comics.

Ron Oliver A LAUREL & HARDY Comedy Short. The Boys are opening a new electrical supply store and are surprised to learn that the grocery next door is owned by the same bickering couple they met disastrously in THEM THAR HILLS. Mr. Hall quickly impugns Ollie's honor & the resulting TIT FOR TAT struggle, in which they wreck havoc on each other's person & property, quickly reaches donnybrook proportions...A hilarious film, one of Stan & Ollie's best. The battle royal with the grocer is long & very satisfying. Notice the running gag of the little fellow robbing the Boys blind. Charley Hall & Mae Busch play the neighbors.