El barco fantasma

Laurel and Hardy are hanging out around a port with no money when they hear of a ship that needs a crew – the captain can't get a man to join him because they believe his ship to be haunted. Laurel and Hardy agree to help the captain for payment by knocking out men and putting them on the ship. Things go well until Laurel and Hardy are also knocked out and loaded onto the ship – with a none too friendly crew – however the captain says he will protect them while they are onboard. Staying onboard at every port, Laurel and Hardy are put in charge of looking after a drunken crew member. A confusion over a gun leads them into panic over a `live ghost'.

The Live Ghost is a good short that could easily have been expanded into a longer film were it not for the tenuous `ghost' climax. As it stands it has a reasonable plot with very good characters. Unlike some of their shorts this feels like one idea that has been expanded into a 3 or 4 scene story as opposed to 2 good scenes worked into a story. As such it feels a lot more like a film than a sketch and is the better for it. The onshore scenes are good and the action on the ship, although a little stretched, is well delivered and very funny.

Laurel and Hardy are, of course, excellent, and it is their delivery that makes the conclusion (the live ghost of the title) work rather than seeming laboured in terms of plotting. The support cast is also good and well served. Rather than being just goons or fall guys, the actors all feel like characters – Walter Long as the frustrated captain (`I heard your ship has a ghost' - `stop SAYING that!') was my favourite and gave the film a more rounded feel that went beyond Laurel and Hardy while still keeping them very much at the core.

Overall this is an enjoyable film that is an all round showcase for the talents of Laurel and Hardy. Their delivery makes the material much funnier than it could have been, and the plot and a good cast add to the feeling of this being more than just a sketch stretched to several scenes.

This Laurel & Hardy film makes great use of some their best regular supporting actors: Walter Long, Charlie Hall, Mae Busch and Arthur Housman. I don't know whether it gets enough often mentioned, but part of the hilarity of Stan's and Ollie's films are owed to these supporting actors too. For it is them who also become familiar to the viewer and therefore form an essential part of their humour in general. Knowing how tough guy Walter Long always is, you laugh twice as much at him than usual when you see that he does not care a bit when Stan hits his head with a pan. Another familiar laughing "bonus" is got from Charlie Hall's sadism and Housman plays again the drunk. Mae West's domina voice always guarantees you a freezing effect down at your stomach.

The film itself makes moderate use of the concepts laughter and fear. Hijacking crew into haunted ship is funny in itself too, but the Ghost that Stan & Ollie accidentally evoke crowns the whole show. This one definitely belongs into very essential Laurel & Hardy. It is a very pleasant viewing for both master and student.

THE LIVE GHOST,out here in New York,is shown in conjunction with the annual Thankgiving showings of MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS---so I've pretty much memorized everything in it down to t he last comma.

Walter Long was saying his near-farewells,as only GOING BYE BYE and an overlooked bit in PICK A STAR(1937) remained in his work with Stan&Ollie.

The boys agree to help roughneck sea captain Long shanghai a crew;only to end up knocked out themselves and out at sea--with the men they abducted in an unforgiving mood.

Long is sensitive about people referring to his ship as "haunted" and growls that the next guy who says that "will get his head twisted around so when he's walking North he'll be looking South".

Their drunken shipmate Arthur Houseman falls into a vat of whitewash and Stan&Ollie end up the victims of the threat.

Mae Busch makes one of her last appearances with the boys,and Charlie Hall is cast against type as a roughneck seaman.

These days,the price of eggs would work against their shanghai-ing method.

And remember--the ocean is infatuated with sharks.

When the L&H Fan Club "The Sons of the Desert" was formed in the early 1960's, Stan, who had sustained a crippling stroke, nevertheless gave his blessing to the formation of the club and supplied the motto for it, which I have repeated above. (Another of his witticisms which I like is "You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead").

Theo Robertson in his comment above wondered whether either of the boys were fishermen. I don't believe Hardy was but Laurel in his younger days was a keen big game fisherman and fished regularly off Catalina Island for swordfish or marlin. Catalina Island, Theo, is about an hour boat trip from Los Angeles, for your information. He loved the water and had his own boat in those days.

In 1962 I visited Stan at his apartment in the Oceana Hotel in Santa Monica. A wonderful experience and a fond memory for this writer. One question I asked him was about Walter Long, the villain of villains in many of their films. His reply was that surprisingly, Long was one of the mildest men he had ever known and absolutely would not hurt a fly. That came as a big surprise for me.

With today being Halloween, I thought I'd celebrate the day by watching some comedy teams' films that deal with various scary things. In this one, Stan & Ollie are offered some money by a ship captain (Walter Long) to shanghai some drunken men to work on his boat. They succeed but also end up on it themselves. Since those men are stuck with them, the boys are protected by the captain. So when Laurel & Hardy decide to stay at each port, the captain orders them to keep an eye on one really drunk sailor (Arthur Housman) from leaving. That's when the fun really begins...It took a while but as the short kept on, I really found myself laughing especially when Stan gets really scared and then Ollie becomes so as well. Housman really piles his standard drunk act to hilarious results. Oh, and a threat from Long results in yet another freak ending Stan usually likes to employ to outrageous effect. So on that note, The Live Ghost gets a high recommendation from me.