Finally, at long last, I have stumbled upon a Laurel and Hardy short that perfectly balances slapstick comedy and verbal banter to create a short that is a winning combination of the both, without being too reliant on the former. Helpmates concerns Hardy, who awakens after an evidently-raucous party took place in his apartment, with everything in total disarray and his wife coming home that very day. Hardy - after giving himself quite the hilarious lecture in the mirror - does all he can when he wakes up with a hangover and without a clue; he phones Laurel, who rushes over (after playing the most believable rendition of stupid and witless) to help his longtime pal clean up before the arrival of his wife.
Helpmates is the classic comedy short that derives its humor from the thesis question "just how much can go wrong for these two well-meaning individuals?" So much destruction and chaos is caused by trying to remedy the situation than was in the process of not even caring about the situation or the well-being of the house during the unseen party, it seems. Windows are broken, people are injured, and a cacophony of madness ensues for the boys as they try to do the right thing but end up doing everything completely and totally wrong.
Helpmates delicately balances the insanity with the narratively witty, setting up the short in a "one thing leads to another" manner rather than just having a plethora of ridiculousness cobbled together with no rhyme or reason. There's a structurally insanity to Helpmates that makes it so fun, and the age-old idea of destroying something even more when you're trying to fix it almost never gets old. This is one of the most fun Laurel and Hardy shorts I know, even more so considering it was a recipe for slapstick monotony.
Starring: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Directed by: James Parrott.
