Toute la vérité

Keep fooling those women. Stan and Ollie are married and living in relative luxury. They see so much of each other that when the Laurels want to come over, the Hardys try to avoid them. It doesn't work and they end up together. Soon the boys go out for ice cream (apparently a regular event because this is not the only time). They end up with the miserable Charlie Hall making this a hard proposition. While out, they save a suicidal woman from drowning. Instead of gratitude, she begins to extort them for money to be quiet about having dealings with her. Modern audiences would recognize her as a hooker. The police are after her and are offering a huge reward. The fun starts as she makes her way to their home and dresses in the wive's clothing. Of course, the job now is to hide this woman from the wives till they can pay her off. Mae Busch is sort of tragic as the woman. Ollie does get the last word in the final scene.

Maybe Laurel and Hardy can't do with out each other's company, but their wives are getting tired of it. Watching this I was reminded how in Goodfellas the wives of the wiseguys as well as them always socialized within the group.

So one night Stan and Linda Lorado come calling on the Hardys and Mrs. Hardy played by Gertrude Astor says pretend we're not at home. I can't say how the subterfuge was foiled, but it was Laurel in his own innocent way and this particular gag is a great example of how Ollie always thinks of himself as so much smarter than Stan but he really isn't.

Well once inside the boys discover there's not enough ice cream so off they go to get some. On the way back they save a drowning Mae Busch and Stan nearly kills Ollie doing it. Another bit you have to see.

Busch is no innocent, she insinuates herself with the boys looking to play a variety of the old badger game.

The rest is indescribable and indescribably funny. As usual Laurel innocently comes out on top. But in this short Ollie does have the last word, though it might be a four letter one.

A must for Stan and Ollie fans.

Laurel & Hardy return to a favourite plot device - that of blackmail - in this reasonably funny short. They save the life of a woman attempting to drown herself and are rewarded by having her threatening to have them arrested for attacking her if they don't take her home with them. Of course, being Stan & Ollie, this is what they do - with typically riotous results as they try to conceal her from their wives.

This one has a couple of classic moments: the encounter with the ice cream salesman in which Stan wants mustachio with his chocolate ice cream, and the boy's noisy attempts to cover the music blaring from another room by banging their crockery and singing at the tops of their voices. Not quite vintage Laurel & Hardy but still extremely funny.

No question Mae Busch, a famous silent film actress in her day, proved to be the absolutely best foil for Laurel and Hardy. Mae made a successful transition to sound films, replete with a good voice and ready to SCREAM bloody murder if necessary!

Here, Stan and Ollie go out to get some ice cream for their "not too happy" wives and just happen to save larcenous Mae from drowning? Mae is at her best, setting up the boys to pay her off -- BIG TIME --or she'll tell the cops (and their wives) they tried to KILL her. What a bucket of suds they step into.

After a few failed attempts to ditch her, they reluctantly bring Mae home? Ollie stashes her in the bedroom (while Stan is telling a dirty joke to the wives about some farmer's daughter?...) INSANE. Charlie Hall, who plays the ice cream salesman here, was also credited for co-writing the film short, and got the job done.

Naturally, the story builds on itself; the boys play hide and seek with Mae, attempting to hide her around the apartment so the wives won't catch on. Both campy and suggestive material, definitely in the pre-code category of the 1930s, and you have to admit, audiences loved it. In fact, this type of risque storyline made Laurel and Hardy enormously popular through the years, inspiring the sex romps of the 60s and 70s, even sitcoms like LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE.

Two notes; Future director Gordon Douglas has a bit as a hotel desk clerk. He began his career working as a writer and casting director for producer Hal Roach. Spanish actress Linda Loredo, who plays Stan's wife, died suddenly after this production following an emergency appendectomy, at age 24. She also acted for Roach in his Spanish-speaking productions.

Get the Laurel and Hardy short film dvd box set for classics like this. Thanks again to METV Plus for running these golden oldies nightly, and MOVIES Net for featuring them Saturday mornings.

The beginning of this film is an almost exact copy of SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME, as Ollie and his wife are trying to spend a quiet evening ALONE, but Stanley (and in this case with his wife) show up unannounced. Ollie and his wife hide and pretend they aren't home, but to no avail. Then, you soon notice that Ollie's wife is a pretty bossy and mean piece of work and she begins nagging him unmercifully. Stan wants ice cream, so he and Ollie leave to bring some back for everyone. On the way back, they catch a woman who appears to be trying to drown herself. Instead of being grateful, she is a major pest who follows them home and tries to make their lives miserable (a rather unbelievable turn of events, I know). And the last portion of the film consists of the boys trying in vain to stop this woman from revealing herself to the wives.

As far as the film goes, it's funny stuff, but also pretty forced. It's awfully familiar and ordinary. Not a bad film, but also not particularly memorable.