Barqueiro de Voga

Can it get any better than this. Stan has a great idea. Instead of working for "the Man," they should get a boat and fish themselves, thereby accruing all the profits. Since they have little money, it means buying a piece of junk boat and fixing it up. Actually, their ideas are sound and at times their skills aren't bad...but when it comes to coordination and execution, they are totally lost. As soon as they are finished trying to destroy the boat before getting it launched, things seem ship shape, if you will. But it isn't long before their mutual efforts begin to clash. Of course, as is usually the case, poor Ollie gets the worst of it. He is crunched, glued, painted, and abused. Yes, he did make the mistake of listening to his friend whose track record is anything but solid. I think the fact that their hearts are always in the right place is what made these guys so endearing. They never meant to be nasty to each other. Circumstances just didn't go their way. This effort, with really just them on the screen, except for a short scene with Billy Gilbert, shows them at their absolute best.

This is probably my all time fav. L&H short. right from the start with the call of 'Fresh Fish' (toot), this is a 'hoot'. As always, Stan has an idea this time expressed as only Stan can. 'If we had a boat .....'. The bit that makes me howl is when Olly is painting the rudder and Stan is scrubbing the deck and finds the tiller in the way. The pause before 'what did you put that stuff on your face for' is agony!. As for Stan's method of getting his head out from behind the mast... See this one now.

Laurel and Hardy are travelling fishmongers, selling door to door on the street. Laurel has the idea to cut out the middle man and catch the fish themselves – hence turning pure profit on every fish they sell. They buy an old boat and begin to do it up – with predictable consequences.

From the opening conversation where Hardy asks Laurel to repeat his sensible and good idea and Laurel proceeds to muddle himself (`if we catch the fish, the people wouldn't have to pay and….') I was sold on this short film. The action follows this banter with a fantastic mix of physical humour and the good old double take stuff they do so well. Here the two (styles) really compliment each other – the highlight being when Laurel causes Hardy to become covered in paint and there is an eternity of looks, double takes and pauses before he asks `why did you put that stuff on your face'!

The stuff around the boat is all good and both men do really good work with their looks and their bodies. Hardy shows his class while leaning on the mast of the boat, hears sawing, looks to camera, looks down towards the sound, looks to camera then goes!

Overall this short has everything in it that I love about Laurel and Hardy and should be immediately seen by anyone who is wondering what all the fuss is about!

It has a laugh a minute and has some very sophisticated humour. Two fabulous bits stand out - one where Stan is washing the anchor chain and 'wrings' it into a bucket of water. The other is where Stan has been confined to the cabin and plays noughts and crosses with himself. In the finale, there is this wonderful scene where Stan and Ollie watch helplessly as their newly painted boat careers down the road under sail power and smashes into a million pieces. The film does not have too many set pieces but contains loads of small, exquisite gags which will have you doubling up with laughter.

Laurel and Hardy have a business plan: instead of buying fish and selling it, they'll catch the fish themselves and cut out the middleman. Unfortunately, the people who are going to execute this idea are Stan and Ollie.

It's my favorite short by Laurel and Hardy. There are others just as good, but this is just them. Except for a brief appearance by Billy Gilbert (maybe seconds) to sell them a boat, it's all the Boys and the boat they are trying to recondition, right next to a big mud puddle. The inevitability of disaster is delicious, and the gags are, as usual, great.